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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.
Roman army and the weapons it used are associated (especially for the laymen on this subject) mainly with the equipment of a Roman legionary. Who has not heard of a rectangular shield called a scutum, a short sword called gladius or a spear – a pilum? Not everyone, however, even heard about siege machines and their role in the Roman army, and some know them only from films like “Asterix and Obelix”.
The performances of wild animals in the Roman arenas certainly aroused excitement in the viewers. Roman politicians were able to het support from the crowds by bringing huge amounts of animals, which then offered entertainment to the crowds. We know many stories and ways to create a spectacle. Some of them were really inhuman.
Tabularium was a Roman state, military, temple, city archive, etc., in which the most important documents and legal acts were stored and legal acts written on tablets, rolls of papyrus and parchment. Such an archive was initially administered by censors, and later by specially appointed curators.
Fragment of the Roman tent, still packed, excavated in the area of Vindolanda – a Roman camp in the north of Britain.
Emperor Probus around 280 CE was supposedly told to transform the Circus Maximus arena into a forest to which hundreds, if not thousands, of animals were released: capricorn, sheep, ostrich and others. As soon as the improvised forest was filled with herbivores, the mob was let into the arena, where they could hunt. The gracious emperor agreed that each Roman could keep his trophy and take it home.
Emperor Carus in the summer of 283 CE, during one of the military expeditions during a strong storm, was probably struck by lightning.
It was believed that the gladiator’s blood could heal epilepsy or infertility. The blood was collected and sold to the crowd. When the body of the death gladiator was taken out of the arena, the “sellers” collected still warm blood and sold it to the crowd.
