Curiosities of ancient Rome (Unknown facts)

Pregustator was a person (usually a slave) who tried to eat or drink before serving. The rulers had a whole host of such testers, afraid to be poisoned.

Name of the month January comes from the Roman god Janus. The Latin name of the month of January is Ianuarius. He was the god of all origins, and also the guardian of doors, gates, passages and bridges, the patron of alliances and agreements. His main celebration was the first day of the year (calendae Ianuariae), when people made each other wishes and gave small gifts (such as a baked cake called ianual) for a good omen; at that time, newly elected officials were also appointed.

Plutarch mentions that most of the people claimed that the destruction of Carthage and the conquest of Greece gave Rome security and a chance of harmonious existence. The Greek historian, however, cites the opinion of Roman politician – Nasica, who believed that such situation is in fact a threat to Roman statehood.

Flowers from North Africa are still growing around the Colosseum. Their seeds were probably brought to Rome thanks to lions and other exotic animals (eg. in fur), which were brought to the capital for the Games. In the nineteenth century, nearly 420 different types of plants were cataloged around the Flavian Amphitheater.

Ancient Romans as farming people wars only fought in the summer between the times of sowing and harvest, and before winter, when military maneuvers were more difficult. For the first time in the winter, Rome led the war at the beginning of the fourth century BCE, when the Romans began to siege the Etruscan city of Veii.

When the plague appeared in any ancient city, so many people died that government gave up individual burials for the mass burying of the dead. An example of such a burial is a mass grave found in Rome in 1876 at a depth of 40 meters from the time of the early empire.

From the category of alternative methods of treatment. Pliny the Elder states that wounds and bruises are best treated with dried dung of wild boar taken in spring. Such a method is recommended, for example, in the case of wounds, after the coachman was pulled behind a chariot or some part of the body was crushed by the wheel.

In 249 BCE, the great-great-grandson of the famous Appius Claudius (as a censor changed Latin spelling and built in Rome one of the first aqueducts), consul Appius Claudius Pulcher during the First Punic War attacked the Carthaginian fleet at Drepanum (today’s Trapani) in Sicily.

In 206 BCE African Scipio created a war veterans colony in Spain, the first located outside the Apennine Peninsula. The colony named Italica was to promote Roman culture to the neighboring Iberian tribes, in the hope that they will adopt Roman way of life.

Claudius Drusus, son of emperor Claudius (10 BCE – 54 CE) and Plautia Urgulanillia, suffocated when he tossed a pear for fun and this one fell his open mouth.