T he ancient Romans built one of the greatest empires in history. They build colossal buildings which are still standing. Just imagine how many of today’s day buildings our descendants will be able to see in a year 4,000.

Among others, the Romans were crazy about aqueducts. They built them to bring water from springs, which were tens of kilometers away, to their cities. The aqueducts were the symbols of the Roman power.

The water from the aqueducts was used for fountains, drinking, baths, and for flushing toilets.

Imagine having public toilets with a running water 2,000 years ago. A pretty amazing achievement.

However, if the public baths were the places to relax and enjoy, the public toilets were one of the most feared places in the Roman cities.

Roman public toilet was a building which had numerous sits with holes to relieve yourself.

Beneath the toilet was flowing water coming from aqueducts which immediately flushed away urine and feces.

In theory, this was a great achievement.

Yet, the Romans were afraid to death to use their public toilets.

They used spells and lucky charms to get out of the public toilets alive.

For a start, the public toilets were very dark.They had low roofs and tiny windows.

Nobody cleaned the toilets. People missed the holes, so the toilets were soiled. Yes, we can see a white marble of the Roman public toilets at the archaeological sites, but the Romans didn’t see them white often!

If you were unlucky, a rat, a snake, or a spider bit you in your bottom since public toilets were full of them.

In the worst case, a slow buildup of methane from decomposing sewage caused an explosion resulting in people running out of toilet covered in flames!

Even more dangerous than filth, rats, and methane was xylospongoum (in Latin sponge on a stick).

Xylospongium was a gentle and simple tool comprising a sea sponge put on a stick. It was used to clean anus after defecation.

Xylospongium was a Roman butt brush. If we joke a bit — the descendant Xylospongium is a modern toilet brush, which is (luckily) used only for cleaning toilets!

After the use, xylospongium was placed back in a bucket filled with salted water or vinegar — for the next person to use it.

Needles to say, sharing of xylospongium enabled sharing of diseases. Eventually, everyone suffered from the same worms!

Our body makes 128 grams (4.5 ounces) of poop per day on average. The city of Rome had over 1 million citizens at it’s height.

Simple math tells us on average 128 tonnes (141 US tons) of poop per day was produced in the city of Rome!

The rich Romans didn’t want to look at feces on their streets, so they built public toilets.

Needless to say, the Roman upper class didn’t set foot in the public toilets. They were meant for lower classes and slaves.

Rich Romans didn’t use latrines in their villas, instead they used pots which were the easiest way to remove feces and urine out and keep pleasant smell.

If the public baths wore an inscription of sponsor who paid to build them, there were none of such inscriptions on public toilets.

There were no Toilets of Trajan or Toilets of Diocletian — nobody wanted to be associated with the public toilets!

One of the greatest testaments to the Roman engineering skills was the Cloaca Maxima (in Latin Greatest Sewer) in Rome.

Waste water from public toilets flew to sewers like Cloaca Maxima.

“The most noteworthy things of all.”

— Roman writer Pliny the Elder about the sewers in Rome

Cloaca Maxima was sacred for the citizens of Rome. The sewer was able to move the human waste efficiently in the Tiber River.It withstood centuries of earthquakes, new building projects, and floods.

Even after the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the sewer served its much needed purpose.

In the 18th century, Cloaca Maxima became a tourist attraction. Wealthy Europeans stopped in eternal city to marvel the great sewer!

Although the ancient Romans achieved great engineering feats like building efficient sewage systems, they failed miserably at hygienic aspects of their public toilets.

The Roman public toilets were a breeding ground for infectious diseases and posed a high health risk for the Roman cities.

From the times that the pyramids were raised to the end of the cold war in this publication you will find it all. This is a publication that has been created to tell the stories of forgotten battles and fortunes that have crafted the world that we live in today.