Negative Campaigning, Pompeii Style

Astounding story--that we normally might think it is from The Onion or some such--but actually at NYT site, covering negative campaigning in--Pompeii.  Apparently 3000 political signs left on the walls.  Includes "get-out-the-vote ads are more specific, like the graffiti for Gaius Julius Polybius, who “provides good bread'; for Marcus Casellius Marcellus, who 'gives great games'; and for Bruttius Balbus, who 'will preserve the treasury.' ...

"Whether Vatia won the election and was sworn in in July is unknown, but the next month Vesuvius exploded and buried the town of Pompeii and its politicians under countless tons of pumice and ash."