sweat

The ancient Greeks and Romans had very different ideas on how to stay clean. For despite the Roman (deserved?) reputation for hygiene due to their elaborate plumbing systems, heated public baths and flushing toilets, this was before the invention of soap and their cleaning rituals can sound bizarre to modern ears. One popular tool used by the Romans, as well as the Greeks and Etruscans before them, was the strigil. While common strigils were made of unadorned bronze, the more affluent had ornate personal strigils made out of silver or tin. The idea was to lather the body in olive oil before doing exercise or using public baths. Slaves would then use strigils, which were curved metal blades, to scrape