Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

Lucius Verginius Rufus was the personification of a faithful soldier and the old Roman virtues. In 68-69 CE, during the so-called “The Year of the Four Emperors”, when he was the commander of the Upper Germania army, he repeatedly rejected offered to him by the army purple.

Ancient Romans lived in a Mediterranean climate that is characterized by warm and dry summers. The roughest period in the year was called by Romans as dies canincula. Romans were looking for different ways to cool themselves.

“Ave Caesar morituri te salutant!” (“Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you”) – this is a greeting that was to be directed by the gladiators to the emperor before the fight began. But did the gladiator really go out to the arena and say the words?

Everyone who was chased in the backyard by a rooster knows that the animal is practically fearless and is very warlike. These important character traits determined that people from time immemorial staged a fight between cocks.

Aleksander Severus took power in the Roman Empire in 222 CE after the murder of the eccentric Elagabalus, his cousin. Throughout his rule, Alexander was extremely susceptible to the influence of his grandmother and mother, who de facto ruled in his name.

Nowadays, many emigrants who come permanently to other countries bring with them their cultural achievements, their language, traditions and customs. Whole districts of emigrants arise, which are reminiscent of their home sides.

Opium – a narcotic substance produced from opium poppy capsules (Papaver somniferum) – was already known in antiquity, from about 1000 BCE. We also have evidence that the cultivation of these plants was also present in ancient Rome.

Titus Livius mentions that the two great generals of the Second Punic War: Scipio Africanus and Hannibal Barkas met at the gymnasium in Ephesus. Then Scipio asked Hannibal who he thought is the best commander in history.

The ancient Romans had a strange approach to the Greeks. On the one hand, they considered them worse, but on the other hand, due to their culture, they placed them on a higher pedestal, next to the Persians, and lower than the northern peoples: Gauls or Germans.

Proscription (proscriptio, pl. proscriptiones) was originally in ancient Rome announcing the auction of the debtor’s property, and later enlisting of outlaws – political opponents and in consequence depriving them of their citizenship, property and sentencing to exile. Prudential children and grandchildren were marked with infamy.