Romans have long been viewed as one of the more cleanly ancient societies. They had heated public baths which people visited regularly, public multi-seat latrines, sewage systems, and laws crafted to keep their towns free from garbage and excrement, among other things.
But new archaeological research out of Cambridge indicates that, despite all these sanitary measures, the Romans weren’t as clean as we had thought. In fact, their levels of parasites were actually higher than members of the preceding Iron Age.
According to the paper, which is published in Parasitology, researcher Piers Mitchell collected evidence from various excavations: ancient latrines, human burials, combs, textiles, and coprolites (fossilized feces). After studying the materials for the presence of parasites, Mitchell discovered that the Romans had a large increase in their numbers of intestinal parasites, like whipworm, roundworm, and Entamoeba histolytica, which causes dysentery.
He also made another surprising discovery: Despite a culture centered on bathhouses, ectoparasites like lice and fleas were as ubiquitous among the Romans as the Viking and medieval populations—where bathing was much less frequent. In fact, given the fact that special Roman combs seemingly for the removal of lice have been uncovered, delousing may have been a daily practice across the Empire.
A medical mystery
“Modern research has shown that toilets, clean drinking water and removing faeces from the streets all decrease risk of infectious disease and parasites,” said Mitchell in a statement. “So we might expect the prevalence of faecal oral parasites such as whipworm and roundworm to drop in Roman times – yet we find a gradual increase. The question is why?”
Mitchell himself offered several viable reasons. First, the bathhouses themselves could have been the culprit. Depending on the bathhouse, the water was not changed frequently, allowing layers of human dirt and cosmetics to cling to the surfaces—and easing the spread of parasites.
“Clearly, not all Roman baths were as clean as they might have been,” said Mitchell.
Another possibility: The Roman use of human fertilizer on crops. If the feces wasn’t composted for many months before being spread on fields, and parasite eggs could have been transferred to plants, in which they could survive until they were consumed by humans.
“It is possible that sanitation laws requiring the removal of faeces from the streets actually led to reinfection of the population as the waste was often used to fertilise crops planted in farms surrounding the towns,” Mitchell added.
The third possible source was a popular Roman sauce and medicine known as garum. Garum was made from fish, herbs, salt, and other flavorings, which was then set in sunlight to ferment. However, fish tapeworm likely hid inside garum—which was traded widely across the empire.
“The manufacture of fish sauce and its trade across the empire in sealed jars would have allowed the spread of the fish tapeworm parasite from endemic areas of northern Europe to all people across the empire. This appears to be a good example of the negative health consequences of conquering an empire,” he said.
Fresh as a summer’s breeze
Either way, the effects were clear: “This latest research on the prevalence of ancient parasites suggests that Roman toilets, sewers and sanitation laws had no clear benefit to public health,” said Mitchell. “The widespread nature of both intestinal parasites and ectoparasites such as lice also suggests that Roman public baths surprisingly gave no clear health benefit either.”
But there was an upside.
“It seems likely that while Roman sanitation may not have made people any healthier, they would probably have smelt better.”
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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