Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)

"If a father has a child born which is rnonstruously deformed let him kill hirru mmediately." Previous to the Twelve Tables, the Jus Papirinaum (The Royal Laws) forbade the killing of children over three year of age under penalty or property confiscation. But if the child was crippled, the act was not punished. 204 SENECA: De ira, I. 18: "We drown the weakling and the monstrosity. It is not passion but reason to separate the the useless from the fit." (q. by ROPER, 12). He also said that it was injustice and crime to deliver children just to expose and abandon them to the doubtful charity of the public. 205 Cf. ROPER. 1. c. footnote 142, quoting QUINT Ł AN, LACTANTIUS, and SENECA. The exposed rarely survived. They were preserved either for prostitution or for slavery. Mendicants maimed children for profitable exhibits. Romulus and Remus were also exposed.

—Old and sick slaves used to be also exposed in the temple of Aesculapius on an island of the Tiber, and left there till recovery or death. In 47 A. D., CLAUDIUS issued his edict which made them free at recovery. 206 Latin writers frequently refer to abortion (JUVENAL, OVID, etc.), APULEIUS: Golden /iss, 14th episode:

—describes how husband, before going forth on a journey, directed his young wife that the coming baby, if a girl, was to be destroyed. 207 CICERO: Oratio pro Cluentio, XI: 31, mentions a case with the remark: ".. .this woman had destroyed the hope of a father, the memory of a name, the support of a race, the heir of the family, and a citizen who belonged to the State." Cf. also DENIS, 1. c. footnote 128, p. 109: "J'ose affirmer que mérne dans les plus mauvais temps de l'empire l'avortement ne fut jamais autorisé par la conscience publique..." 208 Cf. FINCH, 1. c., footnote 67. The male acolytes of Cybele, goddess of Nature, would selfcasirate themselves. Their severed genitals were presented to the goddess and buried with their virility before the altar. Cf. also EUSEBIUS: Depraeparat. Evang., VI: 8, in Syria many used to castrate themselves in honor of Rhea, until King Angarus ordered that all who mutilated themselves thus, were to have their hands cut off, too. 209 PUFENDORF, 1. c., 848: For emasculation a man had to ask the permission of the emperor or of the provincial governor. 210 Cf. the works of SORAŅŲS. See also PLINY: Hist, natúr., XI 63: "In the human race, the men have devised various substitutes for the more legitimate excercise of passion, all of which outrage nature; while the females have recourse to abortion. How much more guilty than the brute beasts are we in this respect". 211 Rome made religion an instrument to accomplish its own ends. There were laws against the fanatical cult of Bacchantes, many laws against the cult of Isis and Serapis. The suppressed the cult fostered in Gaul by the Druids. Every new cult required a state license. Prosecution of Christians always depended upon the public sentiment. 212 GILFILLAN, C. G. (1962): The inventive lag in classical Mediterranean Society. Technic Culture., 3: No. 1, 85-87., blames the heavy lead content of Roman wines for depopulation. 213 VESPASIAN moved population from Umbria, and the Sabine territory to the plain of Romes (SUETONIUS: Vespasian). MARCUS AURELIUS established the Marcomanni in Italy. PERTINAX offered land in Italy, and the provinces to anyone who could cultivate it.AURELIAN sent barbarians to Tuscany. VALENTINIAN settled German prisoners in the Po Valley. (Cf. SUMNER, 1. c., 292). See also GIBBON: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, N. Y. CONSTANTINE also adopted the plan of PROBUS in granting lands to displaced barbarians. 214 After the death of the king of Pergamon, ARISTONIKOS, in Leuka, his half brother raised against the Romans and summoned all slaves to fight. Many came, and ARISTONIKOS founded Sun town. cf. BEER M. (1957): The general history of socialism and social struggles, 2. vol. N. Y., vol. 1. 154. 215 SPARTACUS conceived the plan of establishing in Lower Italy a military state upon the model of Lycurgian Sparta. Cf. Ibid., 164. 216 This was planned by PLOTINUS, a favorite of Emperor Gallienųs. He got permission to establish a state in Campania, Platonopolis, according to Platonian pattern. This was perhaps the first serious thought of the realization of Utopia in 263 A. D. The project was defeated by the hostility of the courtiers, and the death of the Emperor. 59