the toggle-wearing ancient romans are
considered models for many elements of
human civilization
which have prevailed till modern times
however
there are certain things about the roman
civilization that we should be thankful
for becoming a thing of the past
welcome to nutty history and today let's
find out what creepy things were normal
in ancient rome
[Music]
greeks were not the only party animals
of the european circle in ancient times
rome's wealthiest population like to
party too and they partied hard
their feasts were lavish long lasting
and extremely ludicrous
the wealthy romans consumed food like
drugs in these feasts
and the food was not regular it was made
out of exotic animals birds and fish
and the more exotic the food the more
the party would be considered successful
by the guests
songbirds like pheasant and thrush raw
oysters lobster
shellfish venison wild boar and peacocks
were common at a wealthy feast foods
that were forbidden by sumptuary laws
such as
fat and fowl and sows utters were
flagrantly consumed at the most
exclusive feast which were equivalent to
modern vip nightclubs
so that's what goes on on the other side
of those velvet ropes
a surviving literary work of ancient
rome a piccius is the account of cooking
recipes that were invented to appease
and amaze the guests and such
extravagant feasts
but it wasn't the exotic and absurd food
that was the creepy part of these
profligate parties
the actual creepy thing about these
feasts were the guests and their
insatiable gluttony
unlike modern times where eating as
little as possible is considered the
classy thing to do
romans like to gorge on their servings
and they like to keep doing it
all night long cue lionel richie
though some americans with a bucket full
of chicken wings like to dismiss it
the fact is the human stomach is not a
black hole that can devour
everything you throw in it so romans had
to get a little creative
for partying and eating till dawn their
splendidly disgusting idea to accomplish
that was to simply regurgitate the food
after consuming it yep they will just
throw up voluntarily whatever they
enjoyed eating a few minutes ago and
then carry on dining as if
nothing happened some people kept
special bowls around the table for the
purpose of collecting the bile
while others gave no care and they just
puked straight up all over the floor and
then they carried on eating
ew ew and
in our video about creepy things that
were normal in ancient greece
we talked about how grime collected off
olympic athletes was treated like
medicine and how crazy greeks were about
it
turns out their successors of
civilization were not much wiser about
such magic potions either
if greece had olympic athletes rome had
gladiators
and like greeks roman women loved to
enjoy rubbing dead cells of dead
gladiators on their faces like skin
cream to attract men
not only that romans were even a step
ahead of the greeks as they would also
enjoy drinking the blood of dead
gladiators
hoping that it would cure epileptics
strangely some roman physicians actually
reported that this treatment
worked the origins of the sacred or
apoplectic properties of blood of a
slain gladiator likely lie
in the etruscan funeral rites etruscan
civilization was a precursor to rome in
italy which was mostly settled around
the modern city of tuscany
although the influence of this religious
background faded during the roman
republic
the magical use of gladiator's blood
continued for centuries
after the prohibition of gladiatorial
combat in about 400 a.d
an executed individual became the
legitimate successor to the gladiator
and the practice of selling blood potion
carried on
occasional indications in early modern
textbooks on medicine
as well as reports in the popular
literature of the 19th and early 20th
century
document the existence of this ancient
magical practice until modern times
but now as we have advanced much further
medically and humanly
we know how crazy romans were drinking
the blood of a dead person
like a vampire i want you to drink my
blood
however if you think that was the extent
of roman craziness
wait till you hear about their rulers
talking about mad regions of ancient
rome
everybody knows stories of nero whose
obsession to become a singer
cost hundreds of roman lives and
caligula who tried to make his horse
a senator but madness and mental
illnesses were quite common among many
roman rulers that may have you believe
that insanity was perhaps one of the
qualifications to become an imperator
for example commodus who was played by
the talented joaquin phoenix in the
movie gladiator
was indeed fond of fighting gladiators
and had a delusion that he was hercules
reincarnated
tarakala was known for his short temper
and for murdering his own brother gida
and his followers
and later massacring many leading
citizens of alexandria egypt
elegalus who became roman emperor
shortly after caracalla was the stark
opposite of his predecessor
the teenage emperor was known for
prostituting himself sacralizing roman
religion and gods
and forcing a vessel virgin into
marrying him his reign is known only for
his extreme eccentricity
decadence zealotry and promiscuity
emperor's messalina the wife of emperor
claudius was one step ahead of
eligibilis in matters of promiscuity and
perversion
the marriage of claudius and messalina
was mismatched for claudius was old and
disinterested in family matters
while messalina was only 18 but she was
an important figure in rome
as she was the great grand niece of the
first roman emperor
augustus being ignored in a marriage
that only existed on paper
didn't sit too well with her and when
claudius succeeded caligula as
emperor messalina used her new powers to
liberate herself from the prison-like
marriage
highly attractive vesselina was eye
candy for many suitors
long-term repression made her revolt
most absurdly as she
ended up betting over 150 lovers she was
also known for sneaking into brothels at
night and challenging the most
successful prostitutes of the city
in a stamina war it is recorded that
messalina managed to beat rome's best
escort skyla by pleasing 25 men in a
night
while skyla nearly fainted after the
24th
later while claudius was in austria
messalina eloped with senator guyacilius
and the two lovers had an extravagant
wedding with the feast
and everything when claudius's advisors
heard of it
they ordered her to commit suicide even
though claudius was benign towards her
ancient rome wasn't much different from
the modern world when it comes to
attitude
towards making love while males were
allowed to flaunt their conquest in beds
women were repressed and had to act
properly in public and avoid taboos
however unlike modern times phallus
figures were not taboo at all
in fact they were the biggest craze in
ancient rome do you remember the
fictional one bus advertisement from
that episode of rick and morty
well that fictional ad could have been
inspired by the reality of rome
as the ancient empire was filled with
phallic totems
phallic charms and phallic decors male
genitalia was considered a good luck
charm
an award against evil so wearing phallic
necklaces was pretty common among roman
men
they would also draw figures of manhood
on bridges and road signs to keep
travelers safe
but rome was not the leading city of
creating trends when it comes to adult
art in the roman empire
that title goes to pompeii the city that
was destroyed by the volcanic eruption
of mount vesuvius
the lava and ash that buried pompeii
left the city well preserved
as a historic account for archaeologists
however the historians were not that
proud to show their findings to the
world
until the 20th century the town was full
of the craziest erotic artwork
to the extent that every other tile on
the road had its own special display
of obscenity tourists to this day can
still see these artworks while visiting
pompeii
[Music]
ancient rome was the zenith of plumbing
for its time but that doesn't mean
everything about their bath houses and
laboratories was the peak of sanitation
as toilet paper did not exist back then
romans were known for using a sponge
attached to the end of a stick
known as a poop stick to wipe the rears
after defecating
however the disgusting part was that
these sticks were used
multiple times by multiple people
on the same day and they were hardly
washed in between
[Music]
i think i just threw up in my mouth a
little bit but if you are thinking that
sharing butt parasites was the biggest
danger of using roman lavatories
think again things are about to get
explosive
yes the biggest danger of sitting down a
poop in ancient rome was to pray that
the toilet wouldn't detonate
as the plumbing was quite preliminary
and basic in these toilets
there was a serious hazard of methane
buildup under the commodes
and the pressure could burst out any
minute also
having so much filth in these pipes
caused a lot of pest infestation in
toilets
which means there was also a good chance
of being bitten by a rabid creature in
the delegates
while taking care of business instead of
coming up with a better solution for
plumbing
romans resorted to magic in worship to
solve their washroom worries
magical spells meant to keep demons at
bay were cast on the walls of bathrooms
few washrooms were built with statues of
fortuna the goddess of luck inside them
to guard the visitors
it is suspected that romans also
worshipped a certain god called crepitus
no pun intended who was the god of
toilets and flatulence to keep
themselves safe while doing number two
there's a god for toilets and flatulence
okay
so what do you think would you risk
going to the washroom in ancient rome
or would you wait for a couple hundred
years to get the proper plumbing like we
have today
could you hold it that long or do you
think we missed some creepy fact about
ancient rome
tell us in the comments and thanks for
watching nutty history