Imagine you and seven other people shitting in the same room while talking about the superbowl
Brother, you see those sticks with a sponge on the end those are community poop wipers, you’re sharing shit and talking shit ìm it’s really quite poetic.
Would you like to shit with me in a cramped room while we make constant eye contact and discuss the folly of man?
You see these sticks with a sponge they are holding or dunkin’ in on the left side?
Instead of toilet paper, you may have used a sponge (Latin: tersorium) to wipe. These ancient devices consisted of a stick with a vinegar- or salt water-soaked sponge attached.
They were often shared!
I wonder how/if they didn’t get sick from sharing the poop stick.
Parasite loads found in the end-location of Roman latrines are often… significant.
There’s ongoing debate as to whether Roman urban hygeine was better, worse, or net neutral compared to rural (including rural ‘barbarian’) practices. About the only thing that’s agreed is that it was better than non-Roman urban hygeine, which often made sharing a poop stick seem positively sanitiary.
Though, as noted, they were rinsed with water and soaked in either salt water or vinegar (which the Romans knew ‘cleaned’ better, though they didn’t have a strong conception of bacteria or microscopic parasites)
