A recent study reshaped notions of hygiene in the Roman army. Scholars from Cambridge and Oxford examined the contents of the sewage runoff from the Vindolanda fort near Hadrian’s Wall and discovered that local legionaries were widely infected with three types of parasites.
Researchers studied 50 sediment samples from the channel that drained waste from the public latrine. They found the eggs of roundworms, whipworms, and cysts of the microscopic protozoan Giardia duodenalis—the causative agent of giardiasis. All these parasites transmit through the fecal-oral route: via unwashed hands, contaminated water, and food.
Against the backdrop of Rome’s reputation as the “builder of baths and aqueducts,” this finding appears especially telling. It demonstrates that even with sophisticated infrastructure available, basic sanitation habits could be neglected, and soldiers constantly lived with the risk of intestinal illnesses, persistent stomach pain, diarrhea, and wasting.
Roman physicians were already aware of the existence of worms and intestinal ailments, yet they lacked effective remedies to rid the legionaries of helminths or Giardia. Consequently, parasite outbreaks, judging by data from Vindolanda, might have been routine occurrences even for well-organized military garrisons on the empire’s frontier.
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