Did you know that drinking gladiator blood
could cure epilepsy? Or that unibrows are actually sexy? I didn’t either! Here are
20 things I bet you didn’t know about the Romans.
Number 20 Roman physicians would recommend consuming
a gladiator’s blood or liver to cure epilepsy and infertility. It had to be fresh, but if
you couldn’t afford it you could always go to a public execution and get a criminal’s
blood to drink. I’m sure the effects would be about the same. Ewww….
Number 19 Speaking of gladiators, gladiatorial fighting
was not the most popular form of entertainment. To be fair, the arena for gladiatorial combat,
aka the Colosseum, was huge. Modern archaeologists estimate that it could accommodate over 50,000
people. However it was dwarfed by the Circus Maximus that at one point in time could accommodate
250,000 people. That was a quarter of Rome’s entire population. Imagine losing your kid
in that stadium! Do you know which stadium is the largest stadium
in the world today?
Number 18
Even though the average life expectancy in Rome was only about 25, this did not mean
that no one lived into their thirties or on into old age. The average was skewed by the
number of women who died giving birth, and by high infant mortality. Once a Roman made
it to maturity, they were likely to live as long as people do today.
Currently, the largest stadium in the world is the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in North
Korea that can hold 150,000 people. Here’s a picture since most of us will probably never
see it in real life. Number 17
Very few Roman hours lasted an hour. Like us, the Romans divided the day into 24 hours.
But, since the length of the sunlight varied with the seasons, this also meant that the
length of the hour changed. In the winter an hour was about 45 minutes and in the summer,
about 75 minutes. Number 16
Purple clothing was all the rage but was a status symbol and reserved only for emperors
or senators. To achieve the color, a dye was made from murex seashells. What’s that?
Here’s a picture. It was treason for anyone other than the emperor to dress completely
in purple. Number 15
Ancient Roman ladies loved dark eyebrows that almost formed a unibrow- a la Frida Kahlo-
and they would use soot to make their eyebrows more dramatic and noticeable. Fabulous!
Number 14 White teeth were prized by the Romans, and
so false teeth, made from bone, ivory and paste, were very popular.
Number 13 Stretching from the Atlantic to the Tigris,
the Roman Empire contained perhaps about 65 million inhabitants. While Latin was the language
of the army and of Roman law, many people incorporated into the empire continued to
speak their native tongue (Punic, Coptic, Aramaic, Celtic) instead of Latin. The Roman
elite was bilingual speaking both Greek and Latin. For them, Greek was a badge of status.
Number 12 The empire produced eminent philosophers such
as Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Yet some Romans hated philosophy for two main reasons: first,
it was a Greek invention, and the Greeks were a conquered race and therefore inferior. I
know I just said that Greek was a badge of status but apparently speaking Greek is wayyyy
better than being Greek. Second, the study of philosophy focused on yourself….. and
your feelings… which is not good for soldiers that are sacrificing everything as a group
to serve the Empire. Number 11
Although in art they liked to be depicted in heroic and martial posture, Roman generals
were ‘battle managers’, not warriors. Only in the most exceptional circumstances
were they expected to fight hand-to-hand. If a battle was lost, the commander should
either kill himself with his own sword or, let the enemy kill him.
Number 10 Roman emperors adopted the daily habit of
taking a small amount of every known poison in an attempt to gain immunity. The mixture
was known as Mithridatium, after the creator of the practice, Mithridates the Great, king
of Pontus. He believed he had developed the formula to gain immunity to everything. Yeah,
I don’t know who he was either but apparently he lived into his 80s…so…maybe we should
try it… Number 9
The Roman Empire got its name from its founding city. However, while it is often recognized
that in the late Roman era Constantinople was the most important city, what almost nobody
realizes is that by 402 AD the terrible emperor Honorius felt that Rome was no longer defensible
and decided to move the capital to Ravenna. Number 8
Romans and Italians were never the same thing.
It’s just that the Roman city state was more aggressive, with a better army, and luckier
than the other kingdoms of Italy. Many of the other city states spoke a different language
than the Roman state and they hated each other. Number 7
Romans thought the early Christians were practicing cannibalism when they heard about them eating
bread and wine as symbolic representations of the body and blood of Christ. Oh dear...
Number 6 Wealthy Romans would have extravagant and
decadent banquets that lasted for hours so in order to continue eating, they would vomit
so they could continue. Ewwwwghhhh Number 5
Dying your hair was the fashion among women, with red and blonde being the most popular
colors. Dye colors were achieved through different ingredients, like goat fat, beech wood ashes,
henna, saffron, and bleach. Number 4
Emperor Caligula tried to make his favorite horse consul — the highest elected office
of the Roman Republic and the most important job in the government. He gave him a marble
stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar and a house to invite other senators to dinner
and eat gold flakes. Caligula probably did this so he could humiliate the senate. Poor
Incitatus. Number 3
While Romans were extremely hygienic, they did not use soap. Instead, to get clean they
would apply perfumed oils to their skin and then scrape it off with a special tool.
Number 2 Women had a very intense beauty regimen. Beauty
masks included a mix of sweat from sheep’s wool, placenta, excrement, animal urine, sulphur,
ground oyster shells and bile. Sounds pretty gross right? Make-up smelt so bad that Roman
divas wore a strong and oily perfume to cover it up. Well, try to cover it up... maybe you should check
the ingredients on your own makeup and get back to me before you judge...
Or maybe you shouldn’t, it might not be a good idea
Number 1 Have you ever wondered how people in the ancient
world did their laundry without Tide? The secret was to use ammonia. Hmm where can I
get ammonia? Is it a powder? Is it a soap? Nope…it’s human urine. The urine was collected
by dry cleaners from around the city that would then heat it up and give the clothes
a good soak. Thanks for watching! Don’t miss our video
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