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Common Misconception: Vomitoriums.

Blame Lori at Feministing for this: She introduced me to Wikipedia’s List of Common Misconceptions, and now I am obsessed. So I’ll be posting one a day, for discussion or enlightenment, until I get bored or just start to forget. Today’s misconception: Vomitoriums in ancient Rome.

In ancient Rome, the architectural feature called a vomitorium was the entranceway through which crowds entered and exited a stadium, not a special room used for purging food during meals.[1] Vomiting was not a regular part of Roman dining customs.[2]


3 thoughts on Common Misconception: Vomitoriums.

  1. One of my favourite misconceptions about the classical graeco-roman period is the idea that their sculptures were these white marble ideals: in fact they were painted in what appears to modern eyes as an extraordinarily garish palette. That’s why what’s in so many museums have those “blank” eyes – because the eyes were expected to be painted on.

  2. If I had a dollar for all of the misconceptions in the world, I’d have more money than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined.

  3. I heard a lecture about vomitoria during Latin camp! Totally blew my mind. Every stadium today has at least one vomitorium, from which people vomunt (spew forth) while exiting. Less sexy, but still cool.

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