Disability in ancient Rome
Some disabilities were deemed more acceptable than others; while some were viewed as honorable characteristics or traits that increased morality, others, especially congenital conditions, resulted in infanticide.
Soranus of Ephesus (a Methodic doctor who worked in Rome) wrote in his extant treatise on gynaecology that only certain children were worth raising, listing the various tests one could perform on a child to identify disabilities which might render them not worthy in his opinion.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his treatise On Medicine (De Medicina), devoted a chapter to the subject of common eye infections, disease, problems, and their cures.
[5] In addition, Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that the city's founder Romulus required children who were born disabled to be exposed on a hillside.
Roman society valued the act of communication and private interaction, and the law did its best to accommodate those with physical disabilities affecting sight, hearing and speech.
Problems arose with the many legalities in ancient Rome that required face-to-face, physical and private meetings not allowing the substitution of an enslaved person or representative.
[citation needed] Deaf and nonverbal people experienced some difficulty with Roman law when it came to transactions like buying and selling.
Most Roman agreements relied on verbal affirmation for a transaction to be considered complete, which could disadvantage deaf and/or nonverbal citizens.
Notably, enslaved people would sometimes enter gladiatorial matches with a patch over a functioning eye, though historians disagree on whether this was in reference to the mythical cyclops or to make the gladiator appear more experienced.
[12] During the Augustan period of Rome, Augustus used enslaved people with disabilities as entertainment and display pieces that he invited the public to view.
Though Augustus provided the people a way to view the unique and varying impairments as it interested himself, it was Suetonius that made sure others were aware that he still thought lowly of them.
[13] Enslaved people with disabilities were so popular that Plutarch writes about the different kinds of impairments on display at the so-called Monster Markets.
[13] Individuals with curved spines were fairly common in public life, and in fact in some places were considered to be a source of luck for others.
[13] Augustus's were described as "scattered about his breast and belly in form, order, and number as the stars of the Great Bear in the heavens".
The next few Notable Romans also had some form of physical and/or mental disabilities, some are backed by supportive evidence and others are speculation based on others accounts.
