The Romans Were Graffiti Masters

Throw him to the lions! That’s what I thought when I saw the video of a grinning moron desecrating the walls of the Colosseum with the words “Ivan + Hayley 23.” He must have been referring to his girlfriend, standing by his side — and the year. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d defaced the greatest of all Roman buildings. It was that he’d written something so depressingly banal.