Work, Little A**

Preserved under layers of ash from the tragic eruption of mount Vesuvius was found this inscription. It was probably a boy in secondary school, being as it was found on the walls of a Collegium, and given the painstakingly neat penmanship.

It means: Work, little donkey, just as I have worked: it will do you good, too!

Probaby the work meant is schoolwork.

LABORA ASELLE QUOMODO EGO LABORAVI

ET PRODERIT TIBI

Deeply enough

Injured by the parchment's futility,

Scorn filled

The young

Roman schoolboy's distracted mind;

And the slopes of Vesuvius

Couldn't help but fill his heart with

Terrible shadows that he didn't see

In his intentness on carving the graffiti

On the wall off his school;

Nevertheless [...]