Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

Hypocrisy in eyes of Romans:

“Self-made man” in the Roman edition – during discussion in “The Banquet of Trimalchio” (Petronius):

According to Marcus Terentius Varro, whose works have been preserved in a very small and poor form, we can trace the etymology of Latin names associated with the rise of the city of Rome. And so, the place where Rome is today, was called Septimontium, from the seven hills that were later included in the city walls.

On October 1, 326 CE Emperor Constantine prohibited the penalty ad beast and exchanged it for metella. This meant that it was no longer allowed to punish with tearing in the arena by wild animals, and the convicts were sent to forced labor in the mines.

Considering the success of the movie “The Hunger Games”, we do not differ much from the ancient Romans when it comes to the passion for cruel pastimes.

Despite the fact that the Romans over the years have organized bloody games on an increasing scale, some emperors tried to curb the bestiality. Already at the beginning of rule of Augustus, he tried to change the Roman customs – after the profusion of Julius Caesar and earlier Gnaeus Pompeius – and restore the Greek games, where more attention was paid to sports competitions. The games called Actiaca were held for the first time in 28 BCE and they were to take place every 4 years, celebration o won battle of Actium.

On the ORBIS website was launched an project “Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World”, which will allow us to find out how long it took and how much it cost to travel in Roman times.

Although Domitian is considered a cruel emperor, he tried to introduce a series of games in the Greek style, that is based on sports competitions. The first took place in 86 CE. In order to promote the competition, Circus Agonalis was built, which was in place of the current Piazza Navona.

The Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, were certainly known to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians reached the islands.

Animals were delivered from distant parts of the Roman Empire to show the crowd the size of the conquest and show the wonders brought from distant lands. Those were sent by provincial administrators, and even by kings or noblemen of still unconquested lands, eg. from India. Menagerie – vivarium was located near the Porta Prenestina.