"The Romans put white shiny stones in some of their roads to increase visibility at night catching the moonlight."

1

"Trivia is a Latin word! It combines "tri-" and "via" meaning "three roads”. In ancient Rome, the term "trivia" referred to the three-way intersections where people would gather to socialize and exchange information. Over time, the word evolved to refer to common or insignificant bits of information, which is how we use it today when talking about trivial facts or details. Romans invented the word for interesting facts!"

2

"There's a massive artificial hill in Rome called "Monte Testaccio" which is the result of the Romans dumping milions of used oil jars over the centuries as they could not reuse them due to the residue. The hill is still accessible today and it's literally a huge pile of thousands of layers of terracotta."

3

"Roman concrete has chunks of calcium in it called lime-clasts - they help self-heal the concrete."

4

"The famous “white” marble and stone statues of emperors, gods, and other individuals in most cases were actually painted and colorful. Archaeologists and art scientists found traces of the paint pigments upon closer examination in recent decades. The colorized Roman statues especially of Caligula can be quite creepy looking but it’s awesome."

5

"Emperor Octavian once bought a Raven from a merchant who taught it to say “hail Caesar!” (Ave Caesar!)"

6

"In the time of Julius Caesar, you could send a letter from Rome to Athens in nine days. Today, the Italian post can’t even come close."

7

"Romans discovered a waterproof concrete made with “pozzolana” sand (from Pozzuoli). Waterproof as in, it magically dried under water and became hard as a rock. Without that, they couldn’t have maintained the huge net of aqueducts they’re famous for, and probably couldn’t build the lasting empire we know."

8

"They thought “soap” was gross and only used it for textiles and other industry! For cleaning themselves they used olive oil, lotions and perfumes then just scraped it all off with a bronze or wooden stick called a Strigil."

9

"The Romans had road side billboards just like us. Advertising a lot of different things, including fermented fish sauce Garum!"

10

"Graffiti was a commonly used and popular political tool. If the Roman people were unhappy with something they would paint it on walls of buildings and it was just an accepted normal thing."

11

"The Roman temple of Janus, the two-faced god, had gates closed during peacetime, and open during war. They were once open for 400 years in a row, and hardly ever closed. The rare (and brief) times they were closed were accompanied by festivals, and new coins being minted to mark the occasion."

12

"Julius Caesar and his advisors made the calendar that we use today, with minor adjustments by Pope Gregory. It's called the Gregorian calendar nowadays but Caesar really contributed more."

13

"There were no stalls on Roman Bathrooms. Everyone was just sitting there staring at each other as they did their business and then cleaned themselves with community sponges."

14

"The fall of Constantinople in 1453 closed the Silk Road and other trade routes to Europe. This forced Europeans to sail west to find new trade routes and accidentally discover (/rediscover) the new world."

15