Roman Bathrooms

[Guest]

In ancient Rome, going to toilet was a social event. You would gather your friends, family and neigbours and go together to public latrines like this:

You see the all the sticks lying on the ground, for now just remember those. I will come back to it.

Now some real photos of Latrines of the Roman era:

You would sit on the holes doing your business. There will be flowing water under the seat. You can have an engaged conversation with the person sitting next. And obviously while fully watching, hearing and smelling everyone’s business.

Now one more photo of a public toilet.

Now back to the stick on the ground. The stick would have a sponge at the end. Which the Romans will soak in water and clean their bum. Well, you did not expect them to have toilet papers or bidets, did you?

I am gonna go out on a limb and say we, modern people may find this quite weird.

https://www.quora.com/What-things-from-years-ago-would-be-immediately-seen-as-creepy-or-inappropriate-today

[Queen Esther]

The  1. Pic. is  for  laughing,  yes    But  the  other  two...   NO,  NEVER  together  with family,  friends,  neighbors  or  other  people !  The  neighbors  around  me,  please  NOOO !  I  would  go  to  night-time...  alone ~~~~~

On  the  Maldives,  the  inhabitants  also  not  using  paper  I  saw,  they  using  only  water  for  cleaning !  They're  very  clean  people.  But  I  got  paper, when  I  was  invited. 

I  prefer this kind of  business better alone, not a pleasent  meeting, Ugh

The  little  business  is  very  different, with  family  or  best  friends  its  ok.  

Everyone  has  another  privacy....   I  learned,  men  in  a  barrelhouse  or  similar,  they  like  it,  go  together  for  p.....   seems  NO  problem,  haha  

To  Jesus'  times, people  gone  to  outside, into  the  nature, alone  -  that  was  perfect,  and  a  great  idea  from  Jehovah.  YES,  not  so  easy  imagine  that  all  of  the  past....

I'm  happy  with  our  modern  toilets  and  hope,  we  get  it  also  in  the  NW

Thanks  for  your  Roman  Bathrooms  post,  ....  VERY  COOL !

[Arauna]

Saw such toilets in Italy and in Portugal.....  drain systems were quite advanced with water flowing.  They washed the sponges in the little pools in front of them.  I am not sure if people kept their own sponges or it was public sponges because public sponges could lead to the spread of disease.  Must have been hard to come down from a 3 or 4 storey building (your rooms) to go to the toilet at night with a little oil lamp.... Thanks for modern conveniences!  

Yes, privacy was not cherished. The poor all had public facilities and the rich had slaves which could gape at all your private events going on....

We cannot imagine the life style...