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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.
Poppea Sabina was the mistress and then the second wife of Emperor Nero. Poppaea led a lavish lifestyle and was known as a beautiful, calculating woman. Some of her beauty treatments gained great fame (e.g. baths in donkey’s milk). It was she who persuaded Nero to murder his own mother – Agrippina the Younger. Probably Nero himself led to the death of Poppaea in 65 CE.
An uprising of Spartacus in 73-71 BCE was a very serious threat that the Roman state had to deal with. It was then that Cato the Younger and probably Julius Caesar took their first steps into the Roman army.
When in 72 BCE the insurgent army of Spartacus’ slaves marched north through Italy, towards the Alps, the insurgent forces split up. Gauls and Germans, under the command of a certain Crixus, went ahead to plunder Apulia (eastern, central Italy) freely. However, Crixus’ army was defeated by the Roman army and he himself was killed; 20,000 insurgents were to die. It was the first major victory of the Romans in the fight against the slaves of Spartacus.
Roman mosaic in the villa of La Olmeda in the province of Palencia, Spain. In Greek and Roman culture, a single swastika was extremely rare. She is more often seen in groups. This sign was used throughout the Empire, whether clockwise or counterclockwise, on the mosaics decorating the walls and floors.
Base of a Roman bowl with two figures painted on it. Object dated to the 3rd-4th century CE; the artifact is on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Emperor Augustus wore a signet ring with his own likeness on his finger. His successors continued the tradition, wearing it on their fingers as a memento of the great ruler. The exception was Galba, who wore a signet ring on his finger showing a dog peeking out from the bow of a ship. This emperor changed the custom because he had an extremely devoted dog.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BCE) became famous as the first Roman politician who gained unlimited power in practice. After winning the civil war in 82 BCE he appointed himself a dictator without a time frame. Finally, however, of his own free will, he resigned in 79 BCE from office and retired.
Emperor Vespasian was extremely stingy. This feature may seem bizarre and preposterous, considering that during his reign, construction began on the largest and certainly the most expensive public structure – Colosseum. Vespasian was once criticized for his excessive parsimony by an old shepherd who asked him for deliverance.
Romans also knew how to save. Proof of this is a Roman piggy bank found in Viminacium, a Roman city and fort in Moesia (present-day Serbia).
