# Were there STDs in ancient Rome? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794 "2006-10-25T02:22:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![deevee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@deevee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deevee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/1 "2006-10-25T02:22:02Z")
I know syphillis was many centuries down the iter but were there any other microbes or spirochetes those lucky bastards had to worry about or was pregnancy the only drawback to a libertine society? ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/2 "2006-10-25T02:30:31Z")
Yes they most certainly did have STDs, two quick reference links: [http://www.archaeolink.com/roman\_medicine.htm](http://www.archaeolink.com/roman_medicine.htm) [http://www.racoon.com/hpv/HPV-most\_common\_STD.htm](http://www.racoon.com/hpv/HPV-most_common_STD.htm) ---
**Author:** ![deevee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@deevee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deevee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/3 "2006-10-25T03:48:43Z")
Great links thanks! I Googled but got swamped with irrelevent stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/4 "2006-10-25T13:40:34Z")
I must be misreading somehow, **Improv Geek** - I didn’t see any references to ancient STDs in those links. You’re still right, of course. They must have had STDs. However, I have to admit, I can’t remember ever reading about one, and I’ve read a fair number of ancient medical texts. Also, nothing at all has come up in my book/article database searches. I’ll get back to you. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/5 "2006-10-25T15:02:21Z")
I know that there have been many suspected cases of syphillis, going back to biblical and ancient Rome - [Syphilis - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphillis) ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/6 "2006-10-25T15:21:23Z")
Vivian Nutton’s survey _Ancient Medicine_ (Routeledge, 2004) includes a chapter on patterns of disease in the ancient world. Her source material is mainly the individual “case-studies” present in the Hippocratic _Epidemics_ plus inscriptions at temples devoted to Asclepius, bio-archaeology (medical examination of skeletal remains), and a few scraps from other literature (e.g. a lengthy description of the maladies of old age from Plato’s _Timaeus_). P. 325 includes some discussion of venereal disease and treatment: > [@](#): > > Kidney and bladder problems also figure prominently in any ancient medical handbook, with a variety of explanations given for failure to urinate or for painful urination…Only the milder forms of sexually transmitted disease are recorded, such as those caused by Chlamydia trachomatis; whether the nasty and persistent discharge described as gonorrhoea corresponds to the modern condition is disputed, and, despite some vigorous advocates, venereal syphilis has not yet been conclusively identified in Antiquity. The various ulcers, chancres and swellings of the penis mentioned can be otherwise explained, and only a handful of skeletons have so far revealed signs of the characteristic lesions of the later stages of syphilis. But it is still uncertain whether this was the result of a venereal or a non-venereal infection, although pathological changes in a foetus recently excavated in S. France do suggest the existence of the venereal form. 109 In a footnote to that last point on Syphillis the author notes “The treponeme of syphilis is reported from the Hellenistic necropolis of Metapontum in S. Italy (Carter 1998:531-3) and from a fourth-century AD cemetery at Costebelle (S. France) (Palfi et al. 2000). But the remarkable spread of the infection in 1493 suggests that the population had not previously been exposed to venereal syphilis to any great extent.” ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/7 "2006-10-25T15:25:09Z")
Vivian Nutton is actually male. I was shocked when I discovered that - by seeing him talk. I kept wondering when Vivian Nutton would get there! ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/8 "2006-10-25T15:46:43Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] Vivian Nutton is actually male. I was shocked when I discovered that - by seeing him talk. I kept wondering when Vivian Nutton would get there! [/QUOTE] Yikes, that is embarassing. Medicine is not a focus of mine in the ancient world, but I should at least be able to get the gender of an author right, even if I’m just skimming his book… ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/9 "2006-10-25T15:52:18Z")
Nah, my whole ancient medicine class was deceived. We had spent all semester reading his articles, referring to him as ‘her’. Only next semester did we go see the talk. Oops! ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-stds-in-ancient-rome/377794/10 "2006-10-25T15:58:36Z")
Which is all to say, while there must have been some STDs in antiquity (and syphilis is very debatable - many people think that it primarily came over from the Americas), there wasn’t much attention given to them as a seperate class of disease. I suspect this is because a) they may have been less widespread - global travel has helped a lot in the spread of STDs, and b) without a solid biological basis for understanding transmission of disease, it’s harder to examine, classify, understand and write about them.