Via Nomentana Via Nomentana Via Nomentana is an ancient road of Italy, leading North-East from Rome to Nomentum (modern Mentana), a distance of . It originally bore the name "Via Ficulensis", from the old Latin village of Ficulea, about from Rome. It was subsequently extended to Nomentum, but never became an important high road, and merged in the Via Salaria a few kilometers beyond Nomentum. It is followed as far as Nomentum by the modern state road, but some traces of its pavement still exist. Originally starting from now-destroyed Porta Collina in the Servian Walls, in the third century emperor Aurelian build
Latin obscenity for urine was "ūrīna", which is attested in Latin as early as Cicero, and became the usual polite term. The relationship with the Greek verb ("oureō"), "to urinate", is not clear. In Classical Latin, however, the verb "ūrīnārī" meant "to dive into water", and "ūrīnātor" was "a diver", "ūrīnantēs" "those who dive". Catullus (37) writes contemptuously of a certain Spaniard who was one of the lovers of his girlfriend Lesbia: Another word for urine, but less commonly used, was "lōtium". This word relates to "lavāre", "to wash". The Romans, innocent of soap, collected urine as a source of ammonia to