One and a half millennia after they were last used, Rome’s communal toilets look impressive—even if the lack of privacy might seem strange. Back then, though, you would have been well advised to stay away. These weren’t flush toilets that neatly whisked away human waste. In the summer especially, the smell would have been almost unbearable. Gases such as hydrogen sulfide or methane built up in the sewers and, when ignited by the heat or a naked flame, blasted fire and human waste out of the seat openings.[*3] Tersoria, the shared sponges on sticks that the Romans used to wipe their bottoms,
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