The xylospongium or tersorium, also known as a "sponge on a stick", was a utensil found in

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

latrines, consisting of a wooden stick (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: , ''xylon'') with a

sea sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and are o ...

(Greek: , ''spongos'') fixed at one end. Academics disagree as to its exact use, about which the primary sources are vague. It has traditionally been assumed to be a type of shared anal hygiene utensil used to wipe after defecating, and the sponge cleaned in vinegar or water (sometimes salt water). Other recent research suggests it was most likely a

toilet brush A toilet brush is a tool for cleaning a toilet bowl. Generally the toilet brush is used with toilet cleaner or bleach. The toilet brush can be used to clean the upper area of the toilet, around the bowl. However, it cannot be used to clean very ...

. In the Baths of the Seven Sages in Ostia, a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

from the 2nd century contains the Inscription ''(u)taris xylosphongio'' which is the first known mention of the term. Also in the early second century a papyrus letter of Claudius Terentianus to his father

Claudius Tiberianus Claudius Tiberianus was a second-century Roman legionary soldier in Egypt, the recipient of a number of papyrus letters which were rediscovered in the twentieth century. The archive of Claudius Tiberianus was partially published in the eighth vo ...

uses the term ''xylespongium'' in a phrase. In the middle of the first century, the Roman philosopher

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger ( ; AD 65), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca ...

reported that a Germanic gladiator died by suicide with a sponge on a stick. According to Seneca, the gladiator hid himself in the latrine of an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

and pushed the wooden stick deep into his throat. Seneca, ''Epistulae morales'' N. 70, vs. 20-21. ''... lignum id, quod ad emundanda obscena adhaerente spongia positum est, totum in gulam farsit ...'', "the stick, on which a sponge is placed for the cleaning of stuck filth, he stuffed all the way into his throat". __NOTOC__

Citations

General references

Primary sources

* Claudius Terentianus, Michigan Papyri VIII 471 (inv. 5393) = CEL 146 = ChLA XLII 1220 29. * Seneca, ''Epistulae morales'' Liber 8, 70, 20. *

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...

, ''Epigrammata'', Liber 12,48,7.

Secondary sources

* Richard Neudecker: ''Die Pracht der Latrine. Zum Wandel öffentlicher Bedürfnisanstalten in der kaiserzeitlichen Stadt''. Pfeil-Verlag, München 1994 (Studien zur antiken Stadt, Bd. 1) , pp. 36f. * Gilbert Wiplinger: "Der Gebrauch des Xylospongiums – eine neue Theorie zu den hygienischen Verhältnissen in römischen Latrinen". In: ''SPA . SANITAS PER AQUAM. Tagungsband des Internationalen Frontinus-Symposiums zur Technik – und Kulturgeschichte der antiken Thermen Aachen'', 18. – 22. März 2009. Frontinus-Gesellschaft e.V. & Peeters, Leiden 2012. {{ISBN, 978-90-429-2661-5. pp. 295–304. Culture of ancient Greece Culture of ancient Rome History of water supply and sanitation Sanitation Waste management in Italy

See also

Citations

General references

Primary sources

Secondary sources