Sexual health in the ancient world

Romantic scene from a mosaic (Villa at Centocelle, Rome, 20 BC–20 AD). Source: Wikipedia

Content note: readers are advised this article contains references to domestic violence.

Tim Parkin FAHA is the Tatoulis Chair in Classics at the University of Melbourne.

Cases of syphilis and gonorrhoea have doubled over the past ten years, with Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd AO, declaring syphilis a Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance in August 2025.

Professor Tim Parkin FAHA is the Elizabeth and James Tatoulis Chair in Classics at the University of Melbourne. Tim is a New Zealander by birth who studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and who has subsequently worked in universities in New Zealand, the UK, Italy, and Germany, as well as Australia. His teaching spans ancient history and classical languages, and his current research focuses in particular on ancient sexual health: how Greeks and Romans understood and practiced safe sex, and how understanding the origins of sexual diseases can help modern researchers.

“Most people think discussions of sexual health and safe sex are relatively recent phenomena,” says Prof Parkin. “But such awareness and debate around topics like contraception and sexually transmitted diseases are nothing new—far from it, they were hot topics two millennia ago, at least in some circles.”

“My work currently focuses on examining knowledge of, attitudes towards, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections in Graeco-Roman antiquity, as well as exploring how classical discourse shaped subsequent understandings, attitudes, and practices, right up to the current day.”

Sexual health in the ancient world

Gonorrhoea is one of the oldest sexually transmitted infections known to humankind, and it was treated in hundreds of ways before the invention of modern antibiotics. Ever adaptable, the disease continues to evolve. Over the past eighty years; it has developed resistance to all but one class of antibiotics.

“Even the term gonorrhoea traces back to the ancient Greeks,” says Prof Parkin; the word derives from the ancient Greek for “flowing seed” and was used in the Hippocratic corpus and by Galen to describe a different ailment than it does today.

“But we know that what we now call gonorrhoea and other STIs keep evolving, so understanding their long history is vital in how we consider pathogen evolution, factors of vulnerability, and the effectiveness of public health campaigns.”

It is also clear from what evidence we have for sexual health in antiquity—medical, legal, and literary texts, as well as osteological and other archaeological material—that not only attitudes but also realities were rather different two thousand years ago. Christian beliefs would also come to affect the way people treated those who suffered from sexually related ailments. Both ancient satire and moralistic texts readily blamed the individual for their failings, physical and mental. Some of the most vivid and repellent descriptions of what we now recognise as symptoms of STIs are put down to the depraved lifestyles led by corrupt tyrants like the Roman dictator Sulla or later anti-Christian emperors.

“In all my teaching and research on the Greeks and Romans I am always struck by how the same questions and problems constantly recur, be they social, cultural, political, economic, legal, or demographic, including relating to the environment and to questions of identity.”

Domestic violence & vulnerability

In addition to sexual health in antiquity, Prof Parkin has published widely on gender and age in the ancient world, including most recently examining the prevalence of and attitudes towards domestic violence in antiquity, and the treatment, including the abuse, of older individuals.

His recent publications include Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World, co-authored with Dr Eleanor Cowan (2024), and The Bloomsbury Cultural History of Old Age, co-edited with Professor David Troyansky (2026).

“Domestic violence was endemic in the Roman world,” says Prof Parkin. “Spousal abuse was prevalent, with all other aspects of violence commonplace. There’s evidence of some legislation which aimed to address violent behaviour, putting limits on the circumstances where a husband, father, or slave owner could physically harm or indeed execute his dependents, but overall, even under early Christian emperors, constraints were generally limited—and unpopular.”

“Conversely, there is only limited evidence that older parents experienced domestic violence by their children, but I would argue that this relative absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, especially given the comparatively private nature of the heavily patriarchal domestic sphere,” says Prof Parkin. “There is exciting work being done now analysing ancient skeletal remains regarding not only diet and health but also types of physical injuries experienced, whether accidental or inflicted.”

A lifelong love of Classics

Tim Parkin FAHA sits within Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall in the United Kingdom. 

“I first started studying classics in 1977, beginning with the Latin language as a 12-year-old,” says Prof Parkin, who laughs and adds, “It was compulsory! It was a rocky start, to be honest, but in the past five decades I have never lost my sense of excitement and curiosity about the ancient world.”

“There are constantly new discoveries being made, and there is an increasing interdisciplinarity across many fields of research in more recent years,” he continues. “These include new approaches through isotopic analysis of material remains (I have to admit that I have always been fascinated by the design, location, and contents of ancient Roman toilets), new questions relating to population diversity, scans of new writings from, e.g., the charred scrolls in Herculaneum, and new excavations at Pompeii and elsewhere throughout the ancient world—these are at the top of a (very long) list of recent discoveries made possible through interdisciplinary research.”

Prof Parkin enjoys a full teaching load at the University of Melbourne, where he has lectured since 2018. “I have never lost my love of teaching and of sharing that excitement, so I owe a very great deal to my students.”

“The humanities are about developing our understanding, in an ever-changing world, of what it means to be human, and about constantly developing our capabilities for critical thinking, reasoning, creativity, and compassion.”

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