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It is then likely that lead poisoning, rather than economic factors, played the largest role in the declining birth rates of Ancient Rome. Lead poisoning, or plumbism, is an ailment that still affects many populations today. Upon entering the body, either through inhalation or ingestion, lead can have a myriad of health effects like anemia, neurological and behavioral disorders, reproductive issues, and even death.
Elite Ancient Romans were primarily exposed to lead through their drinking habits, since Romans used lead acetate as a sugar substitute to sweeten their wine.[6] Additionally, Ancient Roman medicines often involved boiling together lead powder with other substances like honey or myrrh. Interestingly, Pliny the Elder details that a honey and merum mixture acts as a laxative when consumed cold but blocks diarrhea when consumed hot. This physiological observation betrays the presence of lead, as the toxin has different properties when heated or cooled.[7] Another source of lead poisoning in Ancient Rome was leaded paint. Elite Romans harbored an appreciation for Tyrian purple and deep Phrygian reds. Thus, when they wished to adorn their villa walls with these exotic colors, lead-based pigments were required.[8] As the paint chipped over time, it is possible that Romans inhaled particles of paint, allowing lead to enter the bloodstream. Still other sources of lead posed a threat, like leaded pipes in construction and lead-based powders in cosmetics. All of these exposure pathways working in tandem (especially in wealthy populations) had the potential to be largely detrimental to the reproductive capabilities of elite Romans, while sparing their less wealthy counterparts.
Romans themselves had some intuition of the dangers presented by lead. Vitruvius, a 1st-century B.C. architect and civil engineer, noted the potential dangers of lead pipes in his writings on architecture:
Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead; indeed that conveyed in lead must be injurious, because from it white lead is obtained, and this is said to be injurious to the human system. Hence, if what is generated from it is pernicious, there can be no doubt that itself cannot be a wholesome body. This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour; for in casting lead, the fumes from it fixing on the different members, and daily burning them, destroy the vigour of the blood; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it should be wholesome.[9]
Clearly there was some understanding among Ancient Romans that lead was dangerous.
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