Advertising in Olden Times

1878

Macademized roads, in all save the name, were known in the Roman dominions 200 years before the Christian era, were not merely limited to the vicinity of the capital, but were laid down in every province that succumbed to the valor of the Republican arms.

At an equally early age, the Roman Senate, among various other decrees relating to the order and discipline to be observed in the city, enacted that men should give place to women in the streets, and leave them the unmolested use of the smooth line of pavement, which every house-owner had to maintain in good condition in front of his own residence.

Colossal sign-boards announced to the passers-by the business followed in the houses; while in time of Plautus, notices of lost and found objects were displayed on placards written in letters a cubit long; and gladiatorial games, races, shows and theatrical exhibitions, were made public by huge boards displaying colored representations of some of the most striking scenes or sights to be exhibited. The walls, doors, and palings were covered with these rude advertisements, which seemed generally to have been drawn in some bright color on a black red ground.

Although the Romans, like other ancient nations, were ignorant of printing as applied to the multiplication of books, they were familiar with the use of printing type, which their porters used for stamping names on their vases; and we are told that the Emperor Justinian, when he wished to append his signature to a public document, had recourse to a small wooden tablet, on which the letters of his name were cut, which he traced on the paper by following with the point of his style pen the various contours of the carving.

But perhaps the strangest indication of the fact that most of our assumed discoveries and innovations are mere "rehabilitations," to use a French word, of pre-existing things, is supplied by the suggestion which is ascribed to Plato for the establishment of agencies for marriage, by means of which the qualities of each candidate for matrimony might be made known, and men thus have a better chance of procuring wives suited to their various characters.

The idea seems to have been lost for ages, but not wholly, for it revived in great force about a century ago, when some ingenious German, either from the depths of his own consciousness, or from careful study of Plato's writings, established at Hamburg an office for the transaction of matrimonial affairs, in which advertisements for husbands and wives were always to be seen. There was not the slightest mystery or reserve assumed; and there was great frankness displayed both by the ladies and gentlemen who took part in these negotiations, for we are informed by one advertiser that "she is fifty-nine years of age, and having buried her fourth husband within the previous three weeks, is anxious to meet with a good-looking, healthy young man of twenty-six, as successor to her lamented partners. He need be under no trouble or care about money matters, as she has plenty of both, and will leave him her universal legatee."