Roman Public Toilets

The public sanitation infrastructure of ancient Rome was remarkably advanced. Rome had the most sophisticated urban drainage system in the world at that time. Thanks to this comprehensive system, the city of Rome had 144 public toilets, solving the daily needs of a million people. Toilets could be divided into two types: public and private. Generally, public toilets were built near or inside baths, making it convenient for people to use them from either location, with large amounts of used bath water flushing the facilities. The construction of pipes to flush private toilets was extremely rare at the time.

Roman toilets were also quite large; some could accommodate as many as 60 people at once. The Romans even turned public toilets into recreational spaces. They were furnished with marble seats and decorated with exquisite murals of gods and marble statues. In winter, the toilets were even heated. Roman public toilets offered little privacy and were not separated by gender. They were designed as a long row of stalls without any partitions, allowing people to sit on their individual seats to take care of their natural needs, chat, plan meetings, discuss politics, or conduct business. However, Roman men typically wore long robes, which provided a convenient way to cover their private parts when using the facilities. Despite building these luxurious public toilets, the Romans were not necessarily cleaner, because the most advanced tool they used for cleaning themselves was a shared sponge on a stick (Tersorium), which would simply be rinsed with water and passed on to the next person.

The urban water supply also played an important role in Roman sanitation. Romans made full use of the flowing drinking water in open channels and used underground channels to carry away sewage. Although not deliberately designed this way, the Romans organically linked the urban water supply and sanitation. The overflow from the water channels would flow into the underground sewer pipes, carrying away the city’s waste. This organic integration of water supply and drainage set the earliest example for a dynamic urban water environment and had a profound impact.