Quote Originally Posted by konny View Post
1.) "Civilized" people who didn't had any contact with Barbarians (others than slaves) expected them to stink like cattle. That's why people who actualy had contact with them reported that they do so to impress their audience.

2.) For most of the times Romans encountered Germans as soldiers only; and soldiers on campaign usually do have an awful stench in all armies and all times. Everyone who as at the army can confirm it that even after a two or three days field excerise where you can't change clothes or wash properly (leave alone a shower) the smell of your clothes becomes so awfull that trying to keep your body clean with a handfull of water becomes somewhat pointless. Pre-industrial armies on campaign often couldn't change clothes for months; one can easly guess how these must have smelled.

That's all complete nonsense. The Romans bathed a lot. They built bathhouses EVERYWHERE even next to most samller camps near Hadrian's wall. They were obsessed with bathing. Like someone said, they needed lots of water. Cologne (CCAA) for example had the same water consumption as today (with much less inhabitants!)


The process is the following:

oiling, scraping, then, hot bath or steam bath or both, then cold bath, normal bath, oiling with some nice smelling oils, done. Why do you think they built those huge baths in Rome and everywhere so that everyone could go?

"Of all the leisure activities, bathing was surely the most important for the greatest number of Romans, since it was part of the daily regimen for men of all classes, and many women as well."

check here, they even show Roman bikinis lol