Curiosities of ancient Rome

Pliny the Elder wrote that the white juice of lettuce calms the love enthusiasm, but also lowers the fever and also increases the volume of blood. What salad was it? Modern researchers have discovered that it was probably the so-called compass plant (lactuca serriola) – a wild plant, the ancestor of lettuce, resembling more dandelion than the familiar round vegetable.

Claudius Aelianus mentions that he heard that mares are the only animals that once pregnant allow stallions to copulation. He compared them to women. Mares are extremely passionate and therefore Roman strict moral censors called lascivious women “mares”.

It is possible that the customs associated with the celebration of Valentine’s Day refer to the ancient Roman feast, called Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15 in honour of Faun or the ancient god of the shepherds Lupercus, who protected their herd from wolves.

Claudius Aelianus presents the struggle of ichneumon (Egyptian mongoose, also called the pharaoh’s rat) with a cobra. Ichneumon does not move to attack the enemy without caution and rashly. Just as a man can defend himself in full gear, the ichneumon is first rolled in the mud until it is covered with a hard shell, which serves him as a safe and tight protection. If the mud is missing, it is washed with water and the whole wet one dips deep into the sand – only then it starts to fight.