The following story of some quite ingeniously opportunistic use of a bench we owe to the Roman historian Suetonius, who wrote an account of the life of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus - better known to us as the despot, Caligula.

Caligula's spending was legendary, and despite the huge wealth of the Roman imperial family he was still eventually reduced to bankruptcy. But his abilities to raise funds by fair means or, more usually,  foul were no less remarkable. One favourite ruse was to auction property and compel wealthy Romans to buy at absurd prices. (And you thought spending fortunes for tat on eBay was a new phenomenon!)

On one occasion the Senator Aponius Saturninus fell asleep whilst sitting on his bench at an auction. Seizing the opportunity, the Emperor Caligula ordered the auctioneer to accept the bid every time Saturninus's peacefully dozing head nodded. When he eventually woke up, he was 90000 gold pieces poorer, but on the plus side, he did now own a stable of thirteen reassuringly expensive gladiators!