Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

In Italy, the number 17 is considered unhappy. After converting Roman numerals XVII in such a way as to create the word “VIXI”. In Latin, the word means “my life is over.”

Pliny the Elder wrote that the white juice of lettuce calms the love enthusiasm, but also lowers the fever and also increases the volume of blood. What salad was it? Modern researchers have discovered that it was probably the so-called compass plant (lactuca serriola) – a wild plant, the ancestor of lettuce, resembling more dandelion than the familiar round vegetable.

Claudius Aelianus mentions that he heard that mares are the only animals that once pregnant allow stallions to copulation. He compared them to women. Mares are extremely passionate and therefore Roman strict moral censors called lascivious women “mares”.

It is possible that the customs associated with the celebration of Valentine’s Day refer to the ancient Roman feast, called Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15 in honour of Faun or the ancient god of the shepherds Lupercus, who protected their herd from wolves.

Claudius Aelianus presents the struggle of ichneumon (Egyptian mongoose, also called the pharaoh’s rat) with a cobra. Ichneumon does not move to attack the enemy without caution and rashly. Just as a man can defend himself in full gear, the ichneumon is first rolled in the mud until it is covered with a hard shell, which serves him as a safe and tight protection. If the mud is missing, it is washed with water and the whole wet one dips deep into the sand – only then it starts to fight.

The famous centurion stick – vitis, a sign of function, a punishment tool. It was made of vine wood, and it was implemented during the Punic wars. It was about 0,9 meters long. Tacitus mentions that one of the centurions received the nickname Cedo Alteram (“give me another”), because of the continuous breaking of the stick.

Ancient Romans performed kidney stone surgery. This was described by Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his treatise “De medeicina”. He described there lithotripsy – crushing kidney and ureter stones.

Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer, states that Indians had difficulty with catching an adult elephant. That’s why they went to the swamp and there they caught small baby elephants. The favorite place of staying elephants are boggy and wet areas, where the water is galore. As they prefer to spend time in such areas, you can call the elephant a swamp animal.

People are grasping baby elephants yet gentle and meek, then they take care of them, satisfing their appetites and care for their physical condition, they use caressing expressions (elephants understand the speech of the natives). In a word – they nurse them like children and nurture, while teaching various fields. And small elephants obey them.

The Romans expelled Alcæus and Philiscus out of the City, because they taught the young men many dishonest pleasures.

Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer, reports that, according to the ancient, one of the most handsome Greeks was Alcibiades and among the Romans Scipio. However, we do not know which Scipio was it about: Elder or Younger.