16. The Roman World Had Public Restrooms and Flushing Toilets
Ancient Crete’s Minoans developed toilets that could flush waste in the second millennium, BC. For centuries, that remained a luxury available only to the elites, until an economic boom and increased prosperity in the first millennium BC introduced flush toilets to middle-class houses. Before long, some ancient Greek cities had large scale latrines that were open to the general public. Those early public restrooms consisted of large rooms with bench seats, connected to a drainage system. It was the Romans, however, who made the most use of flush technology and public latrines in the ancient world.
By the first century BC, public restrooms were common in Roman cities and towns. They did not have private stalls: the facility consisted of a room lined with stone or wooden bench seats, with toilet openings over a sewer. Everybody – of both sexes – did their business in front of everybody else. To clean themselves, they used reusable sponges on a stick. The sponges were “cleaned” between uses by dipping them into small gutters with running water that flowed in front of the toilet seats. Many Roman houses also had private flush toilets that were connected to the public drainage system.
