Paul Roberts, head of Roman Collections at the British Museum and curator of the current Pompeii exhibition, gave a talk at the Polish Hearth Club in Exhibition Road on Friday entitled Life and Love in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Some members of the club called it Up Pompeii because it was even raunchier than the Frankie Howerd TV series of that name.
“Brace yourselves,” Roberts warned elderly listeners as another explicit graffiti picture came up on the screen, showing phalluses, brothel scenes with all sorts of participants and a sculpture of the god Pan having sex with a goat.
“We try to denaughtify naughty objects,” said Roberts. “The Romans weren’t more debauched than the Greeks, just more honest about their sexuality.” One lady was so overwhelmed she passed out on the floor and had to be lifted back into her seat.
Historian Celia Lee shocked God-fearing club members by saying she once found a crucifix in the ruins of Herculaneum, indicating Christians may have been involved in these squalid pagan scenes.
