Has flatulence always been considered impolite?

According to doctors, humans (including women, no matter how they deny it) suffer from an average of 14 episodes of flatus per day. Nervous types who swallow more air when they eat usually have more gas than the rest of us. Incidentally, the five main components of flatus are all odorless: nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and oxygen. Not-so-odorless emissions are due to sulfur compounds in eaten food, along with certain types of bacteria that can be found in the GI tract.

And yes, gastric eruptions are natural. Hippocrates believed that they were necessary to one’s well-being. So did the Roman Emperor Claudius, who decreed that “all Roman citizens shall be allowed to pass gas whenever necessary.” In 315 CE, however, Emperor Constantine officially proclaimed that polite folks should not do such things. So it appears that personal global warming was taboo in public long before flame-throwing party tricks (and the safety match) were invented.