this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Explanation: The Roman Emperor Vespasian decided he needed more income, but didn't feel raising the proportions of existing taxes was appropriate. So he instituted a new tax - on urine. Urine was, bizarrely enough, purchased for leatherworking and cleaning - it's the ammonia - so buyers had to pay a tax on urine sold that was collected from public urinals from then on.
Vespasian's son, Titus, expressed disgust at the tax, but Vespasian is said to have waved a gold coin under his nose, and told him that the coin came from urine, yet it didn't smell. From which we get the modern Latin phrase 'Pecunia non olet' - 'Money doesn't smell'
Also, for this reason, some Romance languages still use words derived from Vespasian's name for urinals.
I expected it to be some oblique reference, but in Italian it's literally vespasiano. It's always crazy to me when thinking about Rome. Some guy taxes urine and 2000 years later his name is still part of the vernacular.