CLA233H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter Week 4: Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Cassius Dio, Childlessness
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Horace 1 bc roman lyric poet waxes poetic about his father. His father deserves all the credit for him becoming the man he is now. He feels no shame that his father was a freedman. Pliny the younger reports the sad news that his wife had a miscarriage: tragic since there was a necessity for heirs and women were taught they were only useful for giving birth. His wife didn"t realize she was pregnant. Strenuous activities + herbal concoctions will do the job. Unwanted children were exposed, left to be picked up by a stranger or to die from starvation. Deformed infants, girls, boys if the family could not afford him were exposed. The paterfamilias had absolute control over the children born into his family. Shelton 36: oxyrhynchus papyri 744 (select papyri 105) If it is a boy, raise him, if it is a girl, expose her. Augustus was concerned about declining birth rates.
