One remark, or knowing me, several paragraphs of remarks -- Romans didn't EAT out of the latrines, so obviously having those DID make a difference in the overall cleanliness of society. Someone joked, no toilet paper, and that is true, but finer homes had a little trough where water ran by, and a brush was in tat trough 24/7. The brush was used to, uh, in lieu of, well you see what they did with it, then placed it back in the trough. The upshot is, by and large, ancient (and not-so-ancient) societies had a high tolerance for butt-funk.
The reason for parasites is, they didn't know they had them, didn't have treatment for them (other than taking non-lethal doses of poison for various purposes, such as anxiety, getting some sleep, just getting high), and thanks to the economic prosperity that characterized most of the Roman era, there was more meat in the diet, and they didn't have the kind of pure food and drug act inspections that the US has had for just over a hundred years now. I'd love to see the same effin' archaeologists study the old outhouse sites and 19th c dumps, and see what they find there.
They'd talk about the local parasites and, as an aside, mention that they were avid readers of Sears and Roebuck periodicals as well paying tribute to some unknown god of agriculture by tossing corn cobs into the pit.
It is a testament to the effectiveness of the systems, when one considers military encampments and assemblages of refugees in much more modern times ravaged by epidemics, that the sanitation systems of the Romans permitted so many to live so close without massive ill effect.
Yep,concur!