18. Ancient Romans Had Flush Toilets and Public Restrooms
The Minoans of Ancient Crete 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 the spread of prosperity in the first millennium BC allowed the introduction of 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, many Roman houses had private flush toilets that were connected to the public drainage system, and public restrooms were common in cities and towns. They did not have private stalls, however: the facility consisted of a room lined with stone or wooden bench seats, with toilet openings over a sewer. Everybody – of both genders – 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.
