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Curiosities of ancient Rome

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.

Roman “pedestrian crossings”

The photo shows Roman pedestrian crossings in Pompeii – stone blocks arranged across the street. These are the prototypes of today’s “zebra crossing”.

13 October 2019

3 key Roman armor

Roman legions conquered more peoples and lands not only thanks to their organization and discipline but also thanks to armament that was really high quality. In addition to offensive equipment (pilum, pugio, gladius) also had very good armour.

13 October 2019

Beautiful words of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor in the years 161-180 CE, was one of the most eminent and best educated Roman emperors. Because of his unusual interest in philosophy, he was called a “philosopher on the throne”. Many of his thoughts have survived to our times, which we can find in his “Meditations”. One of the most beautiful is the following.

12 October 2019

Gold Roman necklace with acorn-shaped pendant

Gold Roman necklace with acorn-shaped pendant. The find dated to the first century CE.

12 October 2019

Ancient Rome and the right to own weapons

Ancient Romans, unlike modern Americans, did not think that citizenship automatically entitled them to possess sharp weapons. It was recognized that such freedom could lead to many dangers.

12 October 2019

Gladiators enjoyed great popularity

Gladiators were extremely popular and therefore popular with women. There was even a situation when sweat of Roman gladiators were mixed with dirt and olive oil scraped from the skin with a special tool strigil and then sold in vials as aphrodisiac.

10 October 2019

Roman mosaic showing fight of gladiators

Hibernia – Roman Ireland

Hibernia is the Latin name of Ireland (also known as Britannia Hibernia), given to it by the Romans. The Roman name was transformed into Hibernia because of its similarity to the word hibernus – “winter”.

10 October 2019

Map of the British Isles from 1654 with Hibernia

Brushing teeth in Roman times was routine

Brushing teeth in Roman times was an inseparable element of personal hygiene. However, modern people would not use the substances used by the Romans. They believed, for example, that hard ingredients allowed teeth to maintain strength – for this purpose, crushed bones and oyster shells from which the mixture was made.

10 October 2019

Brushing your teeth in Roman times was routine

Monument to Trajan’s victory over Dacians

Trajan’s Column (COLVMNA·TRAIANI) is a monument to the victory of Emperor Trajan over the Dakis in the wars in 101-102 and 105-106 CE Financed from enormous spoils of war since the year 113 CE, it is now a landmark on the map capital of Rome.

10 October 2019