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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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Roman fresco showing the island of the Laestrygonian giants-cannibals when Odysseus arrives. Interestingly, the Greeks identified this mythical place with either Sicily or Formia in Latium. The object was discovered in a domus on what is now the Roman road Via Cavour; now in the Vatican Museums in Rome. Dated to the 1st century BCE.
Greco-Roman “voodoo doll” pierced with 13 needles. Found in Egypt, it dates back to the 2nd century CE. It was in a vase along with a lead tablet with a spell on it.
In Roman times, it was very expensive and a lot of effort to put up a naval fleet. If the governor of the province received an order from the senate or decided that it was necessary to build, equip ships and train new crews, the entire financial burden naturally went to the cities of the province and their population.
Living at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, Apollodoros of Damascus was one of the most famous architects of antiquity. He worked for Emperor Trajan, for whom he was extremely useful, e.g. during the so-called Dacian Wars – designed a bridge that was thrown over the Danube to enable the Roman legions to cross the river. In addition, he designed the Trajan’s Forum, the emperor’s triumphal arches in Benevento and Ancona, perhaps he participated in the creation of one of the wonders of ancient architecture – Pantheon1.
Only half of the head of the bust of Julius Caesar has survived to our times. Bust from around 50 CE, which was discovered on the site of the temple of Athena Polias in Priene.
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.
