[Note: This thread is from November 14, 2001]Ancient unisex bathhouse dressing room, decorated with

Associated Press ^ | 11/14/01 4:13 PM | The Associated Press

[chemicalman]

ROME (AP) -- Archaeologists have unveiled another steamy corner of ancient Pompeii, and this time it is an eyeful: a bathhouse with a unisex dressing room whose lockers sport erotic sex scenes.

Italian officials inaugurated the new addition to the sprawling ancient city on Wednesday. Pompeii was buried by ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79, and the archaeological site near Naples is one of Italy's biggest tourist attractions.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Does Barney Frank know about this?

[Silly]

It's no wonder Pompeii went bye-bye. (Was Falwell on to something?)

[lds23]

I need to re-vamp my work-outs.

[goodnesswins]

..."visiting sailors had a taste for eroticism and that prostitution flourished in Roman times."

HHMMMM....What DID happen to ROME, anyway?

[d14truth]

"What DID happen to ROME, anyway?"

I believe the leadership of the Roman Empire felt the need to 'screw themselves', and so they did. 'e tu Brutus?'

Sodom and Gomorrah, Pompeii, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, for consideration.

[John H K]

HHMMMM....What DID happen to ROME, anyway?

Lasted for 600 years as the greatest power in the known world, and then quickly went down the tubes after Constantine converted the Empire to Christianity.

Next question? :-)

[Gumption]

ZING!

[Revolting cat!]

Yippie! This is the angle I've been looking for to persuade the proprietors of my gym to have a single dressing room and sauna and erotic part and prostitution and so on. Historical tradition, that's it!

[aomagrat]

[Revolting cat!]

(Was Falwell on to something?)

You mean the Romans had to put up with Falwell too? Who else that we know? Helen Thomas looks old enough!

[PetiteMericco]

That's absolutely preposterous.

[Kermit]

20 years ago, the public swimming pool of Neuss, Germany had unisex saunas, a good way to break the ice.

[L.N. Smithee]

20 years ago, the public swimming pool of Neuss, Germany had unisex saunas, a good way to break the ice.

You mean melt it.

[L.N. Smithee]

Next question? :-)

Not yet..still waiting for an answer to the first one.

[mountaineer]

One man's art is another man's rubbish:

WAS it a critical comment, or was he merely doing his job? When a cleaner at London's Eyestorm Gallery came across a table covered in fag ends, beer bottles, cola tins, dirty coffee cups and sweet wrappings, he assumed it was detritus from a party and binned it.

How was he to know that he'd just disposed of five grand's worth of artwork created by Damien Hirst?

Hirst had created the exhibit for the launch party of his exhibition in the West End gallery, and thought the incident was "very funny". Bosses at the gallery were livid, but were able to retrieve all the rubbish from the bin and use photographs of the exhibition to recreate it.

"I didn't think for a second that it was a work of art," a stunned Mr Asare told the Sun. "It didn't look much like art to me. So I cleared it all into bin-bags and dumped it."
source

[John H K]

Well, it's indisputably true..the Western Roman Empire didn't last very long after it converted to Christianity, and was overrun by barbarians. The last actual Western Roman Emperor was only 150 years after Constantine made the empire Christian, and the Roman State before that had existed for over 1,000 years and as an exstensive empire for 600 years.

Whether Christianity CAUSED the decline is a subject of much debate. Probably the most famous historical work ever, Gibbons "Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire" argues that it did.

But because two things happen at the same time doesn't mean one caused the other, as the FR foil hat crowd constantly forgets.

[piasa]

True... I think a lot of it had to do with an increasingly fat and happy population that became 'too good' for fighting and contracted out the war-fighting to non-Romans until they were dependent on foreigners for protection. They ended up relying on tribalistic people who didn't understand the idea of a republic, and who weren't as loyal as citizen-soldiers had been in the past.

[Texas2step]

"Where are the pictures???"

Here's one

Here's another

And here's another