Roman Toilets

While exploring the ancient city of Caesarea on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, we encountered a row of worn stone seats built into the remains of a wall. At first, their purpose was not obvious. We were surprised when our guide explained that these were Roman toilets and were part of a public latrine used by the people who lived in this once-thriving city.

Caesarea was transformed by Herod the Great during the first century BCE into an impressive port city named in honor of Caesar Augustus. Herod constructed a harbor, palace, theater, hippodrome, temples, markets, and other public buildings intended to display the wealth and power of his kingdom. The city later became the administrative capital of the Roman province of Judaea and remained an important center of government, trade, and culture for centuries.

Supporting a city of this size required a dependable supply of water. Caesarea had no large natural source nearby, so Roman engineers constructed aqueducts to carry water from springs near the foothills of Mount Carmel. Using a carefully calculated slope, the water traveled for miles before reaching the city. It supplied drinking fountains, private homes, public bathhouses, gardens, and sanitation systems.

The public toilets were part of that larger network. The stone seats originally had openings, while a channel beneath them allowed running water to carry waste away. Another channel may have provided water for personal cleaning. The system was simple in appearance but depended upon careful engineering and the continued movement of water through the city.

What surprised us most was the lack of privacy. Roman public toilets often consisted of long benches where people sat beside one another without the walls or partitions, we would expect today. They could accommodate many people at the same time and were sometimes treated as social spaces where conversation and even business continued.

The great aqueduct demonstrated Rome’s ability to move water across long distances, but these stone seats showed where that engineering eventually reached: into the most ordinary and personal parts of city life. History at Caesarea was preserved not only in its grand theater and harbor, but also in the places where its residents carried out the simplest routines of their day.