Did you know that the Romans made perfume from gladiator sweat. In this book you get a hundred good reasons to think even more about the fascinating Roman Empire. For example, that the romans cheered from the stands in the Colosseum while condemned people were torn to pieces by bears captured in Scotland and lions from Africa. Or that they washed their clothes in urine. When they wanted entertainment, the Romans smoked so-called “laughter leaves” from Afghanistan. They scribbled rude things on toilet walls. And a bald emperor was so
thin-skinned that he made it a criminal offense to look down on him from above.

Magnus Helgerud has thought about all this, but also about how the Romans wrote laws we still live by, performed complicated surgeries and built sewer systems still in use today. This thought work has become this year’s funniest history lesson.

Welcome back to the Roman Empire!