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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.
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.
