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The Vomitorium
Contrary to popular belief, the Roman "Vomitorium" was not in fact a room used for throwing up after meals. Although the word stems from the Latin, "vomere" meaning, "to spew forth" the Vomitorium was actually the entrance or exit from an amphitheatre. Oddly enough, the term is still used today in some stadiums. The "Vomitoria" of the Colosseum in Rome were ingenious. The Colloseum- which seated over 50,000 spectators, could fill, through its 80 entrances, in fifteen minutes. Although the words are closely related, the misinterpretation of "Vomitorium" is a relatively recent phenomenon. Aldous Huxley was the first to make the mistake in his 1923 comic novel, "Antic Hay" as noted by the earliest citation in teh "Oxford English Dictionary" It is not argued that Romans threw up after meals. In fact, Cicero is quoted as writing that Julius Caesar, "expressed a desire to vomit after dinner" and suggesting that Caesar took drugs to induce vomiting. So where did they puke? Some say it was right at the table, and it was teh duty of teh slaves to clean up the mess fter dinner, others beleive the vomiting occured in the garden, out of view. Nevertheless, it is interesting that such a seemingly clear cognate has nothing at all to do with human bodily functions |
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