Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

The Romans really loved their dogs or cats. Some dogs had special medals with engraved instructions on how to deal with a lost animal.

The gladiator’s diet was mostly vegetarian by today’s standards. The basis of the diet was broad beans and grains, from which even the colloquial term for gladiators comes from – hordearii, meaning “barley”. This diet was rich in carbohydrates.

During the reign of Emperor Tiberius, in 27 CE, the greatest construction disaster in ancient Rome took place. In Fidenae (a town not far north of Rome) a wooden amphitheatre has collapsed. According to Suetonius, over 20,000 people died under the rubble; Tacitus gives the figure of 50,000 dead and maimed.

Emperor Nero became famous primarily for the first persecution of Christians during his reign. Including he used the burning flesh of Christians as candles at his feasts.

Aeneas became an extremely popular figure during the days of the first Roman emperors (that is, in the 1st century BCE – 1st century CE) which probably resulted from the fact that the Julius family, of which Caesar was a member, was also supposed to come from Aphrodite.

Donkey’s milk and ground snail shells were the best-selling lotions in Ancient Rome. The effective action of donkey’s milk is already mentioned by Hippocrates (460-370 BCE). Pliny the Elder, in turn, mentioned the healing properties of milk.

The men weren’t the only ones who fought in the arenas of the Roman amphitheatres. The Romans trained arena fighting also women. They were the so-called gladiatrices, which were largely made up of volunteers. The Senate tried to minimize or forbid them to a minimum or forbid them from fighting in the arena. In 19 CE even the law Tabula Larinas was adopted, which stipulated that it was forbidden to recruit daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of senators and equites to fight in the arena. The new law resulted from the fact that large numbers of women from well-to-do families joined the fight.

Left-handed Romans were considered unlucky and untrustworthy. It is worth adding that left-handed gladiators were considered a “special element” of the show.

In ancient Rome, trepanation was seen as the best method to get rid of severe headaches and madness. It was believed that the hole in the head allowed the evil spirit to leave the wretched body and bring relief.