How did the ancients treat their pets? What did they do if they needed a quick bite to eat? What sorts of games did their children play? Such details emerge in this compendium of “out-of-the-way” facts and amusing anecdotes, shedding light on daily life in classical Greece and Rome. They Did It First provides a multifaceted look at the ancient world—from the obscure to the surprisingly familiar—by deftly weaving together evidence from written sources and material culture. As the author proceeds through an assortment of topics, parallels between antiquity and the modern world become clear.
Like its companion quotation collection, They Said It First, this miscellany is suitable for both casual readers and those looking for an accessible reference guide. Well-considered citations of both primary and secondary sources encourage further research, perfect for anyone curious about the activities and inventions of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
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Classics often needs to justify its relevance. The title of Vereeck et al.’s 2024 survey of public opinion, “Revered and reviled,” highlights a struggle to defend the Classics which is unlikely to dissipate. [1] One charge is simply that Classics is boring. In a thread on a popular discussion forum eliciting reasons for learning Latin, one response reads, “If you’re into church history and old theological documents like me then Latin can definitely give you a hand with that!”[2] A valid point but hardly a ringing endorsement. The aim of Kenneth Kitchell’s hugely enjoyable They Did it First is to put the fun back into Classics by presenting a compendium of the strange and striking in Greco-Roman antiquity.
The model, acknowledged in the introduction (p. xii), is Ripley’s Believe It or Not! collection of the bizarre (“Taking a bite out of a 1500-year-old Roman burger”).[3] An obvious influence, also acknowledged, is Pliny the Elder’s idiosyncratic Natural History, which starts with the difficulty of vetustis novitatem dare (“giving novelty to the old”).[4] They Did it First is structured alphabetically by topic, “Advertising” to “War & the military,” punctuated throughout by illustrations (my favourite is the Greek terracotta figure of children demonstrating “Piggyback rides” on p. 86.) The approach is eclectic, topics chosen according to their interest value and the author’s personal tastes. That the largest section covers the “Animal world” is probably due to Kitchell’s own research in this area, notably Kitchell (2014), which also includes much of the curious, especially when it comes to dubious beasts such as the corocottas (hyena?)[5]
The intended readership is more the general reader than the scholar. This is clear from the personal style centred on finding connections with life today. For example, “Tweeting out fake news” (p. 135) tells the tale, attributed to the 3rd century CE Roman theologian Hippolytus, of birds trained to tweet the merits of the Libyan king Apsethos, only for the king’s propaganda ploy to fail when a resentful Greek retrained the birds to defame Apsethos, resulting in the ruler being burned alive. Fake news is nothing new, pun intended, only we are much softer on the perpetrators. As the title suggests, They Did it First stresses the communality between us and the ancients in order to make their world more accessible. As Kitchell admits (p. xii), the title is stretching it a bit in claiming firsts for the Greeks and Romans. For instance, a browse of Wikipedia shows that numerology (pp. 158–160) was practised by the Assyrians; crossbows (p. 179) were used in 7th century BCE China; baby rattles (pp. 33–34) have been found in bronze age cemeteries in Poland. The point is not that the Greeks and Romans were necessarily the first to get there (although sometimes they were); the point is that their civilisation anticipated ours in many aspects, which are both fascinating and elucidating.
As with any reference work, few will probably read They Did it First linearly or in its entirety. For this reason, I will choose some entries to discuss in order to give a flavour of the book. At the time of writing this, there is interest in the future of the Panama canal,[6] so “Colossal canal projects” (pp. 47–48) resonates with the story of two aborted engineering projects: Xerxes’ canal across the Mount Athos peninsula and Nero’s attempt to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth. The latter was eventually realised in 1893 but proved too narrow for major commercial operations, which may give Nero some schadenfreude (and caution rulers interfering with waterways.). Not to be outdone, Nero’s wife, Poppaea Sabina, pops up in “Fashion & beauty”, because she needed the milk of all of five hundred asses for her bath. No wonder “Poppaea even brought a herd of asses with her when she travelled” (p. 67). Nero may not have got his canal, but he sent Poppaea off in style, burning a year’s worth of incense at her funeral.[7]
The ancients’ lives were frequently stranger than fiction but an intriguing entry is “Science fiction” (p. 20), thought to be a modern phenomenon. Said to qualify in this genre is Lucian of Samosata’s 2nd century BCE Vera historia (?????? d????µat??) recounting a trip to the moon via hazards and attractions such as a river of wine, spiders larger than the Cyclades islands and a mirror basically functioning as a Google Earth. The Oxford Classical Dictionary stops short of designating this “masterly Munchausenesque parody of tall travel stories”[8] science-fiction, but it certainly combines elements of (pseudo)science and fiction as well as satire. Rather than categorising Vera historia, Ni’ Mheallaigh (2014) interprets the yarn on a meta-level as the reader’s exploration of the “competitive dynamic between fiction and reality” through the author’s explorations.[9] Kitchell’s enticing entry not only makes one want to read Lucian, it also raises questions of narratology, the function of a text and ancient as compared to modern reception.
If you are still reading, it will be evident that They Did it First contains much of the humorous. To pick out two examples, “A letter home from school” (p. 62) gives an insight into the muddled life of one student in Alexandria. Moaning about his teachers, apologising for student scrapes, sponging from his father, this could be a social media post today rather than a first-century BCE papyrus fragment. It is a shame the father’s response is lost to posterity. “An impressive diet” (pp. 144–145) refers to the Roman emperor Julius Verus Maximinius who “supposedly ate forty pounds of meat a day, washed down with an amphora (roughly five gallons) of wine.” The source, Scriptores Historiae Augustae (Duo Maximini 4), adds that Maximinius abstained from vegetables, so he may have been an early advocate of the carnivore diet, the health benefits of which are contested.[10] One suspects Maximinius was not one to factor health concerns into his lifestyle choices.
As a Classicist, I am biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed my Lucian-style adventure through They Did it First, picking up much knowledge and insight on the way, and I suspect casual readers will have the same experience. It will take more than one book to dispel notions that Classics is irrelevant, but They Did it First showcases why so many of us are passionate about our subject. It also makes the “they” more immediate. Millennia may have passed but many of the basic needs and preoccupations remain, from our love of pets to our preference for conflict resolution through violence. In this respect, They Did it First is a sobering read, reminding us to be modest over our achievements, as they were frequently foreshadowed, and grateful to the fact that so much of the Classical world has survived and made an indelible contribution to our culture.
Notes
[1] Vereeck, A., Bracke, E., De Herdt, K., & Janse, M. (2024). Revered and reviled. An outline of the public debate regarding classical language education. Journal of Classics Teaching, 25(50), 101-115. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631024000424
[2] MrSmit721. (2015). What are the pros and cons of learning Latin? [Online forum post]. r/languagelearning. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/3f7v2w/what_are_the_pros_and_cons_of_learning_latin/?form=MG0AV3
[3] Ripley’s believe it or not. (2021, April 9). Taking a bite out of a 1500-year-old Roman burger. Ripley’s: Vintage and historical. https://www.ripleys.com/stories/1500-year-old-roman-burger
[4] Pliny the Elder. Natural history. Praef. 15.
[5] Kitchell, K. F. (2014). Animals in the ancient world from A to Z. Routledge.
[6] McCarthy, S. (2025, February 7). Trump says China ‘operates’ the Panama Canal – how deep are Beijing’s ties to the key waterway? CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/07/china/panama-canal-china-trump-explainer-intl-hnk/
[7] Pliny the Elder. Natural history. XII.83.
[8] Edwards, W. M., Browning, R., Andersen, G, & Bowie, E. (2012). Lucian. The Oxford classical dictionary (4th edn.) Oxford University Press.
[9] Ni’ Mheallaigh, K. (2014). Reading fiction with Lucian: fakes, freaks and hyperreality. Cambridge University Press.
[10] Wells, H. (2024). The carnivore diet: what eating only meat does to your health, a nutritionist explains. BBC science focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/carnivore-diet-health-impact
The model, acknowledged in the introduction (p. xii), is Ripley’s Believe It or Not! collection of the bizarre (“Taking a bite out of a 1500-year-old Roman burger”).[3] An obvious influence, also acknowledged, is Pliny the Elder’s idiosyncratic Natural History, which starts with the difficulty of vetustis novitatem dare (“giving novelty to the old”).[4] They Did it First is structured alphabetically by topic, “Advertising” to “War & the military,” punctuated throughout by illustrations (my favourite is the Greek terracotta figure of children demonstrating “Piggyback rides” on p. 86.) The approach is eclectic, topics chosen according to their interest value and the author’s personal tastes. That the largest section covers the “Animal world” is probably due to Kitchell’s own research in this area, notably Kitchell (2014), which also includes much of the curious, especially when it comes to dubious beasts such as the corocottas (hyena?)[5]
The intended readership is more the general reader than the scholar. This is clear from the personal style centred on finding connections with life today. For example, “Tweeting out fake news” (p. 135) tells the tale, attributed to the 3rd century CE Roman theologian Hippolytus, of birds trained to tweet the merits of the Libyan king Apsethos, only for the king’s propaganda ploy to fail when a resentful Greek retrained the birds to defame Apsethos, resulting in the ruler being burned alive. Fake news is nothing new, pun intended, only we are much softer on the perpetrators. As the title suggests, They Did it First stresses the communality between us and the ancients in order to make their world more accessible. As Kitchell admits (p. xii), the title is stretching it a bit in claiming firsts for the Greeks and Romans. For instance, a browse of Wikipedia shows that numerology (pp. 158–160) was practised by the Assyrians; crossbows (p. 179) were used in 7th century BCE China; baby rattles (pp. 33–34) have been found in bronze age cemeteries in Poland. The point is not that the Greeks and Romans were necessarily the first to get there (although sometimes they were); the point is that their civilisation anticipated ours in many aspects, which are both fascinating and elucidating.
As with any reference work, few will probably read They Did it First linearly or in its entirety. For this reason, I will choose some entries to discuss in order to give a flavour of the book. At the time of writing this, there is interest in the future of the Panama canal,[6] so “Colossal canal projects” (pp. 47–48) resonates with the story of two aborted engineering projects: Xerxes’ canal across the Mount Athos peninsula and Nero’s attempt to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth. The latter was eventually realised in 1893 but proved too narrow for major commercial operations, which may give Nero some schadenfreude (and caution rulers interfering with waterways.). Not to be outdone, Nero’s wife, Poppaea Sabina, pops up in “Fashion & beauty”, because she needed the milk of all of five hundred asses for her bath. No wonder “Poppaea even brought a herd of asses with her when she travelled” (p. 67). Nero may not have got his canal, but he sent Poppaea off in style, burning a year’s worth of incense at her funeral.[7]
The ancients’ lives were frequently stranger than fiction but an intriguing entry is “Science fiction” (p. 20), thought to be a modern phenomenon. Said to qualify in this genre is Lucian of Samosata’s 2nd century BCE Vera historia (?????? d????µat??) recounting a trip to the moon via hazards and attractions such as a river of wine, spiders larger than the Cyclades islands and a mirror basically functioning as a Google Earth. The Oxford Classical Dictionary stops short of designating this “masterly Munchausenesque parody of tall travel stories”[8] science-fiction, but it certainly combines elements of (pseudo)science and fiction as well as satire. Rather than categorising Vera historia, Ni’ Mheallaigh (2014) interprets the yarn on a meta-level as the reader’s exploration of the “competitive dynamic between fiction and reality” through the author’s explorations.[9] Kitchell’s enticing entry not only makes one want to read Lucian, it also raises questions of narratology, the function of a text and ancient as compared to modern reception.
If you are still reading, it will be evident that They Did it First contains much of the humorous. To pick out two examples, “A letter home from school” (p. 62) gives an insight into the muddled life of one student in Alexandria. Moaning about his teachers, apologising for student scrapes, sponging from his father, this could be a social media post today rather than a first-century BCE papyrus fragment. It is a shame the father’s response is lost to posterity. “An impressive diet” (pp. 144–145) refers to the Roman emperor Julius Verus Maximinius who “supposedly ate forty pounds of meat a day, washed down with an amphora (roughly five gallons) of wine.” The source, Scriptores Historiae Augustae (Duo Maximini 4), adds that Maximinius abstained from vegetables, so he may have been an early advocate of the carnivore diet, the health benefits of which are contested.[10] One suspects Maximinius was not one to factor health concerns into his lifestyle choices.
As a Classicist, I am biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed my Lucian-style adventure through They Did it First, picking up much knowledge and insight on the way, and I suspect casual readers will have the same experience. It will take more than one book to dispel notions that Classics is irrelevant, but They Did it First showcases why so many of us are passionate about our subject. It also makes the “they” more immediate. Millennia may have passed but many of the basic needs and preoccupations remain, from our love of pets to our preference for conflict resolution through violence. In this respect, They Did it First is a sobering read, reminding us to be modest over our achievements, as they were frequently foreshadowed, and grateful to the fact that so much of the Classical world has survived and made an indelible contribution to our culture.
Notes
[1] Vereeck, A., Bracke, E., De Herdt, K., & Janse, M. (2024). Revered and reviled. An outline of the public debate regarding classical language education. Journal of Classics Teaching, 25(50), 101-115. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631024000424
[2] MrSmit721. (2015). What are the pros and cons of learning Latin? [Online forum post]. r/languagelearning. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/3f7v2w/what_are_the_pros_and_cons_of_learning_latin/?form=MG0AV3
[3] Ripley’s believe it or not. (2021, April 9). Taking a bite out of a 1500-year-old Roman burger. Ripley’s: Vintage and historical. https://www.ripleys.com/stories/1500-year-old-roman-burger
[4] Pliny the Elder. Natural history. Praef. 15.
[5] Kitchell, K. F. (2014). Animals in the ancient world from A to Z. Routledge.
[6] McCarthy, S. (2025, February 7). Trump says China ‘operates’ the Panama Canal – how deep are Beijing’s ties to the key waterway? CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/07/china/panama-canal-china-trump-explainer-intl-hnk/
[7] Pliny the Elder. Natural history. XII.83.
[8] Edwards, W. M., Browning, R., Andersen, G, & Bowie, E. (2012). Lucian. The Oxford classical dictionary (4th edn.) Oxford University Press.
[9] Ni’ Mheallaigh, K. (2014). Reading fiction with Lucian: fakes, freaks and hyperreality. Cambridge University Press.
[10] Wells, H. (2024). The carnivore diet: what eating only meat does to your health, a nutritionist explains. BBC science focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/carnivore-diet-health-impact
