Galen and other physicians and midwives recognized the contraceptive value of silphium and other herbs. Wikimedia
19. Silphium was a common contraceptive used by the Romans
Silphium came to Rome from Cyrene, in North Africa. Soranus of Ephesus recommended the use of silphium to induce menstruation. Pennyroyal, as it was in Greece, was used as another contraceptive, especially after supplies of silphium waned. Pennyroyal was highly toxic, causing kidney and liver damage, and if such were observed by Roman doctors none seem to have written of them. The same was true of other herbal contraceptives, nearly all of them had undesirable side effects, though not all were toxic to the point of being life-threatening. Some simply caused indigestion or congestion.
The common weed found throughout the western world known as Daucus Carota to botanists, and Queen Anne’s Lace to Americans was used to initiate miscarriage. It was frequently mixed with other herbs, including pennyroyal, and brewed into a beverage. Other herbs were brewed into beverages by Roman physicians and midwives to do what the authorities no doubt approved of – aid the chance of pregnancy. Others were made to ensure that the child would be a male. The Romans also fashioned intrauterine devices of several different materials – including lead – to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
The Roman brothels offered prostitutes protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Wikimedia
20. The Romans had a modern method of birth control at their disposal
One of the key innovations of the Romans was the development of a robust public health system. It emerged due to the many representatives from the lands they conquered coming to Rome. Citizens traveled to foreign lands and returned. The result was the presence of diseases contracted at various places finding their way around the empire. Among them were sexually transmitted diseases. It is often reported that the Romans had primitive condoms at their disposal. They did, but they were not considered a form of birth control. They were a device used to protect women from sexually transmitted diseases acquired by men.
The condoms were made of linen cloth, lined with tissue from the intestines and bladders from sheep and goats. It is often speculated that human tissue was used as well, obtained from men killed in battle, but there is little in the way of evidence to support the claim. They were found in the brothels of Rome and the other cities of the empire. Though they were not used for the purpose of contraception, they nonetheless served to support that function. Whether the Romans developed them on their own or learned of their use in many of the lands which their armies visited – such as Egypt – is a source of debate.
The Greek and Roman gods practiced monogamous marriage, as with Zeus and Hera, depicted at their wedding. Wikimedia
21. The Greeks and Romans practiced monogamy in marriage
Both the Greeks and the Romans practiced monogamy as it applied to marriage, in the sense in both that marriage was to one woman at a time. This distinguished them from other ancient civilizations, in which polygamy was common. In contrast, the biblical account of King Solomon described him as having hundreds of wives and concubines, though only one was named in the Bible (Naamah). Roman and Greek monogamy likely arose as part of the egalitarian nature of their civilizations, in which all citizens shared certain rights equally, and even the slaves and lower classes were afforded protection under the common law.
In both Rome and the Greek city-states, divorce was possible, and in some cases demanded by the state, as in the case of Rome requiring cuckolded husbands to divorce their adulterous wives. Other than adultery, there were no laws in either civilization regarding premarital or extramarital relationships. Roman law claimed to support the sanctity but married men who visited the brothels were not guilty of adultery. The monogamous marriage remained a feature of Roman life as Christian sects emerged in Rome, and it was adopted throughout the empire, and in the lands where Christianity continued to spread following the demise of the Western Empire.
A statue of a Roman child playing with a bird, date unknown. Wikimedia
22. The Romans practiced exposure of infants for population control as well
Despite the laws mandating married couples throughout the empire to produce children, exposure of children as practiced by the Greeks was common in Roman society. It was not limited to children born frail or suffering from a deformity of some type. Perfectly healthy children could be and were abandoned to face their fate simply as a means of keeping the family small. In Rome (as in Greece) female infants were more likely to be abandoned. Some were lucky, adopted as foundlings into other families, but many were not, and died of thirst and exposure. The practice was followed across the Roman empire.
As noted, exposure was a method of disposing of unwanted children in many societies of the ancient world. Moses was abandoned by his natural mother, and found among the bulrushes by a Princess of Egypt, at least according to the Hebrew Bible. It continued in Rome through most of the fourth century, though in 313 Constantine enacted a law which allowed unwanted children to be sold. Most such children were thus doomed to spend their lives as slaves. Babies who were exposed could be picked up and made into slaves before Constantine’s action, eventually increasing the workforce, another reason the brutal means of population control was tolerated even as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire.
Roman laws punishing childless marriages remained in effect until the time of Emperor Constantine. Wikimedia
23. Population control and birth control in Ancient Greece and Rome
The Ancient Greeks and the Romans were on opposite ends of the pole when it came to population control. The leaders of the Greek city-states were urged to restrict the growth of the population in order that the state could properly care for its citizens. The Roman authorities urged the citizens of Rome to procreate freely, raising families which would, in turn, raise others, strengthening the empire. In both cases, the citizens of the respecting areas heard the admonishments of the authorities and for the most part, did what they wanted anyway. Laws against adultery in Rome did not end adultery; Emperor Augustus was forced, under the law, to banish his own daughter for the crime.
Both societies condoned prostitution, practiced by males and females, and both condoned homosexuality. Both societies and the laws they supported were dominated by male superiority. In Rome, the use of contraceptives within the marriage was illegal, in the Greek city-states, it was encouraged. Greeks encouraged citizens to refrain from having children, the Romans wanted women to give birth up to the age of fifty. Much of the practices of both civilizations are considered today to have been barbaric, but to their practitioners, they were expedients of the time. Upon the backs of both, western civilization and democracy were built.
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