#infanticide

Classics claim check: did the Romans proactively seek out children born with ambiguous genitalia—whom today we would call intersex—and kill them?

What are our sources? Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Julius Obsequens.

*To begin with, no ancient writer records the killing of a child born with ambiguous genitalia contemporary with the time they lived or are writing. All examples of the murder of intersex children are depicted as happening at some time in the past.

Infants or children who were labeled “semimas”, “androgynus”, or “hermaphroditus” are recorded among lists of ill-omens and portents that occurred during times of crisis. They are often listed alongside several other omens, for example a lamb born with a pig’s head, a pig born with a human’s head, a colt born with five feet, a child was born with an elephants head, it rained milk, it rained rocks, a cow spoke, the sky glowed red even though it was clear. (Liv. AUC XXXI.12; XXVII.11; XXVII.37; XXXIX.22.)

Pliny the Elder, NH VII.iii.34: “We call those who are born with sex characteristics of both ‘hermaphrodites’, called a long time ago ‘androgynus’ and considered portents, now however in pleasures/delights/as favorites” (Giguntur et utriusque sexu quos hermaphroditos vocamus, olim androgynos vocatos et in prodigiis habitos, nunc vero in deliciis.)

Julius Obsequens (4th/5th cent. CE) wrote a work (prodigiorum liber) listing the occurrence of portents/prodigies from the 3rd cent. BCE to the end of the 1st cent. BCE. It is believed that Obsequens’ primary source is Livy. Obsequens lists 9 cases of intersex children being killed, 8 of them by being thrown into a body of water, between 186 BCE and 92 BCE. However, like in Livy, all these instances are listed alongside other portents and date to a time of crisis for Rome, usually a military or political crisis.

Verdict: No, at least not in any systematic way. That intersex children are born or are found specifically during a time of crisis alongside other portents takes away from the credibility that intersex children were sought out by Roman religious officials and then killed. Livy’s recording of portents, which Julius Obsequens reiterates, has a specific agenda. Portents and prodigies amplify the crises experienced by the Romans to a divine level. Hannibal’s success against the Romans during the Second Punic War as recorded by Livy was seen as an overturning of nature itself and thus must have been accompanied by divine portents that reflected a universe turned on its head. Does this mean that Romans saw children born with ambiguous genitalia as unnatural or undesirable, yes probably. But more than anything it is a comment on the state of the Roman world during a particular moment.

On a different note, according to Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 BCE–c. 30 BCE) and Aulus Gellius (c. 125 CE–180 CE), some intersex people could be quite successful in the ancient Mediterranean world.

This powerful story  documents women in Senegal who have been accused of infanticide – killing a newborn baby. It’s 2nd-most common reason women are in jail in Senegal. Writer Allyn Gaestel & photographer Ricci Shryock wanted to capture the profundity of this phenomenon.

Editor’s note: This thread is about infanticide — the killing of a newborn baby — and includes graphic descriptions of that practice.

E delivered her eighth child and says the baby was stillborn. She was arrested and found guilty of infanticide but was released for good behavior after serving 3 years and is now living on her brother’s farm in a small house. “It’s better to be free without money than trapped between four walls,” she says.

Photo: Ricci Shryock for NPR

F talks to her children while they visit her in prison, where she awaits the verdict on charges that she killed her baby from an affair while her husband was out of the country looking for work. She claims the baby was stillborn but in her file there is a photo of the corpse of the child, just removed from the septic tank.

Photo: Ricci Shryock for NPR

N, pictured here at age 3. Her mother and father threw her in a septic tank when she was born, but she survived. She now lives with her maternal grandmother while her mother services time for attempted infanticide. She is photographed in the family courtyard.

Photo: Ricci Shryock for NPR

Some experts believe that strict abortion laws in Senegal are a contributing factor. A task force of women activists, lawyers and lawmakers are working to change the law to allow abortions in the case of rape, incest and maternal health. The proposed bill is still at the ministerial level.

Read the full story here