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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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Pliny the Younger – Roman writer and politician from the first and second century CE – in one of his letters, describes an amazing story about the ghost to a man named Licinius Sura. This is an amazing antique story from the Halloween topic.
Detail from Roman colorful mosaic, showing scene of fight between centaurs and tiger. Object was found in Hadrian’s Villa and dates back to around 130 CE. Currently located in Altes Museum Berlin.
Emperor Tiberius admired very much the statue of the Lysippos – showing Apoxyomenos, an athlete cleaning his body with a wooden scraper (stryngilos). The original statue has not survived to our times. The sculpture is known for its marble copy at the Pio-Clementino Museum in the Vatican.
Ovile was a separate space on the Campus Martius in Rome, where votes were cast. The name literally means “sheep’s farm”. Originally, the place to vote was a wooden structure, which in time was replaced by a larger and more prestigious, marble building Saepta Julia.
Chamber pots in ancient Rome were not designed for both sexes equally. Both men and women had their own versions: the female sex was using scaphium when gentlemen matella. The larger chamber pots on the streets were for men whose urine was then collected and sold. Urine was used by fullones for cleaning fabrics.
Glass Roman bottle, originating from the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. Object dated to the 1st-3rd century CE.
Reconstruction of the Roman inkwell and the rilca (stilus). The writing instrument was based on a find from Vindolanda, a Roman camp located in Britain, between the rivers Tyne and Solway. The simplest Romans usually wrote on wooden tablets covered with wax. The wooden plates found in Vindolanda are considered the oldest handwriting in Britain.
