| > Perfect place for spreading diseases. First of all I was talking about thermal baths were bacteria do not survive anyway. But secondly, Romans did not know antibiotics or bacteria or how infections worked, we do and still there are several outbreaks every year in almost every "first world" country. Do I need to remind you about COVID? People still do not wash their hands and it helped a global pandemic spread. So in the end things were definitely not worse when preventive measures were a lot worse and a lot of the knowledge about how disease spread was a mystery. But they were a lot cheaper and better maintained compared to today. If we were putting the same effort 2 thousand years later, we should be living in a literal heaven. > Everyone else? Unlikely More than they do today. One would think that 2 thousand years later the situation should be much better, and yet it's not. Again: look at the e-coli outbreak in the US, the richest country in the World, in 2022 and 2023, not in 312 B.C. Ancient Romans could not preserve food, so it was fresh by definition except the kind of food they could dry up (salted or air dried) or keep in oil (olive oil, which was popular in every Mediterranean ancient culture) > We know that how? It's called history, you might be surprised how many things we can learn by studying it. There were elites who could get away with a lot and did a lot of shady stuff, but definitely nothing of to the kind of the organized crime we know today as mafia or cartels. The greatest threat were pirates, who, as the name implies, only attacked ships sailing in the open sea. Which was already a very risky activity on its own back then. |
Large Roman bathhouses had multiple pools with different temperatures.
> Romans did not know antibiotics or bacteria or how infections worked
That’s kind of my entire point. The overall quality of life is much better because of what we know.
> d better maintained compared to today.
I’m not sure what saunas or swimming pools you go to but I certainly don’t believe that they are as dirty and unmaintained in general as you’re implying.
> If we were putting the same effort 2 thousand years later, we should be living in a literal heaven.
I think that by ancient standards we do (in the developed world). Humans are just very adaptable.
> but definitely nothing of to the kind of the organized crime we know today as mafia or cartels.
Because most things modern criminal organizations engage in were actually legal back then. Some of stuff they do now were just standard practices in the Roman society, which was structured a lot like the mafia organizations were back in the 1800s (a lot less secrecy than now).
> The greatest threat were pirates, who, as the name implies, only attacked ships sailing in the open sea.
Romans were generally pretty afraid of being kidnapped and sold into slavery even when traveling on land. In cities gangs and organized crime were certainly a huge issue in poorer parts of the city of Rome as far as we know.
> things we can learn by studying it
you’re right... I’d suggest you get some books not meant for 8 year olds if you’re really interested in the field. They might not paint such a straightforward picture you seem to have in your head, though
Anyway, it’s quite funny that we’re arguing about this. A very weird position to take by you considering most people back in those days lived in such horribly abject conditions you seem to be somehow incapable of comprehending.
And politically and socially too. In comparison to the Roman empire all but the very extreme modern authoritarian regimes would seem like egalitarian utopias (if we focus on human rights and the rule of law).