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Lead by example (thelemmy.club)
submitted 23 hours ago by to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] 23 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

They did sweeten wine with it, so I'm going to say it's more complex than that. At least they didn't burn it with petrochemicals poisoning the whole of biosphere for a whole (two?) generation.

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  • [–] 10 points 22 hours ago (1 child)

    From my understanding, they knew it wasn't exactly healthy, so they did limit the intake to a "healthy" level. Their life expectancy wasn't that great anyway compared to now, so i think it was a bit of a mixed bag. People thought that cigarettes were healthy, and then they figured out they are not, but people still smoke... Like a lot.

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  • [–] 1 point 19 hours ago (2 children)

    Their life expectancy wasn’t that great anyway compared to now

    Low life expectancy has always been caused mostly by high infant and child mortality, not adults dying young of natural causes. Augustus and Tiberius lived well into their 70s, for example.

    Duck.ai-generated list, if anybody wants to see it

    Roman Born Died Approx. age Cause
    Augustus 63 BC AD 14 75–76 Natural causes, probably illness
    Agrippa 63 BC 12 BC About 50 Natural causes, probably illness
    Maecenas c. 70 BC 8 BC About 62 Natural causes
    Tiberius 42 BC AD 37 77–78 Probably natural causes, though ancient sources alleged foul play
    Vespasian AD 9 AD 79 69–70 Natural illness
    Titus AD 39 AD 81 41–42 Natural illness
    Trajan AD 53 AD 117 63–64 Natural illness, possibly a stroke
    Hadrian AD 76 AD 138 About 62 Natural illness
    Marcus Aurelius AD 121 AD 180 58–59 Natural illness, probably infection
    Constantine the Great AD 272 AD 337 About 65 Natural illness
    Virgil 70 BC 19 BC 50–51 Natural illness
    Ovid 43 BC AD 17 About 59–60 Probably natural causes
    Galen AD 129 c. AD 216 About 87 Probably natural causes

    Excluded: Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, Caligula, Domitian, Commodus, and others who were assassinated, executed, killed in battle, or died by suicide. Claudius is also excluded because he was probably poisoned, and Pliny the Elder died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    Low life expectancy has always been caused mostly by high infant and child mortality

    In demography, the life expectancy of a modern population is calculated by fitting a curve to the most recent infant and child mortality (< 5 years old) measurements. Not relevant to ancient Rome, but for the modern world life expectancy is not just heavily influenced by infant and child mortality, but is rather 100% a measure of infant and child mortality.

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