12.
And how do you suppose certain persons will answer me?
They will say: “I don’t envy Scipio; that was truly an exile’s life—to put up with baths like those!” Friend, if you were wiser, you would know that Scipio did not bathe every day.
It is stated by those who have reported to us the old-time ways of Rome that the Romans washed only their arms and legs daily—because those were the members which gathered dirt in their daily toil—and bathed all over only once a week.
Here someone will retort: “Yes; pretty dirty fellows they evidently were!
How they must have smelled!” But they smelled of the camp, the farm, and heroism.
Now that spick-and-span bathing establishments have been devised, men are really fouler than of yore.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On Scipio's villa
Location: Chapter 86, Section 12
Content:
12.
And how do you suppose certain persons will answer me?
They will say: “I don’t envy Scipio; that was truly an exile’s life—to put up with baths like those!” Friend, if you were wiser, you would know that Scipio did not bathe every day.
It is stated by those who have reported to us the old-time ways of Rome that the Romans washed only their arms and legs daily—because those were the members which gathered dirt in their daily toil—and bathed all over only once a week.
Here someone will retort: “Yes; pretty dirty fellows they evidently were!
How they must have smelled!” But they smelled of the camp, the farm, and heroism.
Now that spick-and-span bathing establishments have been devised, men are really fouler than of yore.