I sacked Carthage, and all I got was this stupid toga.

There is a joke about cornysouvenirsbeing someone ’s Roman Empire , and it would come in very handy now . Why ? Because the Roman Empire itself reportedly bring forth corny souvenirs . It ’s like the meme where two Spider - Men are sharpen towards one another , in a way .

But enough with my own obscure and borderline nonsensical thought process ! have ’s cut down to the following . If you thought dad joke - worthysouvenirsare all indirectly your papa ’s fault ( because they enable his baby boomer - friendly sensation of humor ) , archaeologists will try you incorrect . Actually , it ’s the Romans ’s faulting .

" Some thing never change ! " archaeologist Alison Fisk write on X in a late viral Emily Price Post . The post includes a pic of an objective . " A 2,000 year - honest-to-goodness Roman token pen with [ a ] caper lettering roughly tantamount to : ' I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap penitentiary ! ' Dated c. 70 AD , the stylus pen was found in London during excavations by MOLA . "

souvenirs in rome

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According toDigVentures.com , the Museum of London Archaeology ( MOLA ) found the playpen a few years ago during an digging project for Bloomberg ’s European military headquarters on the grounds of what once was Roman London .

But let ’s get back to the jest . allot to DigVentures , the engraved judgment of conviction written in Romance translates to the following : " I have get along from the city . I bring you a welcome giving with a sharp point that you may recollect me . I demand , if fortune allowed , that I might be able [ to give ] as generously as the way is long [ and ] as my pocketbook is empty . "

So , fundamentally , the " tawdry " or " lousy souvenir " trick is n’t surprising if you think about it . Maybe they did n’t have digital memes in romish time , but they sure had a sense of wit , which left many wondering how many souvenir idea they had .

" Just conceive of what other items were sold by the same ancient freshness / gag vendor , " another individual replied in the same thread start by Fisk . A photoshopped photo of a metric ton - shirt follows , record in prominent characters " Stvpidvs , " complete with an pointer pointing to the left .