Every Roman city or colony had one or more fullonica , our current laundry and dry cleaning . Remains of these businesses have been found in Ostia, Barcino and Herculaneum, some of them like that of Stephanus in Pompeii in an excellent state of preservation. It consisted of a household linen and clothing washing shop, nothing relevant except for the way in which said cleaning was carried out before the use of artificial chemical substances. Human urine was the main raw material used in the rinsing pool (saltus fullonici ), since the ammonia it contains, combined with lime and ashes as whiteners, was able to remove stains from tunics, togas and woolen tablecloths. Its obtaining was curious, from imported in amphorae from remote places (the Hispanic was considered the best quality) or collected in public latrines and even, as in the current urinals of a shopping center, directly from the walls of the fullonica where perforated half amphorae were arranged at its base so that passers-by could relieve their bladders by strolling through the portico. In Pompeii you can read signs on the walls that invite you to do so. This urine was mixed in the amphorae with the ashes and lime and was later poured into the rafts where the slaves would be in charge of rinsing the fabrics as if it were a winepress, stepping on the garments and impregnating them with the pestilential but detergent emulsion of soda. and urine.
Saltus fullonici
The process was very simple:after a brief inspection of the garments and the pertinent patches and repairs were made, they were thrown onto the raft for the intense trampling of the slaves. Once the stains had disappeared, the garments were taken to a larger outdoor pool, called lacuna fullonica , where they were rinsed with rainwater collected in the impluvio , they were drained and then hung out in the sun, perfumed with herbal and floral essences once dry for a few more coins for the more affluent customers. In the eagerness of the public administration to collect for everything, something that sounds very familiar today, the Emperor Vespasian decreed a tax on the urine collected in the fullonicae themselves. through free donations from citizens. Suetonius says that Titus, the emperor's son, reproached his father for said tax and that he took an aureus out of his bag, put it in his hand and asked if his smell bothered him. Tito denied it, and his father replied:“ and yet, it comes from urine ”.
PECVNIA NON OLET… (Money does not smell) .