fun facts about the roman empire, a thread 🪡:
tw / drowning , abandonment
the romans believed that rome was started in 753 BC by the brothers romulus and remus, twin sons of the god of war, mars. the twins were raised by a wolf, and lived to defeat the king of alba longa, who left them in a river to drown as babies.
tw / murder
the twins successfully killed the king and founded their own city. the brothers couldn't agree on the name of the city, so they fought to death about it. romulus won the fight by killing his brother and became the first king of rome, named after him.
half of the year were holidays (approximately 211 holidays), so the government had to make sure that people would have entertainment during these days. if not, they would riot for fun. this is why the government funded 'panem et circenses', bread and games.
the (free) games mainly consisted of gladiator fights and little games. during the holidays bread was free because the people couldn't afford it due to the high costs of life in rome. if the people didn't get free bread, they would riot which was an inconvenience for the emperor.
tw / vomit , throw up
in ancient rome, it was common to vomit between meals to make place for more food
tw / death , murder
it's estimated that throughout the battles at the colosseum, over 500,000 people and over 1,000,000 animals were killed. the last documented gladiator fight was in 435 AD.
tw / incest
roman emperor gaius caligula did some questionable things; making his horse a senator, having conversations with the moon, and committing incest with his sisters.
cw / nsfw
in ancient rome, flamingo tongue was a popular delicacy. another dish many people loved was mice drowned in wine, covered in honey. other questionable foods were pig nipple cracklings and cum cake. the ejaculate would come out of the cake like lava.
emperor nero is notorious for supposedly (not confirmed!!) singing and playing the fiddle while rome was burning to the ground during the great fire of rome. this made many people believe that he started the fire.
women in ancient rome dyed their hair red and blonde by using goat fat and beech wood ashes.
roman emperor trajan built the first ever shopping mall. the mall had multiple levels and over 150 outlets that sold anything from food to clothes.
tw / blood
cw / pregnancy , fertility
when a woman was having trouble with getting pregnant, a doctor would prescribe gladiator blood to increase fertility. gladiator blood was used for several other medical issues in ancient rome.
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