kerev989

> I guess that implies that esoteric aspects of toga wearing in ancient Rome is a "basic thing" that one should know before writing anything about Roman toilets.

Yes. Because there is nothing esoteric about knowing how people dressed if you are going to talk about their lives.

> Does one need to be perfect in order to be published?

No. Just honest and at least slightly competent.

You missed the point of the previous comment. The gist was that the author of the article has no clue about the Roman way of life and cannot be taken seriously.

Because the pictures are bizarre. Take a look at the one I linked to - his chin line merges with his neck. The bags under his eyes are weird. He looks like he is added on to the background. And the background itself is super weird.

The other one that I think is generated is the picture of "Pop culture critic Ian Williams". Gillen's is ok.

> I did a reverse image search just to double check, and the only existence of the photos are on the cbc site.

The reverse image search didn't return anything precisely because they are generated. Search for the other image - that of the writer Kieron Gillen. You'll find it.

Yeah, because there was a convenient public toilet right there and the soldier reached over its wall. Or, maybe, the "vinegar" was the ration of sour wine the soldiers carried.

> The toga thing has been addressed by others as our cultural mores being projected on people with different values...

It's not about projecting cultural values. It's about a supposedly trustworthy publication that published rubbish. The author of the article doesn't know basic things about the life of the people they are discussing.

So they cut through stone in order to accommodate the sh*t-stick? :D

Some of the things said in this article are ridiculous. Especially the wiping your butt with a communal sponge-on-a-stick. Even if we are to believe that the same people who went to such great lengths to rid their cities of waste would then share sponges with faeces on them, why would you reach around with a long stick to clean yourself? How would that even work? This looks exactly like modern shower sponges made for reaching your back. Try wiping with one.

Also the claim that these toilets were for the unwashed masses, yet those same people supposedly wore togas on a day-to-day basis.

Who even writes this crap?...