Infanticide Common in Roman Empire

Discovery ^ | 5/5/2011 | Jennerfer Vargas

[Little Bill]

Before the invention of modern contraception, family planning took the form of a chilling practice.

Infanticide, the killing of unwanted babies, was common throughout the Roman Empire and other parts of the ancient world, according to a new study.

The study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, explains that "until recently, (infanticide) was a practice that was widely tolerated in human societies around the world.

Prior to modern methods of contraception, it was one of the few ways of limiting family size that was both safe for the mother and effective."

Based on archaeological finds, the practice appears to have been particularly widespread in the Roman Empire.

"I think it was tolerated in the Roman world rather than something that was completely acceptable, but it's hard to be sure," lead author Simon Mays told Discovery News.

Mays, a senior scientific officer for the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of English Heritage, and colleague Jill Eyers focused their attention on Yewden Roman villa, otherwise known as "Hambelden." This villa, which dates from the 1st to the 4th century, is located at Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, England.

A previous excavation of Hambleden in 1921 determined that the site has 97 infant burials, the largest number of such burials for any Roman location in Britain. The excavator at the time suspected infanticide "with surreptitious disposal of the bodies."

[Little Bill]

Roman fathers could aand did order malformed children exposed, well documented. The knocking shop produced nothing when the girles were off line.

[Little Bill]

Impediments to the means of production! Ping.

[familyop]

"Infanticide Common in Roman Empire"

And according to the convincing political speech there and then, all of the Romans were against it.

[laweeks]

the practice appears to have been particularly widespread in the Roman Empire

We're still doing it here in the United States. If a baby is "accidentally" born during an abortion, and if the "mother" doesn't want the baby, hospitals are allowed to kill it by exposure or disposal in medical waste bins.

There is NO ATTEMPT TO GIVE IT TO THE FATHER, THE FAMILY OF THE BABY, OR TO AN ORPHANAGE. It is, in the words of the liberals, an obligate parasite.

Our POS in our White House is in full approval of this. And, it's done with tax payers' dollars.

And we are feebly trying to stop this carnage in congress. God forgive us.

[Little Bill]

You must not have read the same books I did.

[SunkenCiv]

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[familyop]

It was only a little joke about Rome’s most effective tool: propaganda.

[Little Bill]

Remember that in Rome if you were a slave you were a Servius Vocem, a tool with a voice, Latin Scholars correct.

[Brent Calvert 03969-030]

[DISCLAIMER: I Cut & Paste] (This is already happening in the Netherlands, where infanticide—while technically murder—is so widely accepted that Dutch doctors who euthanize babies published the “Groningen Protocol,” a bureaucratic infanticide checklist for use in deciding which babies can be ethically euthanized.

[AND] Peter Singer made that very point in Practical Ethics:

Regarding newborn infants as replaceable, as we now regard fetuses, would have considerable advantages over prenatal diagnosis followed by abortion. Prenatal diagnosis still cannot detect major disabilities. . . . At present, parents can choose to keep or destroy their disabled offspring only if the disability happens to be detected during pregnancy. There is no logical basis for restricting parents’ choice to these particular disabilities. If disabled newborn infants were not regarded as having a right to life until, say, a week or a month after birth it would allow parents, in consultation with their doctors, to choose on the basis of far greater knowledge of the infant’s condition than is possible before birth.

[heye2monn]

Infanticide also common in the American Empire.

[hellbender]

Probably the politicians claimed they wanted infanticide to be “safe, legal, and rare.”

[decimon]

I’ve read that infanticide was common in Europe until recently. It’s probably been common, period.

[Amberdawn]

I would think that childbirth was far more dangerous back in those days. Given that the Roman’s were well versed in poisons, etc., I’m sure there were those who tried to chemically abort.

[Secret Agent Man]

So what are they impplying? Shall we start the practice up again, it was so great?

It’s sure convenient for the living to advocate policies to kill the yet to be born. Or those close to the end of life for that matter.

[Secret Agent Man]

Well he will forgive us, but He will also punish us as a nation. It’s been a pretty rough punishment the last few years.

[eleni121]

That is the pagan Roman Empire (like the one led by the secular US today) NOT the glorious Christian one after Constantine the Great

[eleni121]

I tremble to consider God’s punishment on this sorry nation. Pagan Rome was awful but Carthage and its founder Phoenicia were far more horrible.
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Abortion%20is%20Murder/sacrifice.htm

[aruanan]

Before the invention of modern contraception, family planning took the form of a chilling practice.

Infanticide, the killing of unwanted babies, was common throughout the Roman Empire and other parts of the ancient world, according to a new study.

A good example of a Johnny come lately story.

See this LINK for quite detailed description of the treatment of children in tribal and other societies up to and including those of the present day. That of pre-WWII Germany is interesting as well as that of aboriginal Australia. You'll be able to see why exactly it was that the Brits wanted to take Abo children to be raised in British/Australian society.

[tbw2]

Given the already high rate of infant mortality, the estimate of “common” seems wrong. If half of kids didn’t live to 5, 10% died per year for the first five years. So many more children are buried than adults.
If infanticide were common, I would expect far more infant graves again in proportion to young children, since women had so many more children (6-12) in a life time.
Only 97 graves, as one of the largest they’ve found, seems too small to fit their “infanticide was common” mantra.
So many children died that one would rarely need to kill them unless there was an exceptional reason to do so, like keeping a female prostitute unencumbered or the wife killing the slave concubine’s child.

[aruanan]

Before the invention of modern contraception, family planning took the form of a chilling practice.

Infanticide, the killing of unwanted babies, was common throughout the Roman Empire and other parts of the ancient world, according to a new study.

Ha ha, as far as "ancient" goes, infanticide was common in England in the not too distant past. All those hospitals for foundling children were started to rescue unwanted, discarded babies. In Germany many babies were simply strangled after birth or sent to a special "nurse" who would take care of the problem in a permanent way.