The coming of a child, to parents in antiquity as to
parents now, was usually a very happy event. Especially welcome was the birth
of a son. The father felt assured that through the boy his old age would be
cared for and that the family name and the worship of the family ancestors
would be kept up after his own death. "Male children," said an
ancient poet, "are the pillars of the house." [2] The city, as well,
had an interest in the matter, for a male child meant another citizen able to
take the father's place in the army and the public assembly. To have no
children was regarded as one of the greatest calamities that could befall a
Greek or a Roman.
The ancient attitude toward children was in one respect
very unlike our own. The law allowed a father to do whatever he pleased with a
newly born child. If he was very poor, or if his child was deformed, he could
expose it in some desert spot, where it soon died. An infant was sometimes
placed secretly in a temple, where possibly some kind-hearted person might
rescue it. The child, in this case, became the slave of its adopter. This
custom of exposure, an inheritance from prehistoric savagery, tended to grow
less common with advancing culture. The complete abolition of infanticide was
due to the spread of Christian teachings about the sacredness of human life.
