Podcast Summary: Betwixt The Sheets – How Filthy Were The Romans?

Host: Dr. Kate Lister
Guest: Alexander Meddings (Rome-based historian)
Date: January 2, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of "Betwixt The Sheets" sees host and sex historian Dr. Kate Lister joined by Rome-based historian Alexander Meddings for a revealing and unflinching discussion about how clean (or otherwise) the Romans really were. While Roman baths often serve as a symbol for cleanliness in the ancient world, this episode questions that reputation. The duo explore Roman attitudes and habits around hygiene, bathing, toileting, sex, class, and the general filth of daily life in imperial Rome—with plenty of colorful moments, memorable quotes, and eye-watering details.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reputation of Roman Cleanliness vs. Reality

• Roman Cleanliness—A Modern Projection?:
  • Romans are commonly thought of as paragons of bathing and cleanliness, while medieval people are viewed as dirty.
  • Lister: “They have a reputation as being incredibly clean, don’t they?” (04:10)
  • Meddings: “It’s a reputation that's not necessarily deserved.” (04:31)
• Historical Sources Focus Only on the Elite:
  • Most detailed ancient sources refer to the 0.05% of Romans (the elite); most Romans were very poor and likely much filthier.

2. Bathing in Ancient Rome: More Social Than Hygienic

• Bathhouses as Social Hubs:

  • Public and private baths were everywhere—numbering in the hundreds in early Rome, and over a thousand by the fourth century. (06:47)
  • Baths included hot/cold rooms, gymnasium space, libraries, food vendors, and often opportunities for sexual encounters or sex work.
  • Lister (on the atmosphere): “Do you want a book or a blowjob or a pie?” (09:31)

• Design & Operations:

  • Facilities had different rooms: frigidarium (cold), tepidarium (warm), caldarium (hot), and sudatio (sweat).
  • Mixed and gender-segregated bathing existed, sometimes scheduled by time of day.

• Not as Clean as We Think:

  • Bathwater wasn’t recycled efficiently. Stagnant pools became a breeding ground for disease.
  • Meddings: “A lot of the baths are just going to have stagnant pools… hotbeds of malaria, cholera…” (16:03)
  • Water was refreshed through aqueducts, but slowly and not daily.

3. Sexuality, Nakedness & Privacy

• Baths as Erotic Spaces: Sexual activity, sex workers, and lascivious graffiti were common features, especially in places like Pompeii.
  • Lister: “You would have seen people… going to the toilet. Sex would have been happening… all around you.” (10:59)
  • Meddings: “Sex definitely takes place [in the baths]… Baths, wine and Venus all make life worth living.” (12:39)
• No Real Privacy: Shared living and communal bathing/toileting meant intense public intimacy.

4. Keeping Clothes (Un)Clean

• Laundry Was Filthy Work:
  • Washing in public laundries known as “fulleries,” using ammonia derived from urine.
  • Large terracotta jars placed on the street to collect urine for laundering—an extremely unpleasant job for slaves or workers.
  • Meddings: "The problem with fulleries is that they are using ammonia... which derives from urine." (21:01)

5. Toilets, Sewers, & Nightsoil Collectors

• Public Latrines & Sewers:
  • Large, communal latrines directly over sewers with no modern traps—allowing gases, vermin, and occasional explosions.
  • Meddings: “They're going to smell horrendous. A lot of stuff is going to crawl up from them because there are no traps... and they're also going to explode quite a lot.” (25:37)
• Toilet Habits:
  • Use of a communal sponge on a stick (possibly for wiping or cleaning the toilet rim).
  • Meddings (describing Seneca's anecdote): "...rather than face a noble death, he... takes this sponge on a stick, and rams it down his throat and kills himself." (23:41)
• Night Workers & Waste Recycling:
  • Night-cartmen collected cesspit waste for use as fertilizer—paid modestly for this grim occupation.

6. The Reality of Roman Streets

• Filthy Streets:
  • Streets would have been packed with mud, refuse, animal and human waste, dead animals, and exposed infants.
  • Meddings (via Juvenal): "It's going to be full of mud. It's going to be full of shit. It's going to have rotting corpses..." (29:08)
• Pompeii Graffiti: Constant complaints about neighbors defecating outside houses (“Stop shitting outside my house”—a sentiment echoed in the modern city, according to Meddings).

7. Mouthwash, Breath & “Perfume”

• Dental Hygiene:
  • Best mouthwash? Portuguese urine, sometimes mixed with charcoal and mouse brains.
  • Meddings: “Apparently, the best mouthwash came from Portuguese piss… with charcoal and… mouse brains.” (33:12)
• Garum Fish Sauce:
  • Used to mask bad breath—but also widely blamed for transmitting tapeworms up to 25 feet long.
  • Meddings: “Fermented fish sauce contains lots of eggs which then grow into tapeworms…” (34:50)
• Perfume and Scents:
  • Wealthy used oils, incense (frankincense, myrrh), and powders; most probably smelt musky at best.

8. Dangerous, Smelly, and Lethal

• The Dangers of Roman Life:
  • Streets were dangerous, especially at night; disease rampant; mortality high.
  • Meddings: “It’s going to be dangerous, it’s going to be really stinky and at some point you’re going to encounter some horrible incurable disease which is going to lay you low and you'll probably be dead by 25.” (36:26)

9. Clean Emperors?

• Not Particularly Noted:
  • Julius Caesar was vain (particularly about depilation).
  • Lister: “Did they think that too much preening… would have been effeminate?”
  • Meddings: “Precisely… You have to dedicate your energy elsewhere—to killing people and building stuff.” (37:44)

10. Rome, Middle Ages, or Victorian London: Which Was Filthiest?

• Each Were Filthy—But Rome Had Its Perks
  • Meddings would choose ancient Rome, but not for hygiene reasons: “...just because I would maybe give myself a fair crack at being able to navigate the streets... and go to the countryside and then just be hopefully enslaved by some wealthy person who lives in a sunnier clime.” (38:05)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Lister, on the variety in Roman baths:
  “Do you want a book or a blowjob or a pie? Take your pick.” (09:31)
• On Pompeii's famous graffiti:
  “Whoever’s shitting outside my house, stop it.” (29:24)
• Meddings on the true nature of Roman hygiene:
  “They're bathing, but it's not super hygienic. You're stewing in your own and your nearest and dearest's filth rather than that of a million other people.” (20:20)
• On Roman mouthwash:
  “Apparently, the best mouthwash came from Portuguese piss, specifically from Portugal. So that's mixed in with charcoal and apparently crushed mouse brains.” (33:12)
• On the dangers of Roman life:
  “It’s going to be dangerous, it’s going to be really stinky and at some point you’re going to encounter some horrible incurable disease which is going to lay you low and you'll probably be dead by 25.” (36:26)
• On ancient vs. modern hygiene:
  “I can only apologize on behalf of our people… I’m with the Romans on [bidets].” (31:25)

Key Timestamps of Important Segments

• [04:31] - Meddings debunks the “clean Romans” myth.
• [06:47] - Expansion on ubiquity and role of baths.
• [09:31] - Baths as social/sexual spaces ("book, blowjob, or a pie").
• [16:03] - Bath water stagnation and disease.
• [21:01] - Washing clothes with urine in "fulleries."
• [23:41] - The infamous communal sponge.
• [25:37] - Public latrines, explosions, and sewer cleaning.
• [29:08] - Vivid description of the filth in Roman streets.
• [33:12] - Use of urine and mouse brains as mouthwash.
• [34:50] - Tapeworms from fish sauce (“garum”).
• [36:26] - Smells, risk, and short life expectancy in Rome.

Conclusion: Were the Romans Clean or Dirty?

Despite the image of marble baths and perfumed aristocrats, Rome was for most people a world of communal sweat, stewing water, piss-soaked laundry jars, questionable toilets, and cacophonous, reeking streets. Hygiene was a privilege of the wealthy—but only to a point. As Dr. Lister sums it up: “Not really as squeaky clean as we like to think of it.” (36:59)

For more about Alexander Meddings, visit: alexandermeddings.com or appiowithalex.com

Podcast produced by History Hit. Edited by Nick Thompson, produced by Sophie G, senior producer Freddie Chick.