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The world of ancient Romans abounded in a number of amazing curiosities and information. The source of knowledge about the life of the Romans are mainly works left to us by ancient writers or discoveries. The Romans left behind a lot of strange information and facts that are sometimes hard to believe.
The late-Roman Codex Theodosianus, which is a collection of Roman laws, mentions that a Roman soldier should be equipped with a buccellatum ac panem, vinum quoque atque acetum, sed et laridum, carnem verbecinam, or “hardtack and bread, wine too and vinegar, but also bacon and mutton”(VII.4.6). Hardtack, vinegar and mutton were to be enough for two days, and then the soldier was to use bread, wine and bacon.
Two beautiful Roman rings, dated to 2nd – 3rd century CE.
The famous film “Spartacus” from 1960. The scene shows the moment when a Roman legion prepares to attack the slaves.
Life in the army has always been hard and required soldiers to have strong will, perseverance and physical strength. Long and demanding marches caused the soldiers to try to diversify time in various ways, including singing. Did Roman legionaries do the same?
If there were no medieval monks and copyists, many important ancient works would not have survived to our times. Copyist’s work efficiency was 3-6 cards in quarto per day – in Quarto in letterpress it is a double-folded sheet of paper that consists of four cards and eight pages. It took a year to rewrite, for example, the “Bible”. A copyist could rewrite 40 works in his lifetime.
Appian of Alexandria (c. 95 – c. 180 CE), a Greek historian, devoted a large fragment of his “Roman history” work comparing Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. In the ancient world, many generals wanted to gain achievements similar to the young Macedonian king. The same was with Caesar.
When Octavian Augustus heard that among the young children that Herod the Great had ordered to murder in Syria was Herod’s son, he said (having in mind Jewish custom of abstaining from pork)
