Ancient Rome had a lot of epic engineering accomplishments, but it’s funny how the most mundane aspects of people’s lives can be the most relatable. Rome had a landfill! I can just imagine people sitting around in their 32-acre bath complaining about how they can never remember when trash day is, and someone chimes in that they read in the paper that Monte Testaccio is encroaching on nearby farmers’ lands.
Or what about all the people living in those 40,000 apartment buildings? They’re all yelling at each other like, “Keep it down with that lyre in there! These walls are as thin as a toga!”
“Oh yeah? Well, remember to take your trash out for once, old man! This place smells like the Cloaca Maxima!”
This is all grade-A conjecture, of course, but isn’t it fun? And I’ve got to say, there are times I’ve been… in need… if you will, and those 144 public toilets would have made me pretty jealous.
What about trash today? We’ve moved way beyond merely piling it on the ground, we’re filing space with garbage now, too. Take that Romans.