Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

The first libraries in the world began to be created in Mesopotamia and Egypt; one of the first and most famous Greek libraries were created at the courts of tyrants – Polycrates on the island of Samos and Peisistratos in Athens in the first half of the 5th century BCE.

In the 2nd century BCE three people lived in Rome who promoted a lifestyle based on bathing, drinking a falern (tart and strong wine produced in Campania) and eating oysters from Lake Lucrinum in Campania. They were Sergius Orata, a worldman and inventor of oyster farming, the aristocrat Lucius Cornelius Crassus and the well-known doctor Asclepiades from Bithynia.

Roman students practised writing on wax tablets using a sharp stylus. They could then wipe out the wax and use the tablet again. Such tablets were also very popular in Greece and the Middle East. They were widely used in administration, treasury and judiciary, bills and various types of registers were written on them.

Justinian the Great and silk, or the story of how two smuggling monks became national heroes.

Roman authors note that Greek entertainment did not begin to appear in Rome until 186 BCE, when the aristocrat Marcus Fulvius brought Greek athletes, who nude presented boxing, wrestling and pentathlon widespread in Greece.

To this day Cicero appears to us as a model of an ideal politician, lawyer and speaker, standing up for his homeland and his clients. Detection of the Catilinarian conspiracy in the late 60s of 1st century BCE brought Cicero enormous glory and splendor, which, however, led him to a pathetic vanity.

Emperor Domitian (51-96 CE) was known for locking himself in his office and doing nothing else but catching flies and piercing them with sharp stylus.

Ancient Rome appears to us as one of the civilizations that became famous for achievements in the field of sewage and hygiene. However, despite the presence of sewers and public toilets, there was some fear among the Romans when they thought of the toilets.

There is only one speech of the emperor to the soldiers which survived to our times (so-called adlocutio). Its author is the emperor Hadrian, who gave it in the summer of 128 CE in Lambaesis, in present-day Algeria.

The umbrella is not an innovation of modern times. Already in ancient Greece and Rome umbrellas-like items were used. In Rome they were called umbraculum.