Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

The army of ancient Rome could use the so-called dog tags, which would contradict the popular opinion that they were used for the first time in history during the Civil War. The Roman dog tag was called signaculum and every legionnaire was to receive one after being recruited.

Roman names consisted of three parts. Name (praenomen), family name (nomen gentile) and nickname (cognomen, usually also hereditary).

The photograph shows the killer of president Abraham Lincoln – John Wilkes Booth (left) – as Mark Antony and his brothers: Edwin Booth as Brutus and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. as Cassius.

In source messages, we can find information that confirms how widespread and important to ancient Romans was counting on the fingers. An example is Quintilian, who mentions that knowledge of numbers is needed not only for speakers but also for anyone who can write. A speaker who can not perform basic calculations shows hesitation and shows abnormal gestures with his fingers immediately loses confidence.

Tironian notes (notae Tironianae) were a Roman system of rapid writing, which appeared in the last years of the Roman Republic. It assumed usage of shorthand.

People had to deal with sexually transmitted diseases in antiquity. One of them was, for example, herpes, for which the Romans invented two, not very popular methods of treatment. The first major plague epidemic appeared during the reign of emperor Tiberius, at the beginning of the first century CE.

Spolia opima (“great loot”) was a martial custom in republican Rome. According to it, the person who defeated in the direct duel the general of the hostile army was granted the honor of putting the armor drawn from his body and the rest of the gear in the temple of Jupiter Feret’rius on the Capitol.

Pollice verso (also referred to as verso pollice) was a gesture condemning the defeated gladiator in ancient Rome to death. Contrary to common beliefs and the image disseminated by cinematography, it is uncertain whether in ancient Rome this gesture was actually in the form of a thumb pointing downwards

During the funeral of a wealthy Roman slaves had to fight with each other. This was done because it was thought that the blood calms the gods, and the show relaxed a family in mourning. This custom was initiated by the Brutus family, when in 264 BCE a family member died – Decimus Brutus. Then, a fight between three warrior pairs was arranged. 

With the rise of the empire, the first person in the Roman state became the emperor, who gradually became equivalent to the Roman gods. Therefore, in the second century CE, there was created the whole funeral ceremony, was aimed at a worthy farewell to the beloved emperor.