Doodoo Diligence

When Alley and I visited Rome a few years ago, there was a lot to see. The Coliseum beckons to any martial artist: combat of all sorts was on full display, and you can see where the gladiators got ready to fight. You can get an idea of how they felt.

Here we are, looming above the guts of the great building:

We learned about the velarium the Romans used to cover all of the seats, just in case there was rain or too much sun. We got to imagine them unrolling this preposterously sized umbrella with a series of 240 wooden masts.

We were fascinated by stories of them flooding the Coliseum so that massive naval battles could be reenacted before 50,000 spectators.

We learned of the intricate network of tunnels under the floor, where gladiators or (yuck) large, intimidating animals could surprise the crowd by quickly appearing above.

But what we were really interested in was how the Romans pooped. More specifically, we were riveted with how they dealt with poop.

Why? Well, the system of sanita…