
Roman Plumbing: Overrated - diodorus
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/ancient-roman-toilets-gross/423072/?single_page=true
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beloch
Romans didn't view bathroom functions to be, as our name for them applies,
something to be done in a place dedicated for that purpose. If you were a
Roman citizen out on the town with your buddies, you wouldn't peel off one at
a time to use a washroom. You'd all sit down together on a public urinal and
keep the conversation going as you dropped your deuces. Many Roman houses did
have toilets, but they were usually in the _kitchen_ , of all places! This
flies in the face of modern notions about sanitary food preparation, but also
in the face of privacy. If you were Roman, taking a dump was, more often than
not, done in full view of others.

One thing that really is mind-bending about the ancient Romans is their total
lack of privacy. You went to toilet in public, with friends. You went to the
toilet in your home as your slaves prepared food around you. You had sex with
a slave standing over you in case you got thirsty and needed to send for
water. Being alone for any reason was a totally foreign concept. Slaves talk.
Anything you did was public knowledge in fairly short order. For this reason,
Romans also really didn't have the concept of the self-defined man. For
example, donating anonymously to feel good about yourself was simply not done.
Who you were was what people thought of you.

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simplicio
The paper doesn't mention population density, but I'd think that would an
important part of the story. Keeping infection rates at the same level in
urbanized, densely populated areas as is present in places where people live
in more widespread, small agricultural communities seems like a pretty
important deal.

It's hard to imagine the larger Roman cities, and Rome itself, could exist
without some manner of legal and technological organization to manage
sanitation.

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mariusz79
Maybe Roman toilets are overrated, but 2000 years later, countries like India
still don't have them.

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yareally
India was the birthplace of plumbing, though the Romans perfected it.

 _Standardized earthen plumbing pipes with broad flanges making use of asphalt
for preventing leakages appeared in the urban settlements of the Indus Valley
Civilization by 2700 B.C.[5]_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_water_supply_and_sa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_water_supply_and_sanitation)

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danbruc
I am not in the position to judge the situation in India but invention does
not necessarily imply widespread adoption. Or adoption may change over time,
for example by not keep up with population growth.

