Did the Romans use a sponge on a stick to clean themselves after using the toilet? Stephen Trzaskoma takes us through the evidence for such a use of the xylospongium in Greek and Roman writing. We know it was used for dressing wounds, transferring liquids, cleaning surfaces, and at least one gruesome death, but was it used as one finds on over 2.5 million websites? Tune in to find out!

Wonder what an ancient latrine looks like? Click here (scroll to bottom) to see the famous version in Ostia, the port city of Rome. It had a revolving door! The website ostia-antica.org is a great resource to tour the city.