I've studied rather a lot of Roman history, and I did not know this. It seems that there are at least 11 possibilities.
Plus the article has a picture from a place I remember visiting. Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient port city. I remember that particular latrine (no, I didn't use it, but thank you so much for your interest).
What's sad is that this isn't the first post here about Roman, err, sanitation.
In other history geekery, this is an interesting day in French Royal history. In 1610, le Vert Gallant Henri IV (of "Paris is worth a Mass" fame) was stabbed to death by an assassin. His young son became King Louis XIII. Louis XIII, as we all known for Louis the XIV who by enormous coincidence became King on this same day in 1643.
The left hand was my first guess for most common. It is still not polite to eat food with the left hand because of that - in Ethiopian restaurants you keep your left hand away from the top of the table and scoop food only with the right because of that.
ReplyDeleteA lady I used to know visited Rome and Pompeii, and described for me the ancient public toilet, wherein one had a slave or servant to the rear of the seat. There was a large hole there, and the manservant would insert a large Q-tip like device, and rub it back and forth, 'cleansing' their charge.
ReplyDeleteI never use a Q-tip now without thinking of that!
gfa
The lack of tp, corrective lenses, and modern medicine are enough to make me very glad that I'm alive now and not then.
ReplyDeleteSorry, long time lurker here. I checked the link and realized it was Caroline Lawrence. If you haven't read her books or seen the BBC show Roman Mysteries, please do. It is so worth it :)
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