Cripple. History Major. Irritable and in constant pain. Vaguely Left-Wing.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • Do we know for certain they actually wiped with the sponge?

    Fairly certain. There are alternate theories, but the most accepted one is still that the sponge was used for wiping.

    A sponge-on-a-stick having better reach from the seated position than a small jug, and no risk of breaking upon dropping nor theft.

    … sponge-on-a-stick feels pretty stealable, at least as much as a jug. Wealthier folk would sometimes have a slave carry a personal ass-sponge for them in case they had to use the public latrines while out, which seems, to me, also to point towards the ass-wiping interpretation.

    I feel like the disgust at the idea of smearing feces between strangers would be just as strong 2000 years ago as it is today.

    1. You would be surprised at what different standards the past had. The Romans, indisputably, swished urine to whiten their teeth. And not their own urine either.

    2. Hygiene, in general, was not viewed as strictly as we do in the modern day. Obsessive hygiene is a product of the mid-late 19th century AD and germ theory, and even then, it took quite some time to catch on in the general population. There’s a short satirical poem(? if memory serves) in the time of the Roman Empire making fun of a guy who shows up to the bath-house with an unwashed ass. While this shows that such a thing was unusual and worth mocking, it also shows that it’s the kind of thing that could happen. You may be sharing ass-water with a guy in the public baths, it’s just life.

    3. You are supposed to give it a good rinse.






  • Hermogenes, it seems to me, Ponticus, is as great a thief of napkins as Massa was of money. Even though you watch his right hand, and hold his left, he will find means to abstract your napkin. With like subtilty does the breath of the stag draw out the cold snake; and the rainbow exhale the waters from the clouds. Lately, while a respite was implored for Myrinus, who had been wounded in a conflict, Hermogenes contrived to filch four napkins. Just as the praetor was going to drop his white napkin, to start the horses in the circus, Hermogenes stole it. When at last nobody brought a napkin with him, for fear of thefts, Hermogenes stole the cloth from the table.

    And should there be nothing of this kind to steal, Hermogenes does not hesitate to detach the ornaments from the couches, or the feet from the tables. However immoderate may be the heat in the theatres, the awnings are withdrawn when Hermogenes makes his appearance. The sailors, in trembling haste, proceed to furl their sails whenever Hermogenes shows himself in the harbour. The bareheaded priests of Isis, clad in linen vestments, and the choristers who play the sistrum, betake themselves to flight when Hermogenes comes to worship.

    Hermogenes never took a napkin to dinner; Hermogenes never came away from a dinner without one.