Nam, ut aiunt qui priscos mores urbis tradiderunt, brachia et crura cotidie abluebant, quae scilicet sordes opere collegerant, ceterum toti nundinis lavabantur. hoc loco dicet aliquis: ‘liquet mihi immundissimos fuisse’. quid putas illos oluisse? militiam, laborem, virum. postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt.
(Seneca Minor, Ep. ad Luc. 85.12)
It is stated by those who have reported to us the old-time ways of Rome that the Romans washed only their arms and legs daily—because those were the members which gathered dirt in their daily toil—and bathed all over only once a week. Here someone will retort: “Yes; pretty dirty fellows they evidently were! How they must have smelled!” But they smelled of the camp, the farm, and heroism. Now that spick- and-span bathing establishments have been devised, men are really fouler than of yore. (tr. Richard M. Gummere)
Crambe Repetita 