Colossal Bust of Vespasian
Colossal stone bust of the emperor Vespasian
(AD 69-79).
Under Vespasian the empire recovered after the reign of Nero and the civil war that followed his death. Pliny the Elder reported directly to Vespasian and was trusted member of the group of important people around the emperor. Loan from National Museums Liverpool.
Vespasiani
Roman toilets at the port of Ostia near Rome. Toilets are still known colloquially as ‘Vespasiani’ in Italy.
Artist’s impression of Roman toilets at Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall. It may seem very surprising today that there was no privacy in Roman toilets. People used sponges on sticks instead of toilet paper.
A brief History of Roman Toilets
Many traditions have been passed by the Romans into the modern society, but ‘luckily’ not the one that sees the use of urine as a detergent to wash clothes, to brighten your teeth and tanned your skin. Not even the one that sees the laundries used as one of the collecting points of urine, which generally happened within the use of huge clay pots like the one that we have in the Ancient World Gallery.
A witness of one of this practice is the Roman poet Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BC), who in his invective Carmen 39, dedicated to the smiling hypocrite Egnatius, wrote:
​
“Egnatius, because he has bright white teeth, always smiles […] Now you are a Celtiberian: in the land of Celtiberia, whatever each man has urinated, with this he is accustomed in the morning to rub his teeth and gums until they are red, so that the more polished those teeth of yours are, the more urine they proclaim you to have drunk..”​
“Egnatius, quod candidos habet dentes,
renidet usque quaque. […]
Nunc Celtiber es: Celtiberia in terra,
quod quisque minxit, hoc sibi solet mane dentem atque russam defricare gingivam, ut quo iste vester expolitior dens est, hoc te amplius bibisse praedicet loti.”
Egnatius Carmen 39, Catullus​( English translation by Murray McDonell)
While it's clear that Catullus was not a fan of the man he wrote about, he also revealed that people used urine to clean and whiten their teeth. Speaking of bad morning breath!
During the first century the large use of urine, collected by the "fullones" (dyers), lead to an imposed tax by the Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian. This ‘penny pinching’ became necessary if the imperial finances were going to recover after the lavish spending of the reign of Nero and the civil war that followed his death. This also lead to the coinage of the Latin saying Pecunia non olet, "money does not stink" which, as reported, by the Roman historian Suetonius was used by Vespasian as a metaphor to his son Titus, who complained about the disgusting nature of the tax. Amusingly enough, in Italy the expression is still commonly in use and Italians sometimes might refer to public toilets or urinals as Vespasiani – after the emperor.
Beyond the ultimate meaning of this expression, to the ears of Romans and Latin speakers, this sentence certainly provided a rather curious and somewhat oxymoric image. In fact the etymology of the word pecunÄa (m) ("money") in Latin was derived from pÄ›cus-pecoris, ie. "cattle" ("sheep"), because in ancient times the animals, and especially the bred livestock, represented the wealth possessed and exchangeable from human beings through barter.
Toilets are indeed an interesting theme for archaeologist as well, because of what they tell of ancient civilizations. The history of the toilet, what is around (and inside!), from Mesopotamia to ancient Rome, it is an important aspect in the interpretation of society, technology, hygiene and food habits and unexpected aspects of daily life in the past.
Archaeological research proved that toilets flushed by water have existed since about 2500 B.C. The ancient Indus Valley Civilization of Northwest South Asia, including Pakistan and parts of India was prominent for many water supply and sanitation devices that were the first of their kind.
Although flushing toilets existed in homes, and were connected to a common sewerage pipe, until recent times having a bathroom in the house was a luxury, a status symbol and ancient Rome indeed made no exception; only if you were the owner of a domus (a type of house owned by the upper classes) you could enjoy a personal toilet. The majority of people would have use public latrines, which in the Rome of the I century AD became an essential part of the city's infrastructure, like the baths. These were design with a hundred of seats called ‘sellae pertusae’ (perforated seats) placed one next to the other. Yes, you read it right, while our public baths hide us from the others through walls, partitions and doors, the Romans did not have anything like that…definitely not your kind of place if you have privacy concerns!
Privacy apart, Romans are well known for their engineering skills and so does not surprise that toilets were rather functional and often aesthetically treated. Under the sittings, there was a channel with running water, whose function was the one that our toilet flushes today. Then there was a channel, dug into the floor, just at the feet of those who were sitting, to dip a small stick with a sponge on top, which was used to clean in the absence of toilet paper and was detached by rubbing the stick against the opening of the counter and ended in the sewers.
Unlike ours, often squalid, when not dirty, the public latrines of the Romans were aesthetically treated: with statues of deities (one of the most frequent was the goddess Hygieia, from whose name derives our term hygiene, but also the goddess Fortuna), coloured walls and dolphin-shaped armrests between the seats. To avoid bad smells they were built under the arcades and, if they were indoors, large windows kept constantly open. In short, nothing was left to chance.
​
%20was%20be.jpg)
The Roman goddess Fortuna (right) was believed to protect latrine users from dangers. An inscription on this fresco from Pompeii warns toilet users to beware.
Efficient and open to everyone the public latrines were however paid ones, those who entered would have to paid the "conductores foricarum" which were tax contractors for the service offered. The poorer plebs, who could not afford to waste money, had instead available jars placed at street corners that the fullones would have collect and emptied daily in the tanks of their stores, for the use of the ammonia contained in urine, to wash and whiten the tissues.
​
We still don’t have an answer to questions like: did women in ancient societies also use public toilets? How the culture of Roman latrines spread to the most remote areas of the Empire? When and where was the first flushing toilet invented?
Well, actually we know that the invention of the first toilets is attributed to the Mesopotamian civilizations of the late 4th millennium BC but archaeological research proved that toilets flushed by water have existed since about 2500 B.C. The ancient Indus Valley Civilization of Northwest South Asia, including Pakistan and parts of India was prominent for many water supply and sanitation devices that were the first of their kind.
​
In private Roman dwellings the latrines were in the kitchen, near the stove, and were also used to throw leftover food. Water was thrown there to clean them, but they were not connected to a sewage system and emptied by hand when necessary. The practice of throwing leftover food into the toilet was anything but hygienic, but allowed for interesting archaeological assessments. The analysis of a private latrine of a modest house in Herculaneum, for example, revealed that even the less well-off had a nutritious and varied diet, which included figs, eggs, olives and seafood.
From the study of the Herculaneum latrines it was also understood that in the ancient Roman city it was cooked at home more often than was previously believed, and that the regional fish trade was more prosperous than expected.
Among the less glamorous aspects of Roman latrines it should be noted that they lacked protections, or siphoning, which kept away odours and pests. The study of the perfectly preserved contents of the Herculaneum sewage system, conducted by the archaeologists of the universities of Oxford and Exeter, revealed larvae of flies that could easily transmit infections to humans. Another study from the University of Cambridge showed that the spread of intestinal parasites in the ancient Romans did not diminish, but rather grew, with public toilets, perhaps also due to the habit of using the residuals of common baths as fertilizers.
Latin literature sometimes mentions demons associated with the context of latrines, and it is not difficult to imagine why: insects, rodents and other unpleasant creatures had to wander around the houses and public toilets, attracted by waste. Near the sessions there must also be sudden explosions, due to the methane generated by the excrement, without mentioning the rich catalogue of infections and parasites to which we have mentioned. So the shortest time was spent at the toilet: this explains the lack of graffiti in the latrines compared to other Roman environments.
Graphic impression of Roman kitchen with latrine on the side
Herculaneum street pipe