15 Facts About Ancient Rome You’ve Probably Missed At School

History is fascinating. It is cruel, but it is fascinating. You may or you may not be a huge fan of history, but you simply have to admit that is amusing to see how people lived hundreds and thousands of years ago.

But don’t worry, we’re not going to bother you with exact years and there’s not going to be a test at the end. We’re going to focus on things that you probably didn’t learned at school. This material was probably under the “not going to be on the test” category and who has time for that when you’re a teenager.

1The Romans drank gladiators’ blood

The whole idea of men fighting till death is scary, but that’s not it. The blood of the fallen gladiators was considered as a cure, and it was even sold as a medicine for epileptics. But besides curing powers, Romans drank gladiator’s blood because they believed it contains the life force.

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2The Romans didn’t die young

With all that fighting and blood drinking you would’ve thought that the Romans died young. According to stats, the official average life expectancy in Ancient Rome was 25 years old. But that’s only because many unfortunate deaths during childbirth. If you could make it as a young kid, you could’ve had a long and lasting life as a Roman.

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3Timekeeping was relative

Romans didn’t care that much about hours, and they didn’t have the technology either. The Roman hour in winter could be 44 minutes and 75 minutes in the summer. Romans relied on the sun when it comes to timekeeping.

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4Only the rich could wear purple

This isn’t much of a surprise when you think about it because we basically do the same thing. Of course we’re not limited to a color, but the more fortunate one have the privilege to wear branded clothes and that’s pretty much the same.

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5A unibrow was a sign of intelligence

The Roman ladies tried to make their eyebrows thicker by using goat hair and wood far. And now we do the complete opposite and that’s only because we know that a unibrow is definitely not a sign of intelligence.

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