The questions of birth control have always troubled mankind. The search for methods of contraception and abortion by doctors doing started in the ancient world. Throughout the history of mankind abortion is one of the oldest problems of medical ethics, philosophy, law and theology. The mention of abortion is found in ancient Chinese writing more than 4,600 years ago. There is evidence that the ancient inhabitants of Australia tore the membranes to cause miscarriage. Moreover, the women of East Africa caused an abortion with special wooden sticks. This paper is dedicated to clarification of the methods of birth control and abortion in times of Roman Empire.
Some ancient doctors approached the issue carefully and allowed abortion only in cases where the birth mother is in danger or the child is. Especially abortions were common in the Hellenistic era and during the Roman Empire. In those days, they used to terminate pregnancies by ergot drugs, which do not always cause miscarriage, but cause significant side effects. Death because of abortion was not uncommon.
Attitude to abortion has always been controversial. A woman or a doctor who made an abortion could be prosecuted in older times. Abortion sanctioned banishment and hard labor in the mines. At the same time, Plato did not consider abortion impermissible means, as Aristotle simply did recommend it to limit excessive fertility. Romans on the other hand punished the production of induced abortion. However, this was only done for married couples. If abortion was done by unmarried women - it was allowed.
Thus, the practice of abortion, as well as the penalties for them has existed since time immemorial. However, the law in each country differently regulates this issue. These questions and procreation of family in any era are governed by a large number of written and unwritten rules and taboos, as the prosperity of any society depends on who, when and under what conditions and bears how many children children.
It may often seem to a modern society that its problems are unique and that these problems did no exist before. However, abortion - is not just a problem of the present time. The debates about the permissibility of abortion and infanticide were anciently. The attitude of society and the state to this procedure were diverse at different times. It depended on the particular social and political system, from the economic and social conditions of life of the population and population density in a given country, to the development of religious beliefs, the level of scientific knowledge, social and personal culture, and so on. There is no unity in human society on this issue even in our days.
In ancient times, the birth of children in the family was usually considered as a great happiness, because every child was in the absolute power of his father and was, in fact, a slave who could make perform any assignment, sell and even be killed. Therefore, the main problems of most freeborn men were solved once they received their father's permission to create their own family and grow from a slave to the master. However, even in those early ages, people sometimes looking for a way to avoid procreation, so as not to burden themselves with unnecessary worries.
Birth Control Methods in Roman Empire
The question of procreation was a purely family affair for ancient Greeks and Romans, even the Olympian gods did not intervene. Ancient civilization has developed a large arsenal of contraceptives the use of which was perfectly legal. Thus, the welfare of the city of Cyrene, a Greek colony founded in what is now Libya was entirely dependent on the willingness of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean to bear fewer children. In the vicinity of Cyrene was grown silfion - a plant family umbrella, which was considered the best means of contraception in the world. Probably so it was because Cyrene quickly became a thriving city, and even began to mint coins with the image of silfiona.
Demand for precious resin of the plant was so high that enterprising citizens just planted it at the root, after which the city quickly lost its former wealth. However, those who did and could not get silfion could use more accessible resources. Thus, the Roman believed that conception will be avoided, if worn on the leg with a leather pouch cat liver. There was also another way: three times to spit in a frog mouth.
In the Roman Empire Diaskorides recommend washing decoction of willow leaves. Later Soranus recommended before sexual intercourse to put a mixture of cedar resin, alum and pomegranate inside the vagina. He explained that with the help of binders introduced into the vagina in the form of a cloth soaked in medicine, you could narrow the cervix to prevent sperm to penetrate it. Also in Roman times, it was believed that pregnancy could be prevented by putting of elephant dung in the vagina.
However, the main tool to help the ancient family planning was not herbs and tinctures, but the general attitude towards children as beings of a lower order. It is known, for example, that the Spartans sought to strengthen its state, when sickly babies dumped off a cliff. Generally, in ancient societies below all value were the lives of girls, since parents do not always like to bear the costs of dowry in the future. For example, one Roman, wrote to his wife in the I century BC.: "I'm asking you nicely to take care of our son, and as soon as I get the money, immediately send them to you if you give birth to my arrival, then, if it's a boy, leave him, and if it's a girl - throw it". For most of the history of the Roman Empire, the murder of children was not considered a crime for parents as they were considered their legitimate owners.
The inhabitants of the ancient Mediterranean actively executed their right to determine who to keep and who to throw, as evidenced by the results of excavations of the ancient necropolis. Over time, the life of the subjects of the Roman Caesars increased, and the number of the Romans dropped because fewer people sought to acquire offspring. The right to kill children was taken away from their parents only in the Roman year 318 BC by Emperor Constantine. Even after that infanticide was not equated to homicide up to year 374 . The Roman Empire, however, is a belated decision not to save, and after a couple of centuries, the population made up for lack with the help of barbarians who migrated from the north to the empire.
Contraception was no longer applied after the decline of the Roman Empire in the V century. For example, there is no documented use of contraceptive peccaries until the XV century. If condoms were used in the Roman Empire, this was lost during its decline. A factor contributing to the cessation of birth, was the spread of Christianity, which declared any contraceptive methods as a sin.
Views of Abortion in the Roman Empire
According to ancient sources, abortion and infanticide were widely practiced in the ancient society of ancient Greece and Rome. Services in abortions were provided both by professional and non-professional abort makers and some doctors. Industry abortion methods include manipulation of the abdomen and uterus, use of herbal drugs administered in the form of suppositories or some oral solutions as well as the use of surgical instruments that were specially created for this purpose.
Abortion was not so complicated in its application but this service was rather expensive. Therefore only rich women resorted to abortion. The most common cause of abortion was a desire to cover up extramarital affairs, but sometimes women resorted to abortion only to save their figure and appeal.
Many philosophers and writers of the time approved abortion. There is a statement that belongs to Aristotle: "If the child were born in marriage in contrary to expectation, the fetus may be expelled before child begins to feel and live." In Aristotle work "Politics" not only abortion was recommended but also infanticide, if there was a risk of the birth of "deformed child".
Aristotle also argued that, “In places where a number of great children and local traditions prevent the killing of newborns, procreation restriction must be installed. But if, in spite of the limitation, the family is expecting a baby, an abortion must be made to the moment when the fetus will develop life and the ability to feel, because the difference between legal and illegal abortion exists when the fetal ability to feel, and therefore can be classified as alive". Aristotle advocated mechanization forced killing of sick children: "It is necessary to adopt a law that parents are not allowed to grow freaks". Plato in his "Republic” insisted that pregnant women over forty years of age are required to have an abortion because the pregnancy at that age was associated with higher maternal mortality and a greater frequency of fetal malformations.
He called infanticide a necessary means to maintain the quality of life. "The child of the lower class, as well as all children born with disabilities, should be secretly destroyed, so that no one knew what had become of him" .
This attitude towards children due to lack of knowledge in the field of medicine changed the social and political situation in the country. Abortion and infanticide were considered as absolutely logical and reasonable alternative to overcrowding, hunger and social turmoil.
A society which particularly appreciated athletic ability, strength and virility, neglected children - the epitome of weakness and immaturity. Thus, abortion, the deliberate killing of an unwanted child or a sick child were quite common. In Roman culture, the father, the head of the family, enjoyed absolute power. He had the right to give life or take away the life of any member of the family - the slaves, children, and wife. Even the earliest laws allowed the father to throw to die a healthy baby girl or a child of either sex with developmental disabilities.
Empedocles, Diogenes and Herodotus taught that the real life of the fetus in the womb is not, for the first breath occurs only at the moment of his birth. Thus, they approved of abortion at any stage of the pregnancy unlike Aristotle, who insisted on there being a time before birth when the fetus began to live. However, the years passed, circumstances of life changed and in the Roman Empire the attitude towards abortion began to change as well. Cicero called for the punishment of women who had an abortion: "A woman should be punished for the expulsion of the fetus, as it robs the republic intended for her citizen ".
Conclusion
Historians, archaeologists and other scholars to this day have a heated debate about what caused the fall of the great Roman Empire. Some people tend to blame the lead contained in the food of the Romans and severely undermined their health. Others accuse the barbarians, "the dark ages", resettlement and numerous wars.
Just recently, botany experts have put forward the theory that all was the fault of the miracle herb called silphium. A powerful contraceptive, which is based on it created ancient Aesculapius. While the miracle plant actively sold throughout the Mediterranean, the fertility rate in the Roman Empire fell considerably. Thus, despite the fact that life expectancy has increased, the citizens were fed better and more varied, and the wars and epidemics were not so many, the rate of the growth of population could have been higher.
The risk of the Empire, especially in the later period, abortion is not considered shameful than the widely used. In the era of the decline of the empire wealthy citizens preferred to have no family and no children. Initially, the embryos in the Roman law was treated as part of the mother’s body, so the woman was not punished for killing the fetus or exiling him from the womb. And only later the embryo was endowed with certain civic rights. Artificial abortion was interpreted as a crime against the rights of the parents, if someone wanted to achieve in this way the property rights. Attitude to abortion has always been different. For example, Plato and Aristotle disapproved of abortion and recommended it as the best method of birth control. The debate still goes on today.
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