9 disgusting and scary things that would have awaited you in Ancient Rome (7 photos)

You should forget about patricians, consuls, white togas and speeches of politicians in the Senate - hopeless plebeian everyday life, the vanity and vanity of the world lie ahead!





1. Urine was used to wash clothes and rinse the mouth

In ancient Roman times, maintaining public baths and latrines was a very profitable business. Emperor Vespasian even created a new tax on public toilets and thereby taught his son that money has no smell. It was about urine, which was a valuable economic resource. It was used for dozens of different purposes, including tanning leather, processing wool and other fabrics, in the dyeing industry, and as an analogue of washing powder.



The washing technology looked like this: they threw worn things into a vat of urine, trampled it all underfoot, rinsed it thoroughly to get rid of the stench, and got clean clothes. How? It's all about the ammonia contained in urine, which, as you know, has the properties of a bleach.

Collecting waste products was not a prestigious, but important occupation. Some fed public toilets, others collected the finished product from private households. Then all this was sold to tanners, dyers, laundries and gardening farms, where the valuable ammonia fertilizer was used to feed pomegranate trees.

In addition, some noble and not so noble ladies and gentlemen, mindful of the whitening properties of the composition, used it to rinse their teeth. The custom was especially popular in the provinces of Spain.

By the way, in three modern European languages - French, Italian and Romanian - urinals installed in public toilets are named after Emperor Vespasian.

2. They wiped their butts with the same sponge for everyone





Instead of toilet paper, they used a device called a tersorium, or xylopongium. It was a sponge on a stick, something like a reusable burdock. They used it en masse. The procedure was as follows: after wiping, the sponge was placed in a bucket of brine with a fair amount of vinegar, where it safely awaited the next client. If necessary, the device was also used as a plunger to clear a clogged pipe.

It is clear that all this was changed infrequently, as the sponge began to crumble from old age.

3. Explosions, floods and guests from the sewer



In ancient Rome, public toilets were not much like modern ones. They served as a kind of forum where respectable gentlemen and ladies could speak out on any issue, while simultaneously doing important things. There were no partitions separating one place from another - a nation of soldiers treated personal space without due reverence. In another latrinarium - that’s what this institution was called - 80-100 people could sit at a time. Toilet conversations were very confidential: it was believed that in such a situation the interlocutor would hardly dare to lie.

At the same time, every trip to the restroom was fraught with a number of dangers. And we are not only talking about a rat or snake hiding in the outhouse, but also the possibility of an explosion of gas accumulated in the sewer, primarily methane or hydrogen sulfide. If the toilet was old and had not been cleaned for a long time, just one spark was enough for everything to go up in the air. It cannot be said that these explosions caused death or destruction, but they did happen to cause depilation or burns at the causative site.

Is it any wonder that the Romans, very pious guys, also had gods for toilets? Their names were Sterculius - he was in charge of fertilizers, Klotsina - she was in charge of sewage - and Krepit, who was in charge of toilets. Sacrifices and gifts were brought to all of them. They also placed the goddess of luck, Fortuna, in the toilet.

4. Corrupt firefighters



Like any major metropolis, Rome has often burned at all times. Nero’s “great fire” was by no means the only one - it burned with enviable regularity, and after each fire everything had to be rebuilt anew.

Ordinary Roman citizens were officially forbidden to have kitchens or light fires in apartment buildings; they dined in public canteens. True, this did not save the situation: as soon as the Roman old woman looked into the toilet with a candle, a bang happened. And then the fire.

Demand creates supply - at one point, voluntary fire brigades and night triumvirs appeared in the city. Fires were extinguished using rags soaked in vinegar. But there was a nuance: the services were paid, and payment was collected before the fire was extinguished, and not after. No cash? Well, no problem, go borrow from your neighbors, just be quicker, while there’s still at least something left of the house.



The most famous squad belonged to Julius Caesar's comrade-in-arms, Marcus Crassus. He expanded his business: if a house could not be put out, he would buy property for pennies, which rapidly became cheaper as it burned down, then rebuilt it and resold it, not without profit for himself. Is it any wonder that the triumvir Crassus was damn rich?

5. Radical methods of contraception

The Romans believed that many children were not needed; one’s womb should be restrained and limited by any available methods. Methods of birth control varied widely. For example, they took a salpuga spider, wrapped it in a piece of deer skin and used it as a pad. And men, before going on a date, rubbed their penis with juniper (it’s hard to say how effective this was).

In case the spiders and juniper didn’t work, there was a more radical method. The whole point is that Roman law considered a child to be a person from the moment he begins to consume solid food instead of mother's milk - consider that he really breaks away from the body and flesh of his mother. Accordingly, it was possible to “have an abortion” at a very late stage - after the birth of the fetus.

6. Energy drinks made from manure and vinegar

Despite the vaunted ancient medicine, many things were not known in Rome. So, instead of a plaster, they preferred to cover small wounds with dried goat manure collected in the spring. Previously, this goodness had to be softened in the mouth with one’s own saliva, and wrapped with cobwebs on top. The recipe was Greek and was considered very effective.

It must be said that this was not the only way to use goat excrement. Athletes mixed it with vinegar, brought it to a boil, cooled it slightly - and then drank it instead of a kind of energy drink that increases endurance.

This is such a specific doping.

Also fans of goat feces were charioteers and cattle drivers - he allowed them to stay awake for several days in a row. And Pliny claimed that Emperor Nero loved to drink this drink of the gods. However, there was a less disgusting way to cheer up - for this they used ash with water, which facilitated recovery from wounds and, again, gave good spirits.

7. Cosmetics and medicines made from the sweat of gladiators



In addition to fighting for the amusement of the public, these predecessors of modern fights without rules also had practical benefits in the field of public medicine. After the fights, the scientific staff coated the winner with oil and scraped it off with a special scraper: a mixture of sweat, blood, grease and dead skin was sealed in bottles and sold to Roman women as a cream that made the ladies irresistible.

Most often they smeared it on the face, but the wealthiest beauties bought bottles of this nasty thing in large wholesale.

Blood was also used - it was drained from wounds in order to later be sold as a cure for migraines and epileptic seizures. Double benefit: along with blood, dirt and primary suppuration were squeezed out of the wound. And the fighter’s owners could earn some good money.

8. Rotten fish sauce

The ideas of the inhabitants of the ancient world about healthy food were somewhat unusual for our tastes. For example, most dishes were seasoned with fish sauce called garum.

They made it very simply. Small fish, not worthy of serving on their own, were placed in a barrel of brine. After this, the barrel was rolled out into the sun and left there for several months - up to six months. During this period, the fish turned into a brown, stinking slurry.

The unforgettable aroma of this sauce, which was suitable as a seasoning for any dish, radically enhancing the taste, made it impossible to prepare it within the city. It had to be done in the provinces, and the finished product was brought to the capital of the world, sealed with wax in specially shaped ceramic bottles.