I bet you didnt know that

Professor Moriarty

server down wrote: »

How did they find that out? Very little literature mentions toilet habits.

It’s true that the Romans had communal ****ters but to assume they hung around and had conversations is a stretch just because they weren’t separated. It is like if future generations get rid of communal male urinals and they postulated that we all used urinals as a social space precisely because they weren’t separated. We don’t.

From the Roman poet Martial (Book 11; Epigram 77):

In omnibus Vacerra quod conclavibus
consumit horas et die toto sedet
cenaturit Vacerra
non cacaturit.


Roughly translated:

Vaccera spends hours in the toilet
the whole day does he sit
Vacerra wants to dine
he does not want to sh1t


Of course he may not have been socialising as dysentery was rife...

server down

LirW wrote: »

It is assumed by the way these were excavated. Of course we don't exactly know because of the little literature that's available on that. But there are several indications for that. The everyday life of Romans is pretty well documented, the literature available is enormous and allowed together with excavations to reconstruct a very good image of the everyday life of the different social classes.

My point was more that there is the assumption that toilet times were "set" for people so they held parts of their day free for the toilet business. Also these toilets were mainly used for the brown stuff because people urinated pretty much in every corner. It also seems like that Romans, especially men were very sociable and made a social event out of everything, it was simply their thing. So this assumptions comes based on what else is known about the society.

Well you say that there’s a lot of literature on everyday Roman activities but not the use of public toilets. There were a lot of toilets in private houses, though not always connected to the sewers. The poor had pots. These were often per bedroom.

This indicates that public latrines were only favoured when nothing else was available. I think some historians have run with the idea that because a latrine is communal people socialised but that claim (which I’ve read also) seems to go against human nature. Defecating is a naturally private activity and, in any case, if a communal toilet is a place of socialisation it stops being a primary use, as people are hardly going to socialise for a few minutes, or turn up ready to go st the exact same time. And if they don’t leave the latrine when finished the business, it becomes a place where some people play board games and others wait outside until all that’s finished. Not very useful for a toilet .

server down

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

From the Roman poet Martial (Book 11; Epigram 77):

In omnibus Vacerra quod conclavibus
consumit horas et die toto sedet
cenaturit Vacerra
non cacaturit.


Roughly translated:

Vaccera spends hours in the toilet
the whole day does he sit
Vacerra wants to dine
he does not want to sh1t


Of course he may not have been socialising as dysentery was rife...

Clearly dysentery . He doesn’t want to sh1t.

LirW

Maybe he didn't care at some point anymore and just ate on the pot.

Professor Moriarty

server down wrote: »

Clearly dysentery . He doesn’t want to sh1t.

Here's a picture of a typical Roman public toilet:



They may not have spoken to each other while defecating. However, the layout is very conducive to discussion and banter.

razorblunt

Oldtree wrote: »

Romans used a wet sponge on a stick as toilet paper. Was the sponge communal, I guess we'll never know....

I visited Pompeii last summer and they confirmed it was. You'd have to get their early to get the clean(er) version of it.

Ballstein

razorblunt wrote: »

I visited Pompeii last summer and they confirmed it was. You'd have to get their early to get the clean(er) version of it.

Mother of god, can you imagine that sponge if the Romans had an Arthur's Day....

loyatemu

Ballstein wrote: »

Mother of god, can you imagine that sponge if the Romans had an Arthur's Day....

the sort of stuff the Roman's got up to (and ate and drank), Arthur's Day would be a walk in the park by comparison...

Never has toilet humor been so appropriate!

LirW

I'm so incredibly grateful that the Romans left so many details about their lives.

There are also some crazy details about how women used birth control.

The most extreme might be in ancient China where women drank mercury and arsenic in such doses that they won't die from it but will become unable to conceive.


I'm pretty happy that we're living in such developed times.

fergiesfolly

Can't find a link for this, but I once read a book about a South Pacific tribe. And every morning the men would troop down to the the seashore for their daily evacuation. All together, chatting about the day ahead, local politics, gossip( the women were left to the household chores)
It's not too much of a stretch to think the Romans did the same.
We're very hung up on some things here in the modern West.

stimpson

Isaac Newton died a virgin. Had to know for sure but from his writings he seemed to shun companionship and disliked women. Voltaire has written that Newtons physician said that he had claimed on his deathbed that he never got laid.

david75

Star Wars The Last Jedi is the most divisive Star Wars movie of the entire series.

Are Am Eye

david75 wrote: »

Star Wars The Last Jedi is the most divisive Star Wars movie of the entire series.

No it's not.

Capt'n Midnight

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the lest divisive one, everyone holds it in the same regard.

RiderOnTheStorm

Penguin egg "whites" turn translucent when boiled.

the purple tin

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Here's a picture of a typical Roman public toilet:



They may not have spoken to each other while defecating. However, the layout is very conducive to discussion and banter.

They were also unisex. Theres nothing new under the sun.

Realt Dearg Sec

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the lest divisive one, everyone holds it in the same regard.

Someone's response to Episode III is, I find, an excellent barometer of their taste and character.

LirW

People like to take Sparta as a prime example for women's rights in ancient times.
The truth behind that is though, that Sparta was the ancient equivalent to a military nation and were permanently in war which means that they had a high mortality on the battlefield. The reason why women got more rights than other Grecian women was because at several points in their history the population of men in the area was so little that women outnumbered them by far. So the government had no choice but giving women the right to own property, to trade and a few other things that women in other greek areas would never be able to do.
It wasn't them being progressive but it was out of necessity, otherwise the society in Sparta would break down.

Oldtree

LirW wrote: »

Apparently they didn't. Their toilets had a pretty decent system where all the toilets were aligned in a rectangular room on the walls. In front of the seats there was a small trench with water running through it where you could rinse the sponge clean.
The toilets even had an integrated sponge holder right in front of their genitals that it's all ready to go.

Do you not think that there's a possibility that the less well off Romans may not have had the built in sponge and would have had to use the stick version, much like the better off these days having access to a bidet? What about Romans on the move?

Esel

Their horses could crap on the move...

Oldtree

Esel wrote: »

Their horses could crap on the move...

Are you saying there was simultaneous ****eing going on?

Duckworth_Luas

One of the most outrageously lucrative celebrity endorsement deals ever was first offered to Hulk Hogan, who turned it down.

It was then offered to a genuine sports star who was also left unimpressed.

The creator of this item, Michael Boehm from Chicago, had encountered constant knockbacks on his journey to make it a success. Once he eventually secured a deal with a manufacturer his new partners felt it needed a prominent personality as a TV spokesperson.

According to Hogan he was offered the deal but decided to focus on other areas. The second individual was then sent a prototype of the product but, equally unimpressed, left it unused for six months. It was only after his wife discovered it and was enthusiastic about its potential that his mind was changed.

Due to the size of the sportsman's profile in the USA at the time he was offered 40% of the profits, the inventor was satisfied with just 15%.

The sportsman was George Foreman, the product was The Lean Mean Grilling Machine.

Although nearly 50, Foreman was still boxing professionally. On the night of the first fight after his commercials started to run his agent handed him a cheque worth over $1 Million. This represented royalties for only one month's sales. Foreman had lost the fight but the unexpected windfall convinced him to hang up his gloves for good.

In total Foreman earned over $200 Million as the endorser of the grill. At the height of its sales he was getting $2.5 Million a month. In 1999 the manufacturers bought out the use of his name for an extra $138 million.

So George Foreman earned over 1/3 of a billion dollars because his wife decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

sbsquarepants

The story I heard was that Hulk Hogans agent actually made the call, he tried to contact Hulk to offer the deal to him but he was out and so he just went to the next name on the list and George just happened to be that lucky person.

Ineedaname

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The story I heard was that Hulk Hogans agent actually made the call, he tried to contact Hulk to offer the deal to him but he was out and so he just went to the next name on the list and George just happened to be that lucky person.

I’d take that story with a fairly large pinch of salt. Hogan has proven himself a habitual liar with a love for tall tales.

Some of his gems include claiming Elvis was a huge fan of his despite him dying a full two years before his first match. He also claimed he was asked to join Metallica in the 80s.

LirW

Oldtree wrote: »

Do you not think that there's a possibility that the less well off Romans may not have had the built in sponge and would have had to use the stick version, much like the better off these days having access to a bidet? What about Romans on the move?

I was talking about a built in sponge holder for the ones that have their own

sbsquarepants

Ineedaname wrote: »

I’d take that story with a fairly large pinch of salt. Hogan has proven himself a habitual liar with a love for tall tales.

Some of his gems include claiming Elvis was a huge fan of his despite him dying a full two years before his first match. He also claimed he was asked to join Metallica in the 80s.

Ha, excellent.

Remember the song he had out, "I am a real American, fight for the rights of every man"

I'm ashamed to say I actually liked it at the time - but in my defence I was about 12 and they'd only just started to show the American wrestling on the telly and I was a fan of hulk!
Before that it was all big daddy and giant haystacks on ITV of a Saturday morning (yes, I am that old:D)

Floki

Elvis Presley's ancestors were Palatines (German) who settled in the Tintern area of Co.Wexford in the early 1700's. The name then was Presler. They moved up to Carlow for a short while before emigrating to America. It became Presley on emigration.

Great things come out of Wexford.:)

the purple tin

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The story I heard was that Hulk Hogans agent actually made the call, he tried to contact Hulk to offer the deal to him but he was out and so he just went to the next name on the list and George just happened to be that lucky person.

Whatever the reason I'm glad Foreman got it instead of that annoying pumped up twat Hogan.

Kat1170

Floki wrote: »

Elvis Presley's ancestors were Palatines (German) who settled in the Tintern area of Co.Wexford in the early 1700's. The name then was Presler. They moved up to Carlow for a short while before emigrating to America. It became Presley on emigration.

Great things come out of Wexford.:)

We all know only two things ever came out of Wexford.

Strawberries and ........... :eek::eek::D