Gracchus: Let’s make an old-fashioned sacrifice for Glabrus’ success.
Caesar: I thought you had reservations about the gods.
Gracchus: Privately I don’t believe in any of them, and neither do you. Publicly I believe in them all.
– Lewis. E. (Producer), Kubric. S. (Director). (1960). Spartacus [Motion Picture]. United States: Universal Studios
Eskimos use refrigerators to stop their food from freezing.
Boots fitted with springs were forbidden by the original Queensberry Rules for boxing.
In 2014, a single parking space in London was sold for £400,000.
There is a Canadian skeleton racer called Dave Greszczyszyn.
Paris and Rome have only each other as sister city, following the motto “Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.”
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
Christmas is celebrated on 25 December because it is the birthday of the Roman sun god Mithras, whose stories bear a striking resemblance to the basic mythology of Christianity. Characteristics of the Mithras cult included:
As for December 25 being Jesus’ birthday, no-one is certain on what date Jesus was born – that is, should he indeed have existed. According to Islam, Jesus was born in the summer, while Jehovah’s Witnesses claim he born on the 1st of October. Speaking of which, according to the Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain, the Jehovah’s Witnesses must be right since presumably they were there.
“Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer…. Who’d have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? ” ― Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
In Roman times someone could be designated a ‘public enemy’ which meant that every citizen was duty bound to kill or capture you. If you were caught, you would be tied up naked and beaten to death with heavy rods.
Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.
The Corkscrew, Hummer, Ice-cube, and Scarf are all types of blowjobs.
Biologically speaking, peppers are a fruit.
A three-day-old human embryo can split into two separate embryos, eventually resulting in identical twins; the opposite is also possible, two separate three-day-old embryos can fuse into a single embryo, called a chimera.
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
If the empty space in atoms could be removed, the entire human race could fit into an average sugar cube.
The most common surname in China is Wang.
Originally, the traditional Argentine game of pato, which is a combination of rugby, polo and basketball, was played – as the Spanish name suggests – with a live duck in a basket. Nowadays, a leather ball is used.
There are 117 road accidents in Rome every day.
No country in history has imprisoned more citizens than the United States.
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
Horseshoe crabs have blue blood, marine worms have green blood and cockroaches’ blood is colourless.
The James Bond movie Goldfinger was once banned in Israel.
Typically less than a half of one percent of Romans were eligible to vote in Rome’s ‘democratic’ elections.
The reverse side of the flag of Oregon features a gold beaver.
Before becoming Queen of England, Mary Tudor would spend one third of her income gambling.
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
According to legend, the story of the founding of Rome begins with the fall of another great ancient city, Troy. After Troy’s destruction, the Trojan hero Aeneas escaped with a small group of followers, eventually managing to reach the coast of Italy, where he landed on the estuary of the Tiber River and made a new home. He married a local princess, and their son, Ascanius, founded the city of Alba Longa on a site just southeast of present-day Rome. Ascanius’s descendants reigned there for 14 generations, until the ruling king Numitor was dethroned by his brother Amulius.
Amulius arranged for Numitor’s daughter, Rea Silvia, to become one of the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses who tended the sacred hearth of the goddess Vesta. They were all forbidden to indulge in sexual intercourse. Nevertheless, Rea Silvia was seduced by Mars, the god of war, and gave birth to twin boys in the sanctuary of Vesta. When the children were discovered, Amulius threw Rea Silvia into a dungeon and had the infants put in a wicker basket and set adrift on the river. The basket became caught in the bulrushes, where the babies were suckled by a she-wolf until they were found by a shepherd. He took the twins home, adopted them, and named them Romulus and Remus.
– Harris. T., Lowe. L. et al. (2011) Ancient Rome: An Illustrated History Tarrytown, NY, United States p. 6
A figure of speech where an expected word in an idiom is replaced unexpectedly by an unusual one, as in Rome wasn’t built in a teacup. By extension, any surprising use or interpretation of language.
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