1. In ancient Rome, if a patient died during an operation, the doctor's hands were cut off.

2. In Rome during the Republic, a brother had the legal right to punish his sister for disobedience by having sex with her.

3. In ancient Rome, a group of slaves belonging to one person was called... a surname

4. Among the first fifteen Roman emperors, only Claudius did not have love affairs with men. This was considered unusual behavior and was ridiculed by poets and writers, who said: by loving only women, Claudius himself became effeminate.

5. In the Roman army, soldiers lived in tents of 10 people. At the head of each tent was a senior person, who was called... the dean.
6. B Ancient world, as in the Middle Ages, there was no toilet paper. The Romans used a stick with a cloth at the end, which was dipped in a bucket of water.

7. In Rome, rich citizens lived in houses - mansions. The guests knocked on the door of the house with a knocker and a door ring. On the threshold of the house there was a mosaic inscription “salve” (“welcome”). Some houses were guarded by slaves tied to a ring in the wall instead of dogs.

8. In ancient Rome, noble gentlemen used curly-haired boys as napkins at feasts. Or rather, of course, they only used their hair, which they wiped their hands on. For boys it was considered incredible luck to get into the service of a high-ranking Roman as such a “table boy.”

9. Some women in Rome drank turpentine (despite the risk of fatal poisoning) because it made their urine smell like roses.

10. The tradition of the wedding kiss came to us from the Roman Empire, where the newlyweds kissed at the end of the wedding, only then the kiss had a different meaning - it meant a kind of seal under the oral marriage contract. So the marriage deal was valid

11. The popular expression “return to one’s native Penates,” meaning a return to one’s home, to the hearth, is more correctly pronounced differently: “return to one’s native Penates.” The fact is that the Penates are the Roman guardian gods of the hearth, and each family usually had images of two Penates next to the hearth.

12. The wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, Messalina, was so lustful and depraved that she amazed her contemporaries who were accustomed to many things. According to historians Tacitus and Suetonius, she not only ran a brothel in Rome, but also worked there as a prostitute, personally serving clients. She even set up a competition with another famous prostitute and won it, servicing 50 clients versus 25.

13. The month of August, which was previously called Sextillis (sixth), was renamed in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus. January was named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces: one looking back - in last year, and the second looked forward - into the future. The name of the month of April comes from the Latin word "aperire", which means to open, possibly due to the fact that flower buds open during this month.

14. In ancient Rome, prostitution not only was not illegal, but was also considered a common profession. Priestesses of love were not covered with shame and contempt, so they did not need to hide their status. They walked freely around the city, offering their services, and to make it easier to distinguish them from the crowd, prostitutes wore shoes on high heels. No one else wore heels, so as not to mislead those who wanted to buy sex.

15. In Ancient Rome, there were special bronze coins to pay for the services of prostitutes - spintrii. They depicted erotic scenes - as a rule, people in various positions during sexual intercourse.

What would your name be in ancient Rome?

A system of names is needed to identify people in any society, and even in our free times it obeys certain rules. It was easier for people to decide on the names of their children - rules and traditions greatly narrowed the room for maneuver in this area.

If there was no male heir in the family, the Romans often adopted one of their relatives, who, when entering into an inheritance, took the personal name, family name and cognomen of the adopter, and retained his own surname as an agnomen with the suffix “-an”. For example, the destroyer of Carthage was born Publius Aemilius Paulus, but was adopted by his cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio, whose son and heir died. So Publius Aemilius Paulus became Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus and, after he destroyed Carthage, received the agnomen Africanus the Younger to distinguish himself from his grandfather Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Then, after the war in modern Spain, he received another agnomen - Numantine. Gaius Octavius, having been adopted by his grandmother's brother Gaius Julius Caesar and having entered into an inheritance, became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian, and subsequently also received the agnomen Augustus.

Slave names

The unequal position of slaves was emphasized by the fact that they were addressed by their personal names. If formality was necessary, after the slave’s personal name, as a rule, family name his owner in the genitive case and with the abbreviation ser or s (from the word serv, i.e. slave) and/or occupation. When selling a slave the nomen or cognomen of its former owner was retained by him with the suffix “-an”.

If a slave was set free, then he received both pronomen and nomen - respectively, the names of the one who freed him, and as cognomen - his personal name or profession. For example, in the trial against Roscius the Younger, his intercessor Marcus Tullius Cicero essentially accused Sulla’s freedman, Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus. Between the nomen and cognomen of freedmen, the abbreviations l or lib were written from the word libertin (freedman, freed).

Patricians and plebeians

The widest division was between the patricians, those who could trace their ancestry back to the first Senate established by Romulus, and the plebeians, all other citizens. Initially, everything government agencies were open only to patricians, and they could not marry with other classes. Modern politicians and authors (Coriolanus, for example) in the Royal period and in the Early Republic thought of the plebeians as a crowd barely capable of rational thought. However, the plebeians who had their labor taken away had the opportunity to bring about change. After a series of social protests, they received the right to hold office and appoint a tribune of the plebeians, and the banning law was repealed mixed marriage. The office of plebeian tribune, founded in 494 BC, was the main legal defense against the arbitrariness of the patricians. The tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from the patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. The tribune of the plebeians had immunity, and he was obliged to keep his house open during the entire period of his official duties.

After these changes, the distinction between patrician status and plebeian status became less important. Over time, some patrician families found themselves in predicament, while some plebeian families rose in status and the composition of the ruling class changed. Some patricians, such as Publius Clodius Pulcher, petitioned to gain plebeian status, partly to gain the position of tribune, but also to reduce the burden of taxes. Rome, as a participant in world trade, was undergoing numerous changes: those who could not adapt to the new commercial facts of Roman society often found themselves in the position of having to marry the daughters of wealthier plebeians or even freedmen. People who achieved higher positions, such as Gaius Marius or Cicero, were known as novus homo (" new person"). They and their descendants became nobiles (“noble”), while remaining plebeians. Some religious offices remained reserved for patricians, but in general the distinction was largely a matter of prestige.

Classes according to property status

At the same time, the census divided citizens into six composite classes, according to their wealth status. The richest were the senatorial class, those who had at least 1,000,000 sesterces. Membership in the senatorial class did not necessarily entail membership in the Senate. The wealth of the senatorial class was based on the ownership of large agricultural lands, and members of this class were prohibited from participating in commercial activities. With a few exceptions, all political positions were filled by men from the senatorial class. Below them were the equites ("horses" or "knights"), with 400,000 sesterces, who could engage in trade and formed an influential business class. Below the horsemen were three more classes of property-owning citizens; and finally the proletarians, who had no property.

Initially the census was supposed to determine military service, then limited to the first five classes of citizens (collectively adsidui), including equestrians - those who could afford to keep a war horse. The sixth class, the proletarians, could not serve until the military reforms of Gaius Marius in 108 BC. e. During the Republic, the census classes also served as Rome's electoral college. Citizens in each class were registered in centuries, and at elections a single vote was cast from each century; however, higher classes had more centuries, each with fewer participants. This meant that the rich man's voice had higher value than the voice of the poor.

Non-citizens

Women

Freeborn women belonged to their fathers' social class until marriage, after which they joined their husband's class. Freed women could marry, but marriages with senators or equestrians were prohibited, and they did not join their husband's class. Slaves were allowed to marry, depending on whether their owners would allow it.

Foreigners

Latin law, a form of citizenship with fewer rights than full Roman citizenship, was initially applied to the allied cities of Latium and gradually spread throughout the empire. Latin citizens had rights under Roman law, but did not vote, although their chief magistrates could become full citizens. Freeborn foreigners were known as peregrines, and there were laws regulating their behavior and disputes. The differences between Latin law and Roman law continued until 212 AD. BC, when Caracalla extended full Roman citizenship to all freeborn men in the empire.

Freedmen

Freedmen (liberti) were freed slaves who had a form of Latin law; their freeborn children were full citizens. Their status changed from generation to generation, throughout the period of the Republic; Titus Livy states that freedmen in the Early Republic mostly joined the lower subclasses of the plebeians, while Juvenal, writing during the Empire, when financial aspects alone dictated the division of classes, describes freedmen who were accepted into the equestrian class.

Freedmen made up the majority of civil servants during the early Empire. Many became extremely wealthy as a result of bribes, fraud, or other forms of corruption, or were gifted large fortunes by the emperor they served. Other freedmen participated in the trade, amassing vast fortunes that were often rivaled only by those of the wealthiest patricians. Most freedmen, however, joined the plebeian classes, and were often farmers or merchants.

Although freedmen were not allowed to vote during the Republic and early Empire, children of freedmen were automatically granted citizen status. For example, the poet Horace was the son of a freedman from Venusia in southern Italy.

Many of Juvenal's satires contain angry denunciations of the claims of wealthy freedmen, some of whom "with the chalk of the slave market still at their heels." Although himself also the son of a freedman, Juvenal primarily saw these successful men as “new rich men” who boasted too much of their (often ill-gotten) wealth.

Slaves

Slaves (servi, "servi") were mostly descended from debtors and from prisoners of war, especially women and children captured during military campaigns in Italy, Spain and Carthage. During the Late Republic and Empire, most slaves came from newly conquered areas: Gaul (known as France today), Great Britain, North Africa, the Middle East, and what is now eastern Turkey.

Slaves initially had no rights. However, as time passed, the Senate, and later the emperors, established that legislation must protect the life and health of slaves. But until slavery was abolished, Roman men routinely used their slaves for sexual purposes. Horace, for example, writes about his love for his young, attractive slave. The children of slaves were themselves slaves. But in many cases, testators (for example, Tacitus) freed their children, considering them to be the legal heirs.

Decline of statehood Ancient Greece

From the second half V - II Art. to n. e. - the period of Hellenism, the beginning of the decline of the statehood of Ancient Greece. Interest in political issues is weakening. Then the policy states of Ancient Greece became dependent on Macedonia. In the teachings of Epicurus, the Epicureans, the Stoics and other philosophical schools, one feels a certain alienation, a withdrawal from politics, political phenomena, and events. Philosopher-materialist Epicurus (341-270 AD) denied the intervention of gods in vital, worldly affairs and proceeded from the recognition of the eternity of matter, which has internal sources movements. The ethics of Epicurus are characterized by apoliticality, preaching non-participation in public life. The purpose of knowledge is the liberation of man from ignorance, lack of education and superstition, fear of gods and death. Epicurus substantiates rational pleasure, which is based on the individualistic ideal of avoiding suffering and achieving a calm, joyful state of mind. The most reasonable thing for a person is not activity, but peace - ataraxia. Epicurus emphasizes that the main objective state power and the basis of political relations are to guarantee people safety, help them overcome fear, and teach them not to harm each other. It follows that the state and law are the result, the consequence of an agreement between people for the purpose of common benefit and mutual security. Justice, which follows from nature, is a contract of benefit with the aim of not injuring one another and not suffering harm. Justice is a socially contractual phenomenon. The activities and laws of the state must correspond to ideas about justice; the content of justice is provided for by an agreement between people on shared benefits. According to the socio-political content, Epicurus's concept of the contractual origin of justice, state and laws is subjective, democratic. Each of the participants, aware of contractual cohabitation, did not have any privileges over others. In Epicurus' Ethics, the form of moderate democracy is that the rule of law is combined with the greatest possible measure of freedom and autonomy of individuals.

Problems of statehood in Ancient Greece occupy a significant place in the teaching of the historian and politician Hellenism Polybius

(about 200-120 AD), who believed that this or that structure of the state plays a certain role in all relationships, the relationships of people in society. C" clarification historical process Polybius is based on the Stoic ideas about the cyclical development of the world. The founder of the Stoic school, Zeno of Kition (about 336-264 BC) believed that the universe is governed by fate, by the highest divine Reason. The world is dominated by the strictest necessity, excluding free will. A person has no choice but to submit to his inevitable fate. Natural law is a universal global law, the state is a world community, public life exists by nature and is guided by fate, Fate. In nature, a living organism goes through growth, prosperity and decline. Society also goes through periods of growth, prosperity and decline. When completed, the processes are repeated. The development of society is an endless circular movement, during which forms of government change, transform into one another. From the middle of IV century AD, the polis states of Ancient Greece became dependent on Macedonia and fell into decay.

Political doctrines in Ancient Rome

The political teachings of Ancient Rome had much in common with the political teachings of Ancient Greece. This is explained by the fact that states were formed here on the basis of similar socio-economic and class relations, with deep continuity in the development of their culture. Political teachings in Ancient Rome were formed on the basis of philosophical schools transferred from Greece. And the novelty and originality of the political views of Roman thinkers lay in the fact that they put forward ideas that corresponded to the relations of a mature slave-owning society. Changes in political theory, conditioned by the development of relations of private property and slavery.

One of the ideologists of the Roman aristocracy, famous orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) in the dialogues “On the State” and “On the Laws,” following Plato, he outlined the doctrine of the state. In the spirit of the teachings of the aristocracy, he asserts that the state grows naturally from seven, that government awarded to sages capable of approaching the comprehension of the world's divine Mind. If people lived according to the behests and customs of their fathers, then the state could become eternal. The purpose of the state is to protect the property interests of citizens. The rights of wise and worthy citizens, including the right to property, flow directly from nature, from natural law. Mark Cicero argues that the state is not only a natural organism, but also an artificial formation, a “popular installation”, which recognizes the equality of all people by nature and the possibility of achieving wisdom by everyone who receives an education. Property and social differences between people do not arise from birth, but rather private property relations that are established in society. Private property does not exist by nature, but arises either on the basis of ancient ownership, or ownership by law and consent, etc. Positively assessing significant wealth and contracts in the life of society, Cicero comes to the conclusion that the state rests on credit, the people hand over their rights to the monarch as credit for the fair management of society.

An important place in the history of socio-political thought in Ancient Rome is occupied by a representative of Roman Stoicism Lucius Antaeus Seneca (4 AD - 65 AD). Numerous works, and, in particular, largest work"Letters to Lucilius" have survived in the original to the present day. Preserving the pantheism of the Greek Stoics, i.e. viewing the world as a single material and rational whole, Lucius Seneca develops primarily moral and ethical problems, with the right decision which achieve peace and inviolability of spirit. Without denying slavery as a socio-political institution, Seneca at the same time defended the human dignity of slaves and called for humane treatment of them as spiritual equals. Inevitable and divine in nature, the law of fate takes on the meaning of a role-based law of nature, to which all human relations are subordinated, including the state and the law. The Universe is a natural state with its own natural law. People are members of such a state, according to the laws of nature. Some state entities- random and significant for the entire human race. Understanding the law of fate (natural law, divine spirit, in fact, lies in resisting chance, including belonging to one or another small state, recognize the need for world laws and be guided by them. And Seneca tries to connect his mainly individualistic ethics with the tasks of society and the state. Seneca's ethics had a great influence on the formation of Christian ideology.

The growing crisis of the slave system led to a sharp deterioration in the situation of the working people. The powerful state machine of the Roman Empire brutally suppressed the uprisings of slaves and free poor people. The powerlessness of the masses led to increased religious sentiments and hopes for help from fantastic forces. In I Art. Christianity arises - a movement of the oppressed, which first acted as the religion of slaves, the poor and powerless peoples, submissive or dispersed by Rome. Christians were waiting for the coming of the Messiah, Christ the Savior, God's messenger, who would destroy the kingdom of Evil, throw off the oppressors "Gehenna of Fire", establish the kingdom promised by the prophets, where all people would be equal, and the like. Christianity is gaining momentum. The rapid flowering of political thought in Ancient Rome occurred during the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-568), who completed the codification of Roman law. The fact is that during the reign of Justinian, a huge number of laws, verdicts, constitutions and works of Roman lawyers, outside any system, etc., were piled up, which were partially outdated. Some laws and verdicts contradicted each other and needed systematization; Modernization was also required by civil and imperial praetor law. On the initiative of Justinian, the codification of laws was carried out.

Usually, Ancient Rome is associated among ordinary people with famous myths and ancient architecture. Heroic men in golden armor and chariots, charming ladies in tunics and democratic emperors ate grapes in their lounge chairs. But the reality in Ancient Rome, as historians testify, was not so rosy and glamorous. Sanitation and medicine were at a rudimentary level, and this could not but affect the life of Roman citizens.

1. Mouth rinse

In Ancient Rome there was so little need developed business that the government has introduced special taxes on the sale of urine. There were people who made a living only by collecting urine. Some collected it from public urinals, while others went from house to house with a large vat and asked people to fill it. Today it is even difficult to imagine ways to use collected urine. For example, her clothes were cleaned.

The workers filled the vat with clothes and then poured urine on them. After this, one person climbed into the vat and trampled on the clothes to wash them. But this is nothing compared to how the Romans brushed their teeth. In some areas, people used urine as a mouthwash. It was claimed that it made teeth shiny and white.

2. General sponge

In fact, when going to the toilet, the Romans took with them special combs designed to comb out lice. And the worst happened after people relieved themselves in great need. Each public toilet, which was usually used by dozens of other people at the same time, had only one sponge on a stick, which was used for wiping. However, the sponge was never cleaned and was used by all visitors.

3. Methane explosions

Every time a person entered a Roman toilet, he risked death. The first problem was that creatures living in the sewer system often crawled out and bit people while they relieved themselves. Even more worst problem consisted of the accumulation of methane, which sometimes accumulated in such quantities that it ignited and exploded.

Toilets were so dangerous that people resorted to magic to try to stay alive. The walls of many of the toilets were covered with magical spells designed to ward off demons. Also in some of the toilets there were statues of the goddess of fortune, Fortuna, to whom people prayed when entering.

4.Blood of gladiators

There were many eccentricities in Roman medicine. Several Roman authors wrote that after gladiatorial fights, the blood of dead gladiators was often collected and sold as medicine. The Romans believed that gladiator blood could cure epilepsy and drank it as medicine.

And this was still a relatively civilized example. In other cases, the livers of dead gladiators were completely cut out and eaten raw. Oddly enough, some Roman doctors actually report that this treatment worked. They claim to have seen people who drank human blood and were cured of epileptic seizures.

5. Cosmetics made from dead flesh

While defeated gladiators became a cure for epileptics, the victors became a source of aphrodisiacs. In Roman times, soap was quite rare, so athletes cleaned themselves by covering their bodies with oil and scraping off dead skin cells, as well as sweat and dirt, with a tool called a strigil.

As a rule, all this dirt was simply thrown away, but not in the case of gladiators. Their scrapings of dirt and dead skin were bottled and sold to women as an aphrodisiac. This mixture was also often added to face cream, which women used in the hope that they would become irresistible to men.

6. Erotic art

The volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii has left the city perfectly preserved for archaeologists. When scientists first began excavating Pompeii, they found things that were so obscene that they were hidden from the public for long years. The city was full of erotic art in the craziest forms.

For example, one could see a statue of Pan copulating with a goat. In addition, the city was full of prostitutes, which was reflected on... the sidewalks. And today you can visit the ruins of Pompeii and see what the Romans saw every day - penises carved into the roads, which pointed the way to the nearest brothel.

7. Penises for good luck

The topic of penises was quite popular in Rome, unlike modern society. Their images could be found literally everywhere, they were even often worn around the neck. In Rome, it was considered fashionable for young men to wear copper penises on a necklace. It was believed that they were not only fashionable and stylish, but could also “prevent harm” that could be caused to the people who wore them.

Also, penises were painted “for good luck” in dangerous places to protect travelers. For example, images of penises were painted almost everywhere on rickety and rickety bridges in Rome.

8. Exposure of the buttocks

Rome is unique in that for the first time in history, written evidence of the exposure of the buttocks was recorded. The Jewish priest Josephus first described the display of the buttocks during the riot in Jerusalem. During Passover, Roman soldiers were sent to the walls of Jerusalem to watch for an uprising.

One of these soldiers, according to Josephus, “turned his back to the city wall, lowered his trousers, bent down and uttered a shameless sound.” The Jews were furious. They demanded that the soldier be punished and then began throwing stones at the Roman soldiers. Soon, riots broke out in Jerusalem, but the gesture was preserved for thousands of years.

9. Fake vomiting

The Romans took the concept of excess in everything to a new level. According to Seneca, the Romans at banquets ate until they simply “couldn’t eat anymore,” and then artificially induced vomiting in order to continue eating. Some people vomited into bowls that they kept near the table, but others did not “bother” and vomited directly onto the floor next to the table, after which they continued to eat.

10. Goat manure drink

The Romans didn't have bandages, but they found an ingenious way to stop bleeding from wounds. According to Pliny the Elder, people in Rome covered their abrasions and wounds with goat dung. Pliny wrote that the best goat droppings were collected during the spring and dried, but emergency situations Fresh goat droppings were also suitable. But this is far from the most disgusting way the Romans used this “product”.

Charioteers drank it as a source of energy. They either diluted boiled goat droppings in vinegar or stirred it into their drinks. Moreover, it was not only poor people who did this. According to Pliny, the greatest fanatic of drinking goat dung was the Emperor Nero.