It was used in tanning, wool production, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woolen togas. The urine collected from public urinals was sold as an ingredient for several chemical processes. The Roman lower classes urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools. Vespasian, Roman emperor from 69-79AD imposed a Urine Tax on the distribution of urine from public urinals in Rome’s great sewer system (Cloaca Maxima). In The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian, when Admiral Saumarez is speaking of "glory to be picked up in the Baltic and in any case, who cares about filthy lucre?", one of the assembled captains murmurs "Non olet".The latest issue in our Latin Allure Series, “Pecunia Non Olet.” In London Fields by Martin Amis, while smelling a wad of used £50 notes, foil Guy Clinch observes, "Pecunia non olet was dead wrong. At the time, Jack is beset with doubts about the source of his inheritance. In the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel All The King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren (1946), protagonist Jack Burden muses that perhaps Vespasian had been right. They regarded it as a slap in the face for the dilettanti and Die-hards, who replied by christening their new Warden Non-Olet." The subject had, if anything, rather recommended him to the Progressive Element. Lewis, the Warden of Bracton College is given the nickname "Non-Olet" for having written "a monumental report on National Sanitation. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to Vespasian's jest in The Great Gatsby with the phrase "non-olfactory money". The proverb receives some attention in Roland Barthes's detailed analysis of the Balzac story in his critical study S/Z. "Vespasian's axiom" is also referred to in passing in the Balzac short story Sarrasine in connection with the mysterious origins of the wealth of a Parisian family. 'Non olet', from whatever source it may come." In his description of money and the circulation of commodities generally, Karl Marx refers to this phrase when he observes "since every commodity disappears when it becomes money it is impossible to tell from the money itself how it got into the hands of its possessor, or what article has been changed into it. Vespasian's name still attaches to public urinals in France ( vespasienne) and Italy ( vespasiano). The phrase Pecunia non olet is still used today to say that the value of money is not tainted by its origins. When Titus said "No", Vespasian replied, "Yet it comes from urine" ( Atqui ex lotio est). The Roman historian Suetonius reports that when Vespasian's son Titus complained about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and asked whether he felt offended by its smell ( sciscitans num odore offenderetur).
It was used in tanning, wool production, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas. Some people in Germany liked the story of the origins of the phrase so much that they even made a family board game of the same name. (The Roman lower classes urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools.) The urine collected from public urinals was sold as an ingredient for several chemical processes. Pecunia non olet meaning, money does not stink was a famous phrase coined as a result of this tax levied by the emperors Nero and Vespasian in the 1st century AD. Vespasian imposed a Urine Tax ( Latin: vectigal urinae) on the distribution of urine from public urinals in Rome's Cloaca Maxima (great sewer) system. The tax was removed after a while, but it was re-enacted by Vespasian around 70 AD in order to fill the treasury. A tax on the disposal of urine was first imposed by Emperor Nero under the name of “vectigal urinae” in the 1st century AD.