What Was The Importance Of Hygiene In The Roman Empire

The transition from hunter-gatherer to an agricultural society did provide a lot of advancements for mankind, but it did not necessarily make life healthier. The ability for people to specialize in occupations other than obtaining food allowed for much progress in art, language, and religion. Even so, the development of cities often made people less healthy. Large groups of people in one place led to the accumulation of waste, which allowed for bacteria to easily transfer from person to person, or animal to person. For example, intestinal parasites were carried in human feces and could more easily invade another host. In the cities, more people were working and living closely together, which increased chances of contracting disease from each other. Also, a shared water system could easily get polluted, causing disease amongst many. Finally, with such a large number of people relying on one food source, mass famine was frequent. …show more content…
Many public health achievements can be accredited to the Roman sanity engineers and administrators. They developed an aqueduct system that supplied water throughout the Roman Empire. Sewerage systems drained under the streets, carrying off surface water and sewerage. They also had public toilets and bath houses, which may not seem hygienic in modern day, but demonstrated the Roman’s priority of hygiene. In conclusion, while health dangers lurk behind large groups of people in close quarters, human have made great strides in public health to avoid those