Following the death of Emperor Nero in 68CE there was roughly a year in which the Roman Empire found itself with four self-declared 'Emperors' battling for the newly opened position. All that came of it was death, destruction, and a bankrupt Imperial treasury. When Vespasian finally found himself as the last man standing for the position he had inherited a bleak financial situation. He needed to be creative in rebuilding the treasury...
In Ancient Rome, urine was deposited in huge cesspools and then resold by the collectors for a variety of industrial applications (something to do with its ammonia content?). If so many other business transactions can be taxed, why not tax the sale of pee? As comical as the may sound to us, there were many contemporaries of Vespasian who didn't appreciate this form of revenue. Soon these protests found there way to the Emperor by means of his son Titus who argued that there was something a bit 'off' about using 'sewer money'. According to Suetonius (De Vita Caesarum), Vespasian replied by holding aloft one of the coins brought by his son and declaring, "pecunia non olet"; that is to say, 'the money doesn't stink'. I laugh when I imagine the scene.
N.B. Apparently, his legacy lives on: modern urinals are still named after Emperor Vespasian in certain languages: vespasiano in Italy and vespasienne in French.
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