Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)
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Exotic animals in Rome
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 ... Read more
Organization at games
The organization of gladiatorial fights has become a great task in which intermediaries and entrepreneurs of all specialties were involved. Lanistae – these were the touts recruiting impoverished sons of ruined families, slaves and all kinds of poor people to ... Read more
Fighting to death
Fighting to death – munera – come from a sacrifice in honor of the dead and have an Etruscan pedigree. At first gladiatorial fights were arranged by the family on the grave of deceased ancestors. The first games enriched with ... Read more
Number of games
Augustus demanded officials of organizing the performances. These was so expensive that they led the officials to ruin and often required financial support from Augustus himself. It was a way to prevent the officials from getting too rich, which was ... Read more
“Bread and circuses”
“Panem et circenses” – “bread and circuses” – according to popular messages, these demanded Roman people. Those being in power were well aware of the mood of the people. The Games were a political tool and served not only as ... Read more
Imitation of animal voices
As Petronius claims, one of favorite plays of Romans was imitating animal voices, and people of certain professions, giving away their movements, gesticulations or way of speech. It seems that the barbers or hairdressers were very well-suited due to their ... Read more
Did ancients cipher messages?
Did the ancients cipher messages? Of course – they used the so-called Laconian cane for this purpose (scytale). The Ephores, Spartan officials, had the habit of sending orders to chiefs being abroad, writing them across the strip of skin wrapped ... Read more
Cicero on symbiosis of species
Cicero on symbiosis of species: The mussel, or pina as it is called in Greek, is a large bivalve which enters into a sort of Penelope with the tiny shrimp to procure food, and so, when little fishes swim into ... Read more
Cicero about astronomy
Cicero about astronomy: This licence of intercalating introduced the confusion above-mentioned, in the computation of their time: so that the order of all their months was transposed from their stated seasons; the winter months carried back into autumn, the autumnal ... Read more
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