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The world of the ancient Romans was rich in extraordinary, and sometimes even surprising, facts. We draw our knowledge of Roman daily life, customs, and mentality primarily from works left by ancient writers and historians. It is thanks to them that we discover information that is astonishing today – sometimes even hard to believe. Below are some interesting facts that reveal a lesser-known and less obvious side of the Roman world.
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Roman herma showing a young woman named Statia Quinta. The inscription on the statue gives her name along with the letters L.L., which researchers translate as Lucia Liberta, meaning “freedwoman of Lucius”. The object was found on the northern shore of Lake Nemi (central Italy) in Diana’s sanctuary in 1887.
Dacians were a people living in what is now Romania and part of Hungary. To this day, we can admire the remains of buildings and fortresses they built in the Orăștie mountains, which are part of the Carpathians. They prove how well-developed the Dacians were.
Many people ask themselves how to lose weight in an easy and fun way. The answer to this question is not easy. As it turns out, people in ancient times had similar problems. Let us ask ourselves: how did the ancient Romans lose weight?
In Roman times, there was a law forbidding women from consuming wine on pain of flogging or the death penalty. Cato the Elder, called the Censor, spoke bluntly: If you see your wife drinking wine, kill her! Why are the Romans so strict how did they approach the consumption of wine by women?
The turmoil in the financial markets and in the real economy made state intervention necessary. Carrying out active measures to limit the effects of the crisis, however, is nothing new and was used hundreds of years ago, as evidenced by the history of one of the first banking crises in history, which took place in the Roman Empire.
A hill on which, according to tradition Romulus founded in 753 BCE Rome was a Palatine (Mons Palatinus). Livius derives its name from the Arcadian city of Pallanteum, from which Euander came – the first ruler of this area, who also established the Greek cult of Heracles in Italy. Why exactly the Palatine?
In 63 BCE Cicero, who was the consul, gave his famous speech at a Senate meeting against Lucius Sergius Catilina, a member of an impoverished old patrician family, whom he accused of a planned coup.
In the years 215-216, Emperor Caracalla travelled through the Balkans, Turkey, and Syria to Egypt and Alexandria. The very expedition of Caracalla to the east was primarily of propaganda and sentimental nature, due to the adoration of the figure of Alexander the Great. It is also possible that the ruler’s entourage was making preparations for the planned Party expedition in the coming years.
On Roman walls, there were often inscriptions, which often did not differ from ours. Here are some examples.
