Every Day Life in Ancient Rome was More Scandalous than Historians Let On

1. Augustus Exited the Scene in Style

After Caesar’s assassination, the office of dictator was formally abolished. In 23 BC, the Senate offered to revive the office and make Augustus dictator. Augustus was well aware of his uncle’s fate and wanted to avoid it, so he declined. However, he accepted the executive powers of a consul for life, as well as those of a tribune – whose person was theoretically inviolate. Thus, Augustus effectively assumed the powers of a dictator for life, without the title. That setup was passed on to his successors. The Roman Empire ushered in by Augustus as dictator in fact but not in name, replaced the Roman Republic.

The new state was a stable, autocratic, and centralized de-facto monarchy, whose founding kicked off a period known as the Pax Romana. It brought the Roman world two centuries of peace and prosperity. Augustus held power from 43 BC, first in conjunction with Mark Antony until 31 BC, and thereafter alone, until his death in 14 AD. As he lay on his deathbed, Augustus compared the role he had played as emperor to that of an actor on a stage. His last words to those gathered around his deathbed were: “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.“

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Ancient Origins – Ancient Romans Brushed Their Teeth With Urine

AV Club – Wikipedia Erected a Page to Explain Ancient Rome’s Fascination With the Phallus

Ball, Warwick – Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (2000)

Best Glam Health and Lifestyle – Gladiator Sweat and Other Surprising Aphrodisiacs of the Ancient World

Daily Beast – How a Fart Killed 10,000 People

Dawson, Jim – Who Cut the Cheese? A Cultural History of the Fart (1998)

Eck, Werner – The Age of Augustus (2002)

Folk Texts – Breaking Wind: Legendary Farts

Goldsworthy, Adrian – Augustus: First Emperor of Rome (2014)

Goldsworthy, Adrian – The Complete Roman Army (2003)

Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1932) – Cremation and Burial in the Roman Empire

History Collection – Celebrities in the Ancient World

Kang, Lydia – Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything (2017)

Mayo Clinic – Lead Poisoning

Med Page Today – Gladiator Blood and Liquid Gold: Good for What Ails You?

Messy Nessy Chic – When the Phallus Was Fashion

Nature, May 24^th, 2016 – The Secret History of Ancient Toilets

Parkin, Tim, and Pomeroy, Arthur – Roman Social History (2007)

Plutarch – The Parallel Lives: The Life of Tiberius Gracchus

Scullard, Howard Hayes – From the Gracchi to Nero (1982)

Severy, Beth – Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (2003)

Ranker – What it Was Like to Live in Ancient Rome During its Golden Age

Rowell, Henry Thompson – Rome in the Augustan Age (1962)

Sherwood, Andrew N., et al – Greek and Roman Technology, a Sourcebook of Translated Greek and Roman Texts (2019)

Suetonius – The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Augustus

Vintage News – The Romans Used Urine For Mouthwash

Washington Post, February 17^th, 2016 – Lead Poisoning and the Fall of Rome

Watson, George Ronald – The Roman Soldier (1969)

World History Encyclopedia – The Roman Funeral