Disability in ancient Rome

• Comment: A note to reviewers: this is a copy/paste page move, so if acceptable the existing page needs to be G6'd so the page history can be preserved. Primefac (talk) 13:16, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

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Disability was existent in Ancient Rome and was recognized in period writing, personal, medical, and legal. Some disabilities were sought after as slaves, while others that modern medicine recognizes as a disability were not considered as such. Other disabilities were judged more worthy to have than others. It is frequently limited to small mentions in other works, even medically.

Medical Opinion

Main article: Medicine in ancient Rome

Soranus of Ephesues, while working in the city of Rome, wrote in his books on gynaecology that only certain children were worth raising. He also listed the tests to perform and deformities to watch for in newborn children to ensure they were not disabled. His opinions on what persons were suitable to be midwives or wet nurses were similar. Claiming that they needed to be both physically and mentally able in order to do their jobs.

Galen also mentions the deficiencies of disabled people in his works on anatomy, listing both physical and mental handicaps as being resultant of the four humors.[1]

Mental Disorders came in two flavors to Roman Doctors; those that could be cured, and those that were not then considered a disability of the body. Amongst the latter were addictions, especially vinolentia.

Roman doctors had a variety of terms for varying degrees of optical impairment, depending on the strength of the individual's eyes. Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his treatise On Medicine (De Medicina), devoted a chapter to the subject of common eye infections, disease, problems, and the cures for each.

Roman Laws on Disability

Main article: Roman Law

The Twelve Tables had in them a law that disabled or deformed children should be put to death, usually by stoning. They also stipulated that if a free person or slave was disabled by a free individual, that was cause for payment or similar disfigurement.

In addition, Dionysus of Halicarnassus wrote that the city's founder Romulus required children who were born disabled to be exposed on a hillside. This is thought by historians to be a fairly common practice due to a believed high number of congenital defects, which are sourced due to poor nutrition, incest, and disease. However as time passed this law grew less important until in the third century it was required to take care of infants who were disabled.

Julius Caesar mentions in his Account of the Gallic War that the Gauls commonly disabled his Centurions, usually by blinding them, citing that four centurions out of a cohort were blinded by the Gauls. Such soldiers were to be given a stipend by the state once they left the legion.

Many late period Emperors, such as Nero or Caligula were known to use disfiguring or disabling as punishments for legal infractions as well as personal attacks.

In Roman Culture

Blindness or partial blindness was popular in the Roman psyche, as there are many individuals who become famous after losing an eye. Notably slaves would enter gladiator matches with an eyepatch covering a functional eye. Although historians disagree on whether this was in reference to the mythical cyclops or to make the gladiator look more veteran. It is also known that many mythological figures were said to be blind in return from favors from their gods, as well as known historical individuals. Such gifts varied from the gift of foresight to particular talent in singing. The language of the day also made note of those who were fully blind, caecus, and those who were partially sighted, luscus. In street fighting and in personal attacks the eyes were frequently targeted. Some blind children were trained to be beggars.

Disabilities received while in the military were seen as being marks of honor as opposed to simple disfigurements, with injuries to the eyes appearing most frequently in both common soldiers and famous names such as Hannibal. In the meantime, many roman writers such as, Seneca the Younger, would write about the physical failures of prominent Romans who they wish to lampoon. Roman leaders would also have themselves depicted as physically perfect in statues and coinage. In a similair vein, Pliny mentions a wealthy disabled man, Domitius Tullus, as being worthy of pity.

Deformed slaves were so popular that Plutarch writes about the different kind of deformations on display at the Monster Markets. Many roman women were recorded to have kept hunchbacks as pets, and hunchbacks appear in the court of Caligula.

Individuals with spinal deformities were fairly common in the public life, and in fact hunchbacks were considered to be a source of luck for others. Further they were occasionally known to rise to stations of eminent advisors, such as Nero's advisor Vatinius.

Many immobile Romans worked in tasks that did not require moving about, like potters and teachers. The God Vulcan was lame and worked as a smith, causing historians to believe that many Disabled Romans followed his example.

Famous disabled Romans

Main article: List of mentally ill monarchs

• Tiberius, (42 BC–37 AD, ruled 14–37 AD), a paranoid sexual deviant. While Tiberius was in his later years in Capri, rumours abounded as to what exactly he was doing there. Historian Suetonius records the rumours of lurid tales of sexual perversity, including graphic depictions of child molestation, and cruelty, and most of all his paranoia. While heavily sensationalized, Suetonius' stories at least paint a picture of how Tiberius was perceived by the Roman senatorial class, and what his impact on the Principate was during his 23 years of rule.
• Caligula, (12–41 AD, ruled 37–41 AD) nephew of Tiberius, suffered from paranoia and narcissism, believing that he was a god and that the god of the sea was plotting against him. Was an alcoholic, made his horse a consul, ordered political prisoners decapitated over dinner, married his sister and ordered political assassinations. According to multiple classical sources, his mental health deteriorated suddenly after a severe fever that nearly killed him. This suggests that organic brain damage from high body temperature or encephalitis (possibly malarial) may have played a causative role instead of or alongside a preexisting mental illness.
• Quintus Pedius, deaf painter and mentioned in Pliny's Natural History
• Nero, (37–68 AD, ruled 54–68 AD), nephew of Caligula, suffered from the same disorders as his uncle along with Histrionic personality disorder. Ordered the deaths of his mother and step-brother, had Christians crucified and burned, declared himself a god, allegedly started the Fire of Rome and played the lyre during it.
• Commodus, (161–192 AD, ruled 180–192 AD) suffered from narcissistic and histrionic personality disorders, respectively, renamed Rome, the Empire, the Praetorian Guard and various streets after himself, believed himself to be the reincarnation of Hercules and had a servant burned to death for making his bath too cold.
• Elagabalus (c. 203–222, ruled 218–222) catapulted venomous snakes at the people of Rome, invited guests to dinner only to give them inedible bread and leave lions in their bedrooms, used children's entrails for Divination, held lotteries for which the prizes consisted of wooden boxes containing bees, dead dogs and flies. Turned the Royal Palace into a public brothel.
• Justin II (520–578, ruled Eastern Rome 565–578). The temporary fits of insanity into which Justin fell warned him to name a colleague. According to John of Ephesus, as Justin II slipped into the unbridled madness of his final days, he was pulled through the palace on a wheeled throne, biting attendants as he passed. He reportedly ordered organ music to be played constantly throughout the palace in an attempt to soothe his frenzied mind.
• Claudius I (10 BC–54 AD, ruled 41–54) it is argued amongst historians whether Seneca the younger's depiction of him was political satire or in fact an account of his possible speech and physical disorders.