You are probably wondering why it has been so quiet at this blog the last few weeks. Anybody? Just in case, I will spill the beans. The last two weeks my wife and I took a dream vacation to Italy. I’m a bit of a history buff and as one taxi driver told me, “America has beautiful wilderness, Italy has history.”
The man could not be more correct. Several of the hotels we stayed in are older than the United States. One restaurant owner told us the building his restaurant was in was fairly new for Rome. Only 200 years old. New construction so to speak.
My intention is not to give a travel log about our trip. That would be like forcing you to sit through a verbal “slide show” of something you already saw pictures of in your high school history books. It would also be embarrassing to have all you folks dozing off during my very long, detailed and boring description of our journey. For those of you who actually slipped into a coma during this introduction, WAKE UP! The good stuff is about to start.
As a result of my trip through history, I want to talk about government regulation. Stick with me, it will make sense in the end…I hope.
My dream was to one day tour ancient Rome. I have always been fascinated with the Roman Empire and the center of it, Rome. We took what they called the “Old Rome” tour that included the coliseum, the forum, the emperor’s palace, the Roman Senate and so much more. We also made a stop in Florence, which is young compared to Rome and Pompeii that was frozen in time by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. What was amazing about all three of these sites was how far ahead of their time they were. Romans had running water and sewage removal. Basically, they didn’t have to go to a well to get their water, and they had a toilet in their home that was flushed into sewers, that carried the waste away. Amazing. Both of these accomplishments were lost after the sack of Rome and when Europe descended into the dark ages. It would take hundreds of years to get back to where Rome was 2,000 years ago. I can see that all of you are as amazed and enthralled with this news…maybe a little.
Even though Romans created all these wonderful accomplishments, no one ever asked if it was safe. There were no agencies at the time to make sure these great innovations would not eventually harm, or kill, the population.
Yes, it was wonderful that water was brought into these Roman cities by aqueducts but to be able to run the water to each of the houses, the Romans used lead pipes. While they were providing everyone with running water, they never bothered to check to see what damage lead poisoning did to their population. They also put lead in wine to make it more drinkable. No wonder they had so many mad emperors.
When it came to sewage, again using the water they were able to run to the houses, they were able to flush the human waste away from the house into the nearest river. Wonderfully, everyone had a toilet in their house but couldn’t get near the river because they could pick up horrible diseases like typhoid, dysentery, or cholera.
They also had what could be called “fast food” restaurants. People could pull up to a window in a shop on the street, buy food of their choice out of a variety of large, clay jars and go on their way. One problem, the fish you just purchased was being kept in a jar that had the remains of the fish from the day before and the day before that and the day before that. They didn’t clean or sanitize their food storage containers. Thank goodness they had indoor toilets to run home to and spend the rest of the day on. Could you imagine going into a restaurant and dining where the proprietors never cleaned anything and you might be consuming food left over from a week ago mixed with the food you are eating now. Apparently, they didn’t have city or county health inspectors to make sure the cafe you were eating at wouldn’t kill you. Apparently, archaeologists have yet to find the remains of an “A” sign indicating the establishment you were eating at was safe.
Another issue was their workplace conditions. There was never any Roman equivalent to our OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration). Let’s say you were a gladiator and your job was at the local arena, or even the big one in Rome. You were a slave, lived in confinement with 4 or 5 other gladiators in a 10’ by 10’ room and required to fight these other gladiators for the entertainment of the emperor and the citizens of Rome. Unlike the movies, not all gladiators fought to the death. It was only about 25% of the time. Still pretty dangerous. Imagine if you’re at an American football game and 25% of the players didn’t leave the field alive. Now that is dangerous and means unsafe working conditions.
Another thing the Romans created were elevators to raise props and exotic animals up from the basement to the floor of the Coliseum to challenge the gladiators. Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my. Literally lions and tigers and bears. That is why the North African Lion is extinct. They apparently didn’t have a Roman version of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals).
When you hear some current politician telling you that they will end regulations because it stymies business, remember what life was like without some kind of regulation. Thank goodness there is someone or some agency looking out for our safety.
I have concluded from my trip through ancient Rome, it would have been cool to see all these modern (at the time) conveniences, but unfortunately I may not have survived them. Life expectancy for Romans was between 45 and 50 for men and about 35 for women. It may not be much different today. Have you ever tried to cross a street in Italy? Geez! I think the gladiators had better odds of survival.
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