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Unknown Facts are curiosities revealing little-known, surprising, or rarely discussed information from the world of ancient Rome and antiquity. This category includes unusual details, curiosities, and facts that offer a less obvious perspective on the Roman Empire.
Roman civil wars in the 1st century BCE, they harmed the good name of the nation and the state to such an extent that the first emperor – Octavian Augustus ordered the destruction of all documents related to this fratricidal fight.
Plutarch recognizes Gaius Gracchus as the person who, for the first time in the Roman Republic, ordered small stones to be placed by the road so that the horseman could, without any help, mount his horse.
The Latin phrase – furor teutonicus (“Teutonic fury”) – was used to describe the aggressive actions of the Germanic peoples. It first appeared in Lucan’s Pharsalia to convey the qualities he attributed to the Teutons: cruelty and battle frenzy. At the end of the 2nd century BCE northern Italy was invaded by the Germanic tribes of the Teutons and Cimbri, whose invasion threatened Rome’s sovereignty.
A slave in ancient times is a captive man, considered a subsistence animal because it benefits the owner. The food expenditures allocated to him are returned with the use of the slave’s energy and work.
Roman thermal baths were certainly one of the favourite places where a Roman could relax his body. Tepidarium was probably the first place visited by bathers and was a kind of introduction to further hot (caldarium) or cold (frigidarium) baths.
Distinguishing species of animals similar to each other, for example, all kinds of felids (and biodiversity was then, i.e. in the times of Pliny the Elder much greater than it is now), posed many difficulties.
Constantine the Great, as he was officially the first Christian emperor, is seen today as a good ruler. It should be emphasized, however, that he had many lives on his conscience.
Constantine the Great after assuming imperial power tried in every possible way to emphasize his dominant position. A huge statue of the emperor was set up in Rome, the surviving fragments of which (head and foot) give an idea of the size of the monument. There is also a triumphal arch – one of the three preserved to our times.
