Random Disgusting Details Of Every Day Life In Ancient Rome (16 items)

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  (#14) Ancient Romans Bathed With Oil, Then Reused It For Future Baths

  When it was time for a bath, ancient Romans headed for a public bath house. Here, they would progress through a series of rooms: the scalding hot caldarium, then the lukewarm tepidarium, then finally the icy frigidarium. Before bathing, Romans would coat their skin in olive oil, then scrape it off (or have their slaves scrape it off) with a strigil. This was supposed to remove dirt, dead skin, and perspiration. And what would happen with the dirty oil? It would be reused for the next guest, or even used for women to condition their hair.
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  (#10) Transgressors Were Drowned In Sacks With Animals Or Entombed While Alive

  Perhaps the most famous method of punishment in ancient Rome was crucifixion, but there's so much more where that came from. In fact, there's a veritable trove of unsettling punishments that the Romans enjoyed dolling out because of their spectacular nature.

  For example, an offender might also be eaten by wild beasts or burned alive in retribution for the wrongs they committed. If someone did something really serious – like killing their own father – they might be sewn into a sack with a rooster, a dog, a monkey, and a snake, then thrown into the Tiber River to drown alive. Vestal Virgins, traditionally chaste priestesses, were entombed alive if they broke their vows of purity.
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  (#1) Forget Toilet Paper; They Had Sponge On A Stick

  Ancient Romans used a particularly gross form of cleaning to keep their whitest togas white. To really clean those hard to reach places after they spent some time squatted down over a bench with holes in it, they would wipe with a sponge set on the end of a stick. Called a xylospongium, these sponge-sticks were attached to the bathroom benches, so a busy Roman didn't have to worry about toting one through the city with them as they ran daily errands. 

  To access the stick, you'd reach through a keyhole and maneuver it through to clean your derriere. Although this sounds like a convenient, time-saving trick, it's pretty hideous that people using public restrooms likely had to share sponge-sticks. All one can hope is that they were switched out or cleaned often by bathroom attendants. 
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  (#13) Thousands Of Animals And Gladiators Perished In Games

  Men didn't just fight one another in the gladiatorial games; they also fought wild beasts that were imported from all over the empire. With no PETA around to defend them, these exotic animals were caged in dismal conditions and then unleashed to ravage their human rivals. In Emperor Trajan's games held between 108-109 C.E. alone, 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals were slaughtered (although some think chroniclers' numbers were exaggerated). In another festive celebration, 8,000 animals were slain in 80 C.E. to christen Titus's new amphitheater.
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  (#15) Ancient Birth Control Was Weird And Dangerous (But Sometimes Effective)

  Giving birth in ancient Rome was extremely dangerous for both mother and baby. Infections, hemorrhaging, and other complications were unfortunately common.

  Not interested in taking your chances on childbirth? Birth control options were available, but they were strange, to say the least. According to the physicians Soranus,

  It also aids in preventing conception to smear the orifice of the uterus all over before with olive oil or honey or cedar resin or juice of the balsam tree, alone or together with white lead; or with a moist cerate containing myrtle oil and white lead; or before the act with moist alum, or with galbanum together with wine; or to put a lock of fine wool into the orifice of the uterus...

  Many of these methods were possibly effective (since they served to blocked access to the uterus.)
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  (#12) Roman Soldiers And Emperors Slayed In Bulk

  The Roman army, during both the Republican and Imperial periods, decimated opposing armies and Average Joes alike, removing whoever got in the way of areas they were looking to conquer. And the Romans eliminated in bulk.

  Statistics vary depending on the account, but the second-century sack of Seleucia, a Mesopotamian city, involved "burning down" a community of 300,000. Later, the emperor Maxentius exterminated thousands of his fellow senators in order to take their property and wives, and some estimate that the emperor Tiberius slaying more than 35,000 during his reign. 

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