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

for the size and quality of a population.

17

7 While maintaining the basic inequality of human beings, Greeks and Barbarians, he made a fine distinction between the well-born and the noble,

17

8 and their value in racial excellence.

17

9 He believed in the inheritance of aquired characteristics.

18

0 Of course, if this would be true, there would be no need for eugenics. In his population policies, Alexander, the Great, might have been influenced by his teacher, ARISTOTLE.

18

1 In his empire building, he promoted miscegenation,

182 and looked forward to it as a potent instrument for realizing his dreams. Exposure and abortion were extensively practiced in classical Antiquity, also for eugenic reasons.

18

3 ARISTOTLE remarked that each elderly woman should abort after her 40th year of life.

18

4 As an outgrowth of the Platonic ideas, later Greek writers narrated utopistic tales of remote countries where superior races were living for many years,

18

5 and old peoples or the crippled committed suicide for easing the burden of the community. Among the ancient Romans, family and married life was originally highly esteemed. To have children, and to rear legitimate offspring was regarded a duty of all citizens. Yet, patrician families began to decline rapidly

18

6 and the state had to introduce various penalties and taxes on bachelors.

18

7 When a famous clan ("gens") was in danger of extinction, the state intervened to save the family.

18

8 The legal marriage age for girls was 12-18 years,

18

9 for boys 14-25 years. Incest was punishable with death.

19

0" Rome opened with a sancturary of refuge. In the legendary story of Sabine women, forcibly married to Roman conquerors, it is unknown whether the Roman breed was improved by this miscegenation.

19

1 Marriage between patricians and plebeians was earlier declared unlawful,

19

2 but after the 5th ct. B.C. it was permitted,

19

3 and the originally rigid caste system softened. Intermarriage with foreigners was prohibited to Romans.

19

4 The army had its own population and genetic problems,

19

5 including the decreasing height of recruits.

19

6 Soldiers were theoretically celibate, yet the government needed a constant replenishment of recruits. The only Roman discussion on the State is from CICERO.

19

7 He condemned promiscuity, declared holy the shrines of the ancestors (Lares and Penates), and believed in eternal life of the soul.

19

8 In his opinion, poverty and fertility were indissolubly linked since old. Until the Empire era, Romans had no population policy.

19

9 Then, corruption and egoism restricted reproduction, and the policy was directed to the encouragement of marriage and parenthood.

20

0 The only object of AUGUSTUS was the perpetuity of the State; to this end, he passed laws against celibacy, and for prolific families.

20

1 He aimed at the regeneration of the Roman people as a whole, permanence of Italian stock, stimulation of birth rate. Subsequent emperors also followed the example of AUGUSTUS. TRAJAN assisted impoverished parents of the highest classes to enable them to rear children.

20

2 Destruction of conspiciously deformed infants was already authorized by the Twelve Tables.

20

3 Partly for eugenic reasons, the practice of infanticide continued.

204 Exposure, abandonment of defective infants was common in the lower classes.

203 Abortion became an universal vice in all classes of Roman society

20

6 for economic or social reasons, although it could be punished by exile into the Provinces.

207 Castration was a religious ritual among the priesthood of Cybele,

20

8 until a law 14