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Unknown Facts are curiosities revealing little-known, surprising, or rarely discussed information from the world of ancient Rome and antiquity. This category includes unusual details, curiosities, and facts that offer a less obvious perspective on the Roman Empire.
Lugii/Longiones were a people of not entirely clear origin, just before BCE and in the first centuries CE they inhabited the upper basin of the Oder and Vistula rivers, i.e. the area of today’s southern and central Poland.
The wife of Mark Antony, Fulvia, completely ignored the spinning traditions and housekeeping of a Roman woman. In addition, according to Roman descriptions, she was a strong and independent woman.
According to Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), author of the classic work The Decline of the Roman Empire, the greatest influence on the disintegration of the Roman Empire was, among others, Christianity, the loss of civic values by the Romans, or “the great migration of peoples”.
Pliny the Elder mentions in his encyclopedic work Natural History that a herd of elephants surrounded by hunters position themselves in such a way that the individuals with the smallest fangs were at the front. In this way, they supposedly want to convince people that it is not worth trying ivory.
The technical advancement of the Romans in terms of latrines and sewage systems was achieved again in Europe only in the 19th century. It is believed that the first sewage system in Rome was built between 800 and 735 BCE. The Roman sewer system was extremely extensive in ancient Rome.
Lucretius – Roman poet and philosopher from the 1st century BCE – in his work De rerum natura (“On the Nature of Things”) made various philosophical and scientific considerations. He believed that early humanity used all sorts of wild animals on the battlefields, including lions and wild boars.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, a consul for 137 BCE, was so obese that any movement and effort over time became a great problem for him. Due to his physical condition and clumsiness on the battlefield, he was given the nickname Porcina (“Pig”).
Galen (Aelius Galenus) was a Roman physician of Greek descent, who lived in the 2nd century CE he was regarded in his time as a great expert on human anatomy. Roman law forbade autopsies from 150 BCE. Thus, Galen relied only on dissections of animals (mostly monkeys and pigs).
Self-immolation was a way of taking one’s own life that had been used since ancient times. Most often it showed the courage of the unfortunate and expressed a kind of protest against injustice.
