It is easy to dramatize the callousness of Ancient Roman fathers who controlled whether their infants were to be killed through exposure. As the tenderness of the gaze from adult to child carved on this marble statue shows, Roman fathers certainly could have loving affection for their children.
The purification rituals surrounding Ancient Roman births were intended to ensure the safety of both mother and child, but they were religious in nature. Called “Lustratio,” these cleansing practices were done on many occasions, including marriage, death, and entering holy places. A Lustratio took place when a baby was named — eight days after a birth for daughters, nine for sons. At the ceremony a magical circle would be drawn around the child, and then wealthy boys would be given a small golden charm called a “bulla”, which he wore until adulthood.
In fact, parental excitent over the birth of children is testified in graffiti on the walls of Pompeii (“our daughter was born early in the evening on Saturday August 2!”), and in mournful letters when babies didn’t survive a birth. That said, the father of the Roman family had the right to expose any child but a firstborn son should he desire. Abject poverty would have been a major reason for infanticide.
Source(s): Statue from Louvre, Roman marble copy of 1-2nd cent after Greek original from late 4th c, “Sikenus holding Dionysos”., wiki commons. “Child-exposure in the Roman Empire,” W.V. Harris, _Journal of Roman Tudies_, vol 84 (1994), pp 1-22, published by Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. “Raising and Killing Children: Two Roman Myths,” Brent D. Shaw, _Mnemosyne_, Feb 2001, fourth series, vol 54, Fasc 1 (Feb 2001), pp 31-77, published by Neill. Wikipedia.
