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The Xylospongium, also known as ''sponge on a stick'', is the ancient precursor of the modern toilet brush. It consists of a wooden stick (Greek: ξύλον, ''Xylon'') with a sponge (Greek: Σπόγγος, ''Spongos'') fixed at one end. In the classical antiquity a ''xylospongium'' might be used in the same way as we use a toilet brush.〔Wiplinger 2012, S. 300-301.〕 All primary sources implicate the use of a ''xylospongium'' in the context of ancient latrines. But none clarifies the handling exactly. In the ''baths of the seven sages'' in Ostia, a fresco from the 2nd century contains the Inscription ''(u)taris xylosphongio''〔''L'Année épigraphique'' 1941, 5.〕 which is the first known mention of the term. Also in the early second century a papyrus letter of Claudius Terentianus to his father Claudius Tiberianus uses the term ''xylospongium'' in a phrase.〔(29)…''Non magis quravit me pro xylesphongium meo. Non magis cunavit me quam xylosphongium'' (30) ''sed siam negotium ct circa res suas.'' – Translation: (29)…He did not care for me more than for a xylospongium, (30) even for his own things. (Michigan Papyri VIII, 29-30)〕 In the middle of the first century Seneca reported that a Germanic gladiator had committed suicide with a sponge on a stick. The German hid himself in the latrine of an amphitheater and pushed the wooden stick into his gullet and choked to death.〔Seneca, ''Epistulae morales'' 8, 70, 20. …''lignum id, quod ad emundanda obscena adhaerente spongia positum est''…〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Xylospongium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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