They were infected by roundworm, whipworm, and microscopic protozoans called Giardia duodenalis.
It probably sucked to be a Roman soldier guarding Hadrian’s Wall circa the third century CE. W.H. Auden imagined the likely harsh conditions in his poem “Roman Wall Blues,” in which a soldier laments enduring wet wind and rain with “lice in my tunic ... [4333 chars]