Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

Interesting items related to the private life of legionaries were found in one of the military camps in the north of Britain. Well, one of them was the shopping list, which included coat, probably needed to survive in the cold northern conditions by the “southerner”.

The word “barbarian” comes from the Latin word barbarus, which means “foreigner.” The ancient Roman felt that anyone who was not Roman was a barbarian.

Evil and greedy financiers, using the “gray man” for his own enrichment, are not just a “product” of our time. Already in republican Rome there were people operating in the financial and banking sphere, basing on usury.

The governors of the Roman provinces had such power that they could use the subordinated territory in an absolute way. This situation took place practically throughout the entire period of the existence of the Roman state, but we have extensive knowledge especially about the first century BCE. Rarely then, there was a fair and reasonable administrator, the example of Cicero.

Childbirth in ancient times was a huge threat not only to the child, but also to the woman giving birth. Lack of proper sanitary conditions, infections or simply the lack of proper knowledge meant that childbirth was one of the most dangerous moments in a woman’s life.

Venatio (plural venationes), literally “hunting”, it was a form of entertainment organized in Roman amphitheaters consisting of hunting and killing wild animals. Wild predators were brought to Rome from the depths of the Roman Empire and brought to the arena to the delight of spectators.

The intensive expansion of the Roman state during the republic led to a marked increase in wealth in Rome. Mastering foreign territories and gaining new slave masses led to the enrichment of not only the state but also individual layers of society.

In 390 CE emperor Theodosius I, at the instigation of the Church, issued a bill under which every homosexual act is to be punished: “When a man marries [a man] as a woman offering herself to men (quum vir nubit in feminam viris porrecturam), what can he be seeking, where gender has lost its place; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment”.

Balearii was a unit of soldiers from the Balearic Archipelago, who most likely derive their name from the Greek verb “ballein”, meaning cast. The name was given to them by the ancient Romans, but probably the warriors were already known in the Bronze Age.

Ancient Romans taught their children how to identify and recognize which plants and animals can be useful and how to use them in everyday life and in crafts.