Rome had already been the center of the world, so it was established. It was dirty because people were throwing their urine and their fecal matter out their windows and into the streets. Bathing was not tradition, and if they used the public bathrooms they had, they would use a sponge that had been left there by the last person and briefly washed off, wipe with it, wash it off in the channel of water running by their feet, and put it back after they were done. Even though bathing was abnormal, Romans would wipe down their face and neck and hands to tidy up. Another factor as to why it could have been a mess was because the Bubonic Plague had occurred about 50 years beforehand.
