Public Health Crisis of the Late Roman Republic
By Scott Thompson
Published: December / January 2008 | Vol. 01 No. 01
A detailed examination of the public health crisis that existed among the plebs urbana, Rome's urban poor, during the 2nd through 1st centuries BCE. Exploitation of these physically and psychologically blighted individuals through cycles of courtship and abdandonment figured prominently in the ascension of a number of prominent figures in the political arena of the Late Republic.