Ancient Roman Battles and PTSD

Here you can see the grim and chaotic scenes of battle depicted in the Ludovici Battle Sarcophagus, made in the Roman Empire mid-third century CE. The horrifying conditions that Ancient Roman soldiers experienced have led to a debate as to whether PTSD extended farther back in time than the late 19th-century. Some of the symptoms recognized by modern psychologists seem to appear in the scanty evidence. For instance, Plutarch writes about the Roman military leader Marius that the man suffered from “nightly terrors and harassing dreams,” and experienced problems with excessive drinking. However, other historians argue that the social conditions of Roman life were so different that PTSD does not apply. Historian Anthony Riches discusses how modern research shows a strong correlation between head injury and PTSD (not that PTSD sufferers have all experienced this) — this may not have been the battle experience of most Roman militia. More significantly, the degree to which Ancient Roman people normalized violence compared to most modern societies is important. Romans lived in a world with 50% child mortality, where urban entertainment involved bloodshed and murder, where animals were publicly butchered, and where soldiers participated and witnessed killing on a much more consistent basis. Comparatively, then, modern soldiers have a much greater dissonance between the violent trauma they experience episodically and their experience of normality. Regardless, artists and writers throughout time have noted the tremendous wreckage caused by war.

The second image shows a detail of battle. The third shows a Roman soldier perhaps representing the deceased with an “x” on his forehead, perhaps indicating he had been initiated into the Mystery Cult of Mithras.