re: 10 Truly Disgusting Facts About Ancient Roman Life

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And, didn't they engage in pedophilia? That somehow doesn't crack the top 10?

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I just finished watching the HBO Series Rome, and they did, so it must be true!! But seriously, pretty certain they actually did.

Also, from the list, somehow virtually all of these were absent from the HBo series lol. We did see some obscene graffiti though, so maybe that one counts.

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how can homosexuality not be top 10

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You know, it's weird.

If you asked me what I'd prefer, gay sex or washing my mouth out with my own urine, I'm taking the urine.

But if I know a gay dude, I'd thinking nothing of it the idea of him having sex with another dude(not that I'd actually think of it but you get the point lol.) But if he said he washes his mouth out with urine, I may have issues being friends with that dude.

My own personal hypocrisy.

top comment on the article was interesting IMO

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It's a grey area. While the famed "vomitoria" were actually what we would now call an exit gate or a ramp, because they vomited the patrons back out onto the street, the truth of the matter is a bit murky.

It's known that the Romans believed in the use of emetics (drugs that induce vomiting) for health reasons. And from the admonishments of doctors to purge only medically, it can be deduced that some Romans did induce vomiting for other reasons. We also know from antimony-bearing cups that could be used to turn wine into an emetic as well as the great variety of substances (many of them terrifically toxic by today's standards) from copper chloride to antimony tartrate to simple seawater. This raises one valid counterpoint. The vomiting caused by Antimony Tartrate is so violent and severe that in the 1900s it was used as aversion therapy for alcoholics, and some of them attested the moment they connected the taste of alcohol to the violent effects of the "shoo fly powder" they never had a desire to drink again, like the Ludvinko technique from A Clockwork Orange only with far more mess and the risk of kidney, liver or heart failure. The fact it killed some of them lead "ms. Moffat's shoo-fly powder" to be one of the first patent medications ever banned by the newly-formed FDA.

The idea that anyone but a dedicated masochist would take antimony compounds for pleasure's sake defies belief.

On the other hand, Cicero attests that Julius Caesar avoided an assassination attempt when during a meal he went to the bedroom to vomit, rather than to the bathroom, where assassins had concealed themselves. That the assassins would know to hide there and anticipate a moment during the festivities when Caesar would feel the urge to purge speaks of this being at least somewhat prevalent. We also have other evidence, in the form of art, though banqueter or medical patient aren't always clear to distinguish in highly stylized Roman pottery. And of course these things may have been exaggerated, as many things were, to paint the dictators in a certain light. For instance, it's almost certain Caligula was horribly slandered by the senators he sought to reduce in power, and wasn't nearly the perverted sadist we all know today.

So, like many examples of famous roman debauchery and decadence, it's quite likely later writers took a kernel of truth and exaggerated it for their own political motives. The Christian Roman Emperors had a very vested interest in painting earlier eras as unspeakably decadent and immoral. And Romans would still have been familiar with the unpleasant effects of medical emetics. This viscerally (no pun intended) painted a vibrantly colorful (still no pun intended) picture to the Romans of the day the supposed debauched excesses their forefathers indulged in out of depravity. And hopefully that sorts out that sick mess (THAT pun was intended).

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