--- title: "Roman soldiers drew penises all over Hadrian’s Wall more than 1,800 years ago" description: "Drawing penises in the sky or on the inside of a bomber cockpit may earn you a stiff punishment in the U.S. military, but phallic graffiti is apparently a tradition as old as warfare" date: "2019-03-01" modified: "2019-03-01" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/history/penis-drawing-hadrians-wall/" categories: - "Culture" - "History" - "Mandatory Fun" tags: - "European Command" --- # Roman soldiers drew penises all over Hadrian’s Wall more than 1,800 years ago ![]() Drawing penises in the sky or on the inside of a bomber cockpit may earn you a stiff punishment in the U.S. military, but phallic graffiti is apparently a tradition as old as warfare. A cadre of cocksure Roman soldiers deployed in 207 A.D. to repair parts of Hadrian's Wall—the 73-mile-long stone fortification [erected]() to keep Celtic Britons at bay in the Roman empire's most northern border — apparently took time to scrawl some, uh, explicit graffiti at a nearby quarry. Here are the turgid details, [per Smithsonian](): *Two shallow relief busts spotted on the rock ledge could represent self-portraits left by the soldiers, or perhaps a mocking caricature of the men's commanding officer.* *A third marking is less open to interpretation.* *But the unabashedly phallic symbol isn't simply a reminder of mankind's enduring juvenile tendencies: Michael Collins, Historic England's inspector of ancient monuments for Hadrian's Wall, tells Cahal Milmo of [I News]() that the Romans generally viewed the phallus as a [good luck charm]().* *Indeed, the Rock of Gelt phallus is just one of many associated with the Roman Empire's sprawling 73-mile northern border. In an interview with [CNN]()'s Emily Dixon, Newcastle archaeologist Rob Collins says he has identified 57 other etchings of male genitalia scattered across the length of Hadrian's Wall.* This is hilarious for obvious reasons, but it's worth noting that not all Roman-era grunt humor was relatively harmless: a Roman soldier once sparked a riot by mooning unsuspecting civilians, [per Slate](). *According to Josephus' account in [The Wars of the Jews](), a Roman soldier bared his rear to an audience of Jews celebrating Passover, and thereby incited a furious riot that killed "upwards of thirty thousand." However, a closer examination of Josephus's account shows that the soldier was not mooning the crowd, but rather farting [in their general direction](). Josephus puts it more delicately: "[One of the soldiers, raising his robe, stooped in an indecent attitude, so as to turn his backside to the Jews, and made a noise in keeping with his posture]().* Roman soldiers: They're just like us! ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()