#Part 1/3
This is a really excellent question, partly because it's rarely asked and partly because you can learn a lot about a society by how it treats the elderly. Children and the elderly require support, and are less able to effectively advocate for themselves. Because of this, they are often invisible in historical accounts, and their vulnerability can marginalize them in many societies. However, what remains of the literature and art of Greece and Rome paints a very detailed picture of how the elderly were perceived and treated by society.
#Defining Old Age
Old age was considered to be an inevitable part of life, which brought with it changes in both lifestyle and role in the community. The line of demarcation between youth, prime adulthood and old age are culturally determined, but they broadly align in both Greek and Roman culture. The beginning of old age in men was generally pegged around 60 yrs by Greek and Roman authors, as this was the age when noticeable physical signs of aging began. There is still immense variation between different periods and places, let alone individual accounts and theories regarding old age, but the broad strokes remain the same. Various civic obligations, like military service or certain taxes for the provision of public entertainment, were often not required of men in their 60s or above.
Women over the age of 50 were often discouraged from marrying, as in the Lex Julia, which implies that menopause marked the onset of old age for women. There is an interesting parallel here with ancient Egypt, which placed legal limitations on what and how women in their 50s could inherit property, again likely because those marriages were not expected to result in children.
Of course, most people didn't wither and retreat from public life the minute they turned 60, age was a subjective experience which different people felt at different times. Solon reported that the average lifespan was 70 yrs, which he divided into 7 stages. The final stage, from 63-70, he associated with declining health and death. Ptolemy of Alexandria, in his astrological treatise the Tetrabiblos, divided the lifespan of man into 7 stages measuring 12 years each, which corresponded to the 7 planets. The first 4 stages stretched from birth to the prime of life. The 5th stage of life represented the tail end of middle age, when men started to worry over their aging.
The 6th stage of life (56-68 yrs) was associated with the onset of old age, and was ruled by Jupiter. This was the age when men stepped away from hard labour and risk, and towards retirement, wisdom, and more deliberate living. Ptolemy presents it as a dignified age, and associated it with autumn. The 7th and final stage of life (68+) was ruled by the planet Saturn, and associated with winter.
Now the movements both of body and of soul are cooled and impeded in their impulses, enjoyments, desires, and speed; for the natural decline supervenes upon life, which has become worn down with age, dispirited, weak, easily offended, and hard to please in all situations, in keeping with the sluggishness of his movements.
This last passage highlights the acknowledgement that deteriorating physical and mental condition accompanied advanced age. Hippocratic texts acknowledge the susceptibility of the elderly to respiratory infections, fevers, and cold weather. Aging seems to have been feared, or at least viewed with apprehension in ancient Greece because of its impact on health. Geras, the personification of old age, is portrayed in art as a spindly old man whom even Herakles fears. The myth of Tithonus, who was gifted with eternal life but not eternal youth ends with the complete disintegration of his physical strength and mental faculties.
she laid [Tithonus] in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs.
In humoral theory, which prevailed in ancient medicine and science, it was believed that the human body "cooled" with age, making it more inclined to certain diseases and more reserved dispositions. Physicians like Galen and Hippocrates endorsed this view, as philosophers like Aristotle and Empedocles all considered the old to be more “dry” and brittle as a result of this coldness. Beyond superficial attempts to mask aging, such as hair dye and makeup, there is also a rich tradition of ancient “geriatric care”. This includes a multitude of medical beliefs surrounding prolonging life and preventing or lessening many conditions associated with age. Many authors commented on how they believed diet, environment, and exercise impacted life expectancy. Others commented on ways to improve quality of life in old age. Cicero in his treatise On Old Age recommended involvement in gardening or agriculture, as well as mental exercises, to help the elderly remain healthy and sharp.
#Support systems and systems of care for the elderly
Whatever the cause and care advised, it was understood that elderly people required an increasing level of care, which had to be performed within the home. There was no public healthcare for the elderly, nor were there any equivalent to privately run retirement homes. The burden of caretaking put pressure on households with less means, while wealthier households did not struggle as much to care for infirm members. Growing older wasn't necessarily as debilitating among the aristocracy. Among those with little economic and social capital to begin with - and whose livelihoods depended on physical labour - growing old often meant becoming perceived as a burden.
Ancient societies developed binding social obligations to provide for the care of the elderly. Filial duty was perhaps the most important aspect of this. While parents were expected to raise their children until adulthood, children were expected to care for their parents in old age. Pliny recounts a legend in which a woman visited her elderly mother in prison and, unable to smuggle food in, breastfed her to keep her alive until being discovered. A reversal of roles. The discovery of that act of piety supposedly led to the old woman being pardoned and the construction of a temple to the goddess Pietas.
The Greek virtue of aretai, honouring one's parents, was of equal importance to honouring the gods and the law. The Roman concept of pietas mirrored this virtue. People were expected to support their parents in old age, both financially and personally. Many parents also tried to provide better education to their children or encourage them to enter high earning careers in the hopes that this would improve their ability to care for them in the future. The financial burden was lessened by the fact that parents typically bequeathed property to their children, not necessarily in wills, sometimes while they were still alive.
Considerations like food, hygiene, medical care and housing for the elderly were the responsibility of their children. Factors like the loss of sight or hearing, as well as general physical debilitation, made it difficult for the elderly to navigate society on their own. Wealthy individuals delegated many tasks to slaves and servants, while those with less money personally attended to their parents. Many households were multi-generational, which made it easier to care for elderly parents. Other families tried to live nearby, so that adult children could visit and look after their parents.
The loss of independence that many older people experienced meant that they were often at the mercy of others, particularly their children. In "The Elderly Children of Greece and Rome", Tim Parkins lists a number of ancient proverbs which compare old age to a second childhood, preserved in the writings of such varied authors as Plato, Varro, Plautus, Juvenal, Erasmus, Aristophanes, Seneca, (about 50 references in total). He argues very convincingly that this comparison is never used in a flattering way (to say something about the joy or imagination of the elderly), it was often a direct allusion to dependency and disrespect. The loss of status and authority rendered adults, particularly adult men who were used to a certain level of respect, to be once again like children. This was especially true of older people who were unable to fit into new roles that were deemed socially acceptable for the elderly, such as that of education or childcare.
Fathers retained authority as the patriarch of their family well into old age, due to the legal autocratic authority they held over their family (see, the similar but not interchangeable concepts of kyrios and pater familias). However, adult children could apparently wrest some control from their fathers through laws intended to prevent senile individuals from squandering their estates. These laws existed in Rome and Athens at least, if not elsewhere. On the other hand, social consequences discouraged the neglect of familial duties. It was shameful to neglect and disrespect one's parents. There may also have been legal consequences at certain times and in certain places. In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt (where a large amount of ancient documents survived to the present), there are records of parents who tried to sue their daughters for neglecting to support them.