Onomatopoeias in Roman comedies
Onomatopoeias in Roman comedies: “hahae” – laughter; “vae” – disgust; “ehem” – surprise; “heu” – sadness; “uah” – embarrassment.
If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
The world of ancient Romans abounded in a number of amazing curiosities and information. The source of knowledge about the life of the Romans are mainly works left to us by ancient writers or discoveries. The Romans left behind a lot of strange information and facts that are sometimes hard to believe.
Onomatopoeias in Roman comedies: “hahae” – laughter; “vae” – disgust; “ehem” – surprise; “heu” – sadness; “uah” – embarrassment.
Illustration of the birth of Julius Caesar from a 14th century illuminated manuscript called Les anciennes hystoires rommaines.
If you want to say hello in ancient Rome, it would be enough to say Salvē (in case of one recipient) or Salvēte, if we would welcome a larger group of people. Naturally, you could also use the word Avē. Avē and Salvē can simply be translated as “Hi”.
Swastika, as a result of Hitler and Nazi Germany, became a symbol of hatred and racial segregation. Not many however realize that 卐 symbol was already used in ancient times, all around the world, and had a completely different meaning.
Were condoms already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans? We can find a lot of information on the Internet that Roman legionaries used animal intestines (especially sheep) as condoms. Is this really true?
Boxing (pugilatus) was a popular sport in ancient Rome. In order to protect the hands from damage, fists were wrapped with leather thongs. With time, the harder skin was used, which increased the strength of the blow and caused more damage. Boxing came to Rome from the Greek culture, but their innovation was to “improve” the straps that wrap the fists by attaching nails and other sharp metal parts or mounting metal plates. The Roman glove was called cestus.
Hannibal – during the invasion of Italy, during the Second Punic War – took 37 elephants with him, of which 10 animals did not survive the harsh conditions and harsh winter. He used the remaining elephants during the battle of Trebia1. After this battle, the rest of the elephants died of wounds and colds, except for one – named Surus.