Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

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. In Roman culture, left-handedness was associated with bad luck, impurity, or betrayal — the word sinister in Latin meant “left,” but over time it took on the meaning of “ominous.” In many religious rituals, the appearance of a bird on the left side was considered an unfavorable omen.

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.

In the ancient Greco-Roman world, fulling machines were involved in both the production and washing of fabrics. During the excavations at Pompeii destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE several great fulling workshops were discovered, and the best-preserved and located at the so-called Abundance Street belonged to a certain Stefanus.

The third wife of Emperor Claudius, Valeria Messalina, was a nymphomaniac. According to Roman historians, she once decided to compete with a professional prostitute. The women were to confirm who would be able to hold more lovers in one night. It is said that Messalina, who made love with 150 men, was to win.

The Romans invented the calendar, which we most use to this day. The so-called Julian Calendar is a solar calendar developed at the request of Julius Caesar by the Greek astronomer Sosygenes and implemented in 709 AUC (45 BCE) as the calendar of the Roman state.

The colour purple was reserved only for the emperor and senators, and any flaunting it was a betrayal. This dye was obtained from spike venom (Murex).

The capital of the Roman Empire in 14 CE had over 750,000 inhabitants, which constituted a tenth of the entire population of Italy. The population of Rome grew to over a million by the end of the 2nd century CE. This number was achieved by western cities only in the 19th century.

The Roman teaching system was largely based on the education of the Greeks. Hence, the teachers of Roman children were most often Greek slaves or freedmen. An example of a Greek who achieved much in Roman education was Livius Andronicus (c. 284 – c. 204 BCE). In 272 BCE in Tarentum, he was taken prisoner and, along with other prisoners of war, was brought to Rome.

The letter Y was not originally in Romans. Y was added to the Latin alphabet around the 1st century BCE to render Greek words better.