Did You Ever Wonder How Public Toilets Worked in Ancient Rome?

16 Comments on Did You Ever Wonder How Public Toilets Worked in Ancient Rome?

1. The latrines we used in basic training in the Army were open bay. It took some getting used to.

   Also, the urinals in the men’s room at the old Tiger Stadium were just a trough.

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2. Same with the old Cleveland municipal stadium. The troughs were changed out sometime in the 80s. i never saw it myself, but i heard a lot of stories about drunken fights where the loser ended up in the trough.

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3. loshonhora – Cleveland municipal stadium – and on a hot day wearing shorts at a weekend baseball game it was tough to avoid the splash-back!

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4. From “Ancient Rome” to San Francisco. We’ve come a long way.

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5. I assume the River Tiber plays a key role.

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6. Oh, and the loser who ended up in the trough… I think that was at a 70s Browns game. We were playing the Steelers and a Steelers fan wearing a Steelers leather jacket was passed out (for whatever reason) so a couple of Browns fans put him in the trough where only God knows how many people pissed on him!

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7. “…the urban equivalent of Roman foricae were “often built over bridges and on quays to facilitate the evacuation of human waste that went directly into running water.”

   …one of the lesser-known risks for this arrangement…

   https://youtu.be/Z3f5ROZQlPA?si=tFq0ruXac_bJqexz

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8. They still do it that way in Jamaica.
   Except not as classy.

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9. Oh, yeah, you had to buy sheets of toilet paper.
   (in Jamaica, not Rome)

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10. “and on a hot day wearing shorts at a weekend baseball game it was tough to avoid the splash-back!”

    Giggle… You weren’t avoiding splash back with long pants on either. Urinals are kind of gross, but less gross than nowhere to pee.

    I’ve seen a few troughs in my day but the most difficult one I was presented with was being told to pee in the bathroom sink at an over-crowded party when I was 19. The mental block took me a minute or two to get past.

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11. I can still remember out houses in the winter, not a pretty thing. Use to have to keep a crow-bar in the place when it froze up-ward.

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12. ^^^ Ass Gaskets are good for that!

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13. Atlanta Motor Speedway still rocks the troughs.They still let you bring your own coolers in there. Don’t go in the stalls.

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14. @ womky honky
    In warmer weather you could smell the bathroom at Atlanta Motor Speedway before you could see the door.

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15. Go to every office in the House and Senate and you will find out where crap originates.

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16. Did You Ever Wonder How Public Toilets Worked in Ancient Rome?

    No, I can’t say that I have.

    Did you ever wonder where Royal Purple dye came from?

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