While we usually look back on Ancient Rome with awe, it’s not all beautiful architecture and timeless poetry. There are quite a few truths about Ancient Rome and her culture that even those of us still living in the Romans’ shadow and tradition would find… disturbing.
1. The Roman Legal System Required Torture
Most people are aware the Romans loved torture, the most famous method being crucifixion. However, what most people don’t know is that torture, which came in many forms, was more than just an occasional punishment reserved for the most heinous criminals or used by the most sadistic rulers. Rather, it was, in many situations, required by the Roman judicial system, and often for people who were witnesses of a crime, not just the perpetrators themselves.
As you can probably guess, these people were the slaves, who at times made up around a third of Roman society. The Roman legal system held that a slave wasn’t trustworthy and you could only get a true testimony out of him through torture.
Key Takeaways
- The Roman legal system mandated torture for witnesses, primarily slaves, to extract testimony.
- Lead poisoning was prevalent in Ancient Rome due to its extensive use in water pipes and cooking utensils.
- Roman erotic art, often found in Pompeii, was explicit and sometimes still restricted to children today.
- Infanticide through exposure was common in Ancient Rome, often due to poverty or perceived deformities.
- Human sacrifice, though officially banned, persisted in various forms within Roman rituals and punishments.
Usually for information regarding their masters’ disputes or actions, not anything they themselves had done. As a result, if someone lost a legal battle, part of the penalties would involve reimbursement for the other party’s slaves, who at the very least were injured during the proceedings if not killed.
During the Roman Republic and early days of the empire, torture was confined to slaves, usually men, and citizenship granted immunity from torture, except in the case of treason. However, as the empire began to decline, more elite classes increasingly began employing it against freemen below them.
Some of the Romans’ favorite interrogation techniques included whips with lead tips, the rack, and “leather peeling,” which involved pouring boiling water over the victim and then ripping off the burned skin in pieces.
The most popular seems to have been the eculeus, or “little horse,” which involved forcing the victim to straddle the sharp upper point of a triangular wooden beam or even a spike. Weights were then attached to their hands and feet to further press the victim into the painful angle.
Since it was mandated by the courts, this judicial torture was such an everyday part of life that there was a whole profession dedicated to it. A carnifex was a torture expert and you could hire him to torture a slave if you didn’t have the equipment—or the stomach—for it.
2. Roman Society Was Widely Shaped by Lead Poisoning
NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has regularly reiterated his belief that increased violent crime and suicide in the United States from the 1950s to 1970s was due to the prevalence of lead in gasoline, which was banned by the 1980s after its toxic physiological and neurological effects were better understood. If lead in gasoline can have such a dramatic effect on a population, just imagine what it did to Ancient Rome, a society that used lead in almost everything.
One of Rome’s most notable achievements, its public water supply, was heavily laced with lead. In addition to lead pipes within the city, they used sheets of lead to line their aqueducts that carried water across the empire. As a result, it’s likely that Roman tap water contained 100 times more lead than natural spring water.
Roman food was also full of lead. Not only were pots and utensils made of lead, but Romans added it directly to much of their cuisine.
The Romans didn’t have access to modern sweeteners like sugar, but they did have a lot of grapes. They boiled large batches of grape must in pots to concentrate it and produce wine and other dishes.
However, grape must has a unique ingredient: acetate. When boiled in a lead pot, some of the lead leaches into the must and combines with the acetate to form lead acetate, which, aside from being super poisonous, is quite sweet.
The Romans really took to this grape-lead syrup, which they called defrutum, and started using it extensively. In fact, of the 450 recipes included in Apicius, a Roman cookbook dated to the Fifth Century, 100 call for the syrup. When scientists tried to remake defrutum, they discovered it held lead concentrations 60 times higher than the upper limit for safe drinking water.
Lead accumulates in the body and can cause a range of chronic symptoms such as abdominal pain, anemia and nausea. It can also result in infertility. However, the biggest effects are on the brain. Those with chronic lead poisoning exhibit short-term memory loss and depression as well as headaches, slurred speech and aggressive behavior.
Though his claims have been widely debated, Dr. Jerome Nriagu published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine speculating that the eccentric behavior of many of Rome’s emperors could be attributed to lead poisoning. Caligula was said to have sought a consular appointment for his horse, Incitatus, and Nero is infamous for his bizarre aggressive behavior like mutilating people while dressed as animals.
Nriagu goes so far as to postulate that two-thirds of Rome’s emperors exhibited signs of some level of lead poisoning. He believes this, in addition to population decline from lead-induced infertility, could have been responsible for the empire’s collapse.
Now, Nriagu is an environmental chemist by profession, and many historians have criticized his interpretations of primary Roman sources. However, the fact is that Romans had insanely high levels of lead in their bodies. A 2019 study examining the skeletons of ancient Romans found their bones had upwards of 123 micrograms of lead per gram. A normal Iron Age person? 2.9 micrograms.
3. Ancient Rome’s Exotic Art Was So Explicit That Some of It Is Still Off-Limits to Children
Much of Roman culture seems extreme for modern tastes. Sex was no exception. Far from prudes, the Romans were very open about sex, and legal brothels abounded. There was no homosexual/heterosexual dichotomy, and the Romans had fluid sexual relations with both genders.
Similarly, it wasn’t looked down upon for married men to have sex with prostitutes, men and women, as long as it was in moderation. There were also popular erotic novels and sex manuals that other civilizations were shocked to find with the belongings of Roman soldiers they captured.
More than that, sex was at the forefront of fine art and decoration with upper-class individuals filling their homes with paintings and sculptures that would be—and are, as you’ll see—considered pornography in the modern day.
Most of our knowledge of Ancient Roman erotic art comes from the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum, cities basically flash-preserved in the ash of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. The most common decoration archaeologists have found is the erect phallus, either alone, or on a deity like Pan or Priapus. Hanging from windchimes and built into facades, these works of art may verge on comical for modern viewers, if not erotic, but for the Romans, who celebrated masculine sexuality, they represented fertility and protection from evil.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of women portrayed in Roman erotic art too. There are endless frescoes in homes, brothels and public places in Pompeii featuring lone women, women being pleasured or women having sexual relations in a wide variety of situations and positions. There are even a number of works portraying sexual activity with animals. Archaeologists continue to uncover these frescoes, the latest a graphic depiction of the myth of Leda and Swan (ie, Leda having sex with a swan), which was discovered in 2018.
Watch the Video
Open Video
Video Briefing
5 Disturbing Truths About Ancient Rome
The reason researchers still haven’t found all the art is because, until recently, they were kind of too embarrassed to do so. Though the ruins of Pompeii were discovered at the end of the 17th Century, extensive excavations didn’t begin till the mid-18th Century. Quite a bit of erotic art had been discovered by 1819 when King Francis I of Naples decided to visit the dig’s exhibition at the Naples National Archaeological Museum with his wife and daughter.
He was so horrified by the erotic art that he ordered it be locked away in a gabinetto segreto, or secret room. After the failed revolutions of 1848, the Bourbon monarchy even suggested destroying the artifacts.
Though there were some demands to unlock the Gabinetto Segreto in the 1960s, the Italian government only fully opened the exhibit to the public in April 2000. Nevertheless, children under 14 can only enter with adult supervision.
4. Infanticide Was Celebrated in Ancient Rome
To be fair, the Ancient Romans themselves probably would have debated the term “infanticide” as they didn’t actively kill their infants. Rather, they essentially threw their unwanted babies away in a practice called exposito, Latin for “exposure.”
They merely left these infants on the street or, worse, in the city’s massive garbage dumps, where they would be subjected to the elements and disease. The climate of central Italy may be mild, but even a helpless baby can’t make it that long. The vast majority of them died, especially those in the dumps. The only exceptions were those who were quickly found and scooped up by a passerby, but these were more often than not taken as slaves, not adopted members of the family.
There were a few reasons a family might subject their newborn infant to exposure. The most common was poverty. A baby meant another mouth to feed. This was especially true for baby girls. Boys could eventually perform productive physical labor, but girls usually required extra support since they faced menstruation and pregnancy, or a dowry if they were married away. As a result, the poorer the family, the more likely they were to get rid of their female infants.
A father might also demand an infant be exposed if he doubted its legitimacy. The men of Roman households, known as paterfamilias, had ultimate legal domain over other family members and had the legal right to expose any babies they worried weren’t actually theirs.
The last big reason for exposure was deformity or health problems. Infants with notable defects were called teras and were viewed as incarnations of evil. In this case, the law required the paterfamilias to get rid of the baby, something the Romans considered a point of pride. The famous Roman statesman and intellectual Cicero put it quite bluntly when he said, “Deformed infants shall be killed.”
In fact, Romans celebrated their culture of exposure so much that it formed a prominent part of their founding mythology. Romulus and Remus, the twins credited with the founding of Rome, were survivors of exposure as infants. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, was a vestal virgin impregnated by Mars, the God of War. Seeing them as a threat, the local King Amulius ordered their exposure on the banks of the Tiber, where they were helped and saved by a variety of gods and creatures, most notably the she-wolf who suckled the infants.
Later they were adopted by a shepherd family. Although exposure and infanticide were common in the majority of ancient and pre-historic cultures, few made it such an integral part of their common identity.
In reality, though, exposure was widespread and legally promoted for economic reasons. The Roman economy was supported by a slave population that represented some 30 percent of the whole city. Exposure was a subtle way of maintaining this number, transferring laborers from the free class to the slave class. A nickname for a slave was copreus, basically Latin for “found at the dump.”
This was such a prevalent economic phenomenon that men were constantly worried about accidentally having sex with their children who’d they’d abandoned only to be taken up and enslaved in a brothel. As a result, many paterfamilias put recognizable amulets on their exposed infants which would remain with them for their entire lives—assuming they lived.
The Stoics, Jews and later the Christians raised varying degrees of moral protest against exposure, but because of its economic function, the practice continued in full force until an economic solution presented itself. In the year 313, Emperor Constantine passed a law allowing families to sell their infants directly into slavery, bypassing the need for exposure. The practice gradually dwindled until it was replaced by church-run orphanages in the Middle Ages.
5. The Early Romans Practiced Human Sacrifice
The Romans had strong opinions about human sacrifice, which they considered “uncivilized.” They often criticized their enemies for the practice, including the Druids, Jews and Christians. They even accused their big-time rival Carthage of sacrificing infants, which might seem ironic if you paid attention to the last chapter of the video.
It is true that a decree of the Roman senate banned human sacrifice in 97 BC, which is why the Romans viewed it as a barbaric remnant they had evolved away from. Nevertheless, human sacrifice occurred in Ancient Rome both before and after that date, and not just the exposure of infants.
Most human sacrifices were males. In May, the Vestal Virgins, Rome’s elite order of priestesses in charge of maintaining the goddess Vesta’s protective fire, performed a ceremony where they threw old men off the Pons Sublicus, Rome’s most important bridge, to their deaths in the Tiber River. Then, at the Feriae Latinae at the end of April, the order hung young boys from trees around the city. After the ban on human sacrifice, the Vestal Virgins switched to rush puppets instead of actual people.
However, the Vestal Virgins weren’t just perpetrators of human sacrifice. They were victims, too. Since they were required to remain virgins until retirement, any member of the order who broke her chastity, a crime called incestum, was buried alive to appease the gods.
The gods would only accept the sacrifice if the victim went into it willingly, though. Therefore, it involved an elaborate ceremony where the unchaste virgin was taken to the city’s ritual border, known as the pomerium, and led down into an underground vault prepared with a couch, lamp and table with a small amount of food. The pontifex maximus, or high priest, an office eventually bestowed on the emperor himself, then uttered a prayer, and they covered the vault.
Her lover received a somewhat less lavish death. If found, they merely beat him to death.
In reality, this type of sacrifice appears to have happened rarely. Since it would be hard to prove or even catch a Vestal Virgin breaking her vows, most historians theorize they were usually used as scapegoats. If Rome was suffering from some sort of crisis, political figures would blame it on an unchaste virgin and demand her sacrifice.
As another example, even though gladiatorial games in the great colosseum of the Roman Empire were almost entirely for entertainment purposes, they had originally arisen as a religious ritual to honor the Manes, Roman deities representing their ancestors. In the early days of the Republic, Romans would volunteer to reenact famous battles, real or mythological, but these rarely ended in death. As an entire industry grew around them, slaves and criminals began to take the place of the fighters, and they started killing each other too.
It’s hard to say when the Romans crossed the line from religious theater to secular bloodsport, but one thing is clear. Regardless of their double standards for the peoples they conquered and the semantics of what they considered “human sacrifice,” the Romans loved a good ritual killing. And this is on top of the many other truths of their culture that it’s hard not to find disturbing today.
Key Takeaways
- The Roman legal system mandated torture for witnesses, primarily slaves, to extract testimony.
- Lead poisoning was prevalent in Ancient Rome due to its extensive use in water pipes and cooking utensils.
- Roman erotic art, often found in Pompeii, was explicit and sometimes still restricted to children today.
- Infanticide through exposure was common in Ancient Rome, often due to poverty or perceived deformities.
- Human sacrifice, though officially banned, persisted in various forms within Roman rituals and punishments.
SideProjects Editors
The SideProjects editorial team researches, fact-checks, and structures explainers about the lesser-known tales, side narratives, and spin-offs behind major historical and contemporary subjects.
Frequently Asked Questions
What role did torture play in the Roman legal system?
Torture was mandated by the Roman judicial system, often used on slaves who were considered untrustworthy witnesses. It was used to extract information, especially in disputes involving their masters. Citizens were generally immune from torture except in cases of treason, but this changed as the empire declined.
How prevalent was lead poisoning in Ancient Rome?
Lead poisoning was widespread in Ancient Rome due to the extensive use of lead in water pipes, aqueducts, cookware, and even as a sweetener in food. This led to high levels of lead in the bodies of Romans, which may have contributed to various health and behavioral issues.
What was the practice of ‘exposure’ in Ancient Rome?
Exposure, or ‘exposito,’ was the practice of leaving unwanted infants on the street or in garbage dumps to die. This was often done due to poverty, doubts about the infant’s legitimacy, or deformities. It was a common practice and was even celebrated in Roman mythology.
What types of erotic art were found in Pompeii and Herculaneum?
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum included depictions of erect phalluses, sexual acts involving both men and women, and even sexual activity with animals. These artworks were often found in homes, brothels, and public places and were considered a normal part of Roman culture.
Did the Romans practice human sacrifice?
Yes, the early Romans practiced human sacrifice, particularly involving the Vestal Virgins and certain rituals. For example, old men were thrown from the Pons Sublicius, and young boys were hung from trees. After a ban in 97 BC, these practices were replaced with symbolic sacrifices.
What methods of torture were commonly used in Ancient Rome?
Common methods of torture in Ancient Rome included whips with lead tips, the rack, leather peeling, and the eculeus, which involved forcing the victim to straddle a sharp beam or spike with weights attached to their limbs. These methods were often used to extract information from slaves.
How did lead poisoning affect Roman society?
Lead poisoning in Roman society may have contributed to various health issues, including infertility, and behavioral problems such as aggression and depression. Some historians speculate that it may have even affected the behavior of Roman emperors and contributed to the empire’s decline.
What was the significance of the Gabinetto Segreto in Naples?
The Gabinetto Segreto was a secret room in the Naples National Archaeological Museum where erotic art from Pompeii and Herculaneum was kept hidden from public view. It was created after King Francis I of Naples was horrified by the explicit nature of the art and ordered it to be locked away.
Why were infants exposed in Ancient Rome?
Infants were exposed in Ancient Rome due to poverty, doubts about their legitimacy, or deformities. Poor families often could not afford to raise another child, and deformed infants were seen as incarnations of evil. The practice was also used to maintain the slave population.
What was the role of the Vestal Virgins in Roman society?
The Vestal Virgins were an elite order of priestesses in charge of maintaining the goddess Vesta’s protective fire. They were required to remain virgins until retirement, and any member found to have broken her chastity was buried alive as a sacrifice to the gods.
Sources
- Original Side Projects video: 5 Disturbing Truths About Ancient Rome
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_cuisine
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicius
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/childexposure-in-the-roman-empire/3410A0618E4B37F1CF1EE52B11DC89F4
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_ancient_Rome
- https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/did-lead-poisoning-cause-downfall-of-roman-empire-the-jury-is-still-out/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_ancient_Rome
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/DARSAG/Equuleus.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_in_ancient_Rome
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator
- https://www.thecollector.com/human-sacrifice-throughout-history/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice
- http://societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/human_sacrifice.php
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_exposure
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Nriagu
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_emperors
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Archaeological_Museum,_Naples
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons_Sublicius
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifex_maximus
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_ancient_Rome
- https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/17/us/roman-empire-s-fall-is-linked-with-gout-and-lead-poisoning.html
- https://www.thoughtco.com/roman-exposure-of-infants-118370
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
- https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198303173081123
- https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-did-lead-poisoning-bring-down-ancient-rome
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_ancient_Rome
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Rome
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_ancient_Rome
- https://short-history.com/infanticide-romans-785e8b1b17eb?gi=b0dbf431d6da
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1321315.pdf
- https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/anthropology-collections-research/mediterranean-oil-lamps/roman-empire-brief-history
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html
- https://www.persuasion.community/p/haidt-the-teen-mental-illness-epidemic
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsarahbond/2017/01/28/torture-has-never-been-an-effective-means-of-information-gathering-just-ask-the-romans/
- https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/roman-constitution/roman-law/torture-used-by-ancient-romans/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin
- Hero image source by Winchester Museums Service, Robert Webley, 2012-04-11 17:13:07 / openverse, by-sa.
