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Whatsapp You might find a vomitorium at a Roman theatre, but you wouldn't want to spew in it

While the famously debauched Romans sometimes enjoyed a cheeky spew after dinner, they didn't do it in a vomitorium. In fact, vomitorium means something entirely different, writes Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.

Even without having ever learnt the language, there is probably one Latin word we all know—'vomitorium'. Dredging through our memory banks, we all 'know' that the vomitorium was the special room where, back in rather debauched Roman times, gluttonous eaters would go to vomit.

Sorry, but vomiting is not what you're supposed to do in a vomitorium.

The word 'vomitorium' does indeed come from the Latin root 'vomere' meaning 'to vomit' or 'to spew forth'. But it does not refer to the contents of one’s stomach.

So why do so many of us think it's true? Probably we picked up this incorrect knowledge about the vomitorium early in our lives—either at school from teachers or friends, or after school days in general conversation.

Various reasons were given for visiting the vomitorium.

In most cases, the myth suggests that the well-off Roman citizens visited the vomitorium between courses at the banquet to make more room in their tummy for a bit more overeating. But sometimes it's claimed that these Romans had more money than sense, so they vomited specifically to let others know that they possessed fabulous wealth. In this case, they didn't eat for nutrition, but as a sign of conspicuous consumption.

There's also another version that suggests that some Romans vomited to keep their waists slim and their weight down.

But regardless of why they vomited, the popular myth is that they went to the vomitorium to vomit.

The word 'vomitorium' does indeed come from the Latin root 'vomere' meaning 'to vomit' or 'to spew forth'. But it does not refer to the contents of one's stomach. A vomitorium is actually a passage or opening in a theatre (or amphitheatre), leading to or from the seating, through which the audience members would pass.

In plain English, a vomitorium is a corridor. These corridors, or passages, would be big enough to rapidly disgorge the audience—in the case of a fire or other emergency, but mostly for the mundane task of just removing the audience quickly, to make room for another show immediately afterwards.

In Rome, the Coliseum (the largest amphitheatre ever built), had 76 vomitoriums for the common spectators to enter or leave. There were another four vomitoriums for the exclusive use of the Imperial family. As a result of having these 80 spacious entrances or exits, 50,000 people could get in or out of the Coliseum within 15 minutes.

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The word vomitorium was first used in the fourth century AD by the Roman writer Macrobius. He wrote about the amphitheatre passageways that could 'disgorge' the audience to and from their seats. It has long been used by architects, builders and theatre folk in its correct context.

Mind you, the whole issue is made slightly more complex by the fact that vomiting did sometimes occur after a bout of Roman 'fine dining'. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, writes of slaves specifically employed to wipe up 'the leavings of drunks'. The Roman orator Cicero writes that on one occasion, Julius Caesar, 'expressed a desire to vomit after dinner', and indeed implies that Caesar took drugs to help him vomit. But nowhere does the Roman literature suggest that there was a specific room for vomiting.

The first incorrect use of 'vomitorium' in the English language seems to have been by Aldous Huxley in 1923 in his comic novel, Antic Hay. He wrote, 'There strode in, like a Goth into the elegant marble vomitorium of Petronius Arbiter, a haggard and disheveled person.'

The urban historian Lewis Mumford made a similar mistake in his 1961 work, The City in History. He wrote that greedy Roman eaters had 'thrown up the contents of their stomach in order to return to their couches'. However, he did also write that only later did the word get linked to entrances or exits at the stadium.

In the theatre, the word is abbreviated to 'vom'. So a director will coach an actor and tell them that they should leave via the 'stage right vom'.

Some modern theatres do incorporate 'voms'. In addition to allowing the movement of the audience, they are often used by the actors to make their entrance or exit. The Cockpit Theatre in London was built in the 1960s as a theatre-in-the-round (it's actually a square). It has four voms, one between each bank of raised seating. In New York, the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway, which opened in 1970, also has several voms.

So if you are unlucky enough to vomit in the vomitorium, don't expect anybody to applaud.