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Pythagoras’ Greed Cup and Other Lesser-Known Ancient World Facts

Khalid Elhassan July 31, 2020 34 min

Roman Empire - Roman emperor — The assassination of Caligula. Quora

35. Piss Pots Were Big in Ancient Rome

Painting on a wall in Pompeii, depicting the process of cleaning with urine. Ciencia Historica

In addition to cleaning their mouths, ancient Romans put pee to a variety of other uses. The laundry trade, for example, relied heavily on stale urine. In giant public laundries known as fullonica, dirty clothes were placed in vats, where they were soaked in stale urine. Then workers – usually slaves – would stomp on them until the stains came out.

Drawing based on the Pompeiian wall painting. Quora

Other industries, such as hide tanning and agriculture, used not only urine, but urine mixed with feces. Urine was so important in ancient Romans’ daily lives and their economy, that collecting pee was a big business. As a result, public chamber pots or big vats where anybody could stop and take a piss, were commonplace.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.