18. Prostitution flourished in ancient Rome despite population control laws protecting marriage
Despite the laws which existed promoting marriage and procreation, prostitution by both sexes was legal under Roman law, and its proceeds were subject to taxation. Another law passed by Augustus decreed that women convicted of adultery could be sentenced to forced prostitution. It remained in effect until late in the fourth century. Sex workers were not citizens, and thus neither could their offspring be citizens. The practice of birth control thrived in Roman society, even as the leaders of the empire strove to have their citizens bear and raise children.
Other women, despite the rewards for bearing children, sought ways to avoid pregnancy. One motivating factor was the high rates of death from post-partum infections, or other complications encountered while giving birth. Contraceptives were developed as they were in Greece, using some of the same methods and developing new ones of their own. The expanse of the Roman Empire brought them herbal contraceptives which had not been available to the Greek city-states, while others were shared by both civilizations. One of them was an herb known as silphium.
