/lit/ - Literature

>>19234901
>There is considerable evidence to show that Roman society in the late Republic and early Empire was afflicted by a low birth- rate. Augustus in 18 B.C. found it necessary to pass the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus in the hope of raising the birth-rate by penalizing the unmarried and the childless. In 9 A.D. he attempted to supplement this law with the lex Papia Poppaea. The very existence of this legislation indicates that the problem of childlessness was widespread and long-lasting, a view which is further to this subject in Latin literature1). supported by references A number of theories have been put forward by scholars to explain this fact. Among these are the notion that Romans practised contraception and abortion to avoid the birth of unwanted from a form that members of the upper classes suffered children2), of dysgenic lead poisoning caused mainly by the use of lead cooking vessels, which rendered many of them sterile3), and that a form of natural selection in favour of infertility took place, due to the common practice among noble males of trying to marry heiresses who were the sole children of their families and therefore in their turn4). Any or all of likely to demonstrate low fertility these practices may have been genuine contributing factors to the low birth-rate in Rome. However it is the contention of this paper that a far more significant factor to the low birth-rate contributing was the Roman practice of taking very hot daily baths. ... There can be little doubt that the baths enjoyed by the Romans were very hot and very frequent. According to Pliny the Elder (PL N.H. 36.121) the census of baths taken by Aerippa in 33 B.C. snowed that there were 170 baths in Rome and this number undoubtedly increased with time. It is common knowledge that Romans, even of the lower social classes, were in the habit of taking daily baths and some seem to have bathed even more frequently (Petronius, Satyricon 72). The usual routine11) to warm up er was to play a game of ball in the sphaeristerium before entering the tepidarium where he would sweat for a while with his clothes on. He would then undress in the apodyterium and be anointed with oil. After this he would sweat profusely in the caldarium and even more profusely in the laconicum, which was directly over the hypocaust. The next step would be to have warm, tepid and finally cold water poured over him, after which he would be scraped with a strigil and sponge

https://kirkegaard.substack.com/p/ancient-history-dysgenics-genomics-and-cyclical-history-theory