Introduction

"Wine ruins beauty, wine spoils youth, wine often causes a mistress to mistake her man." (Propertius, Elegies II.xxxiii)

Many literatary sources indicated clearly enough that men and women were held to a quite different moral standard in Roman society. A husband could obtain a divorce on various grounds—among them, a wife's infertility or adultery—whereas an official blind eye was turned on his indulgence in occasional sex with slaves or prostitutes. And a husband could roll home drunk any time he wished and even expect some sympathy for the following morning's headache; a wife would be shamed for drinking in public, and even in private she would be expected to show moderation. Respectability did allow, however, for women to take a modicum of raisin wine (passum).

The male Roman attitude towards women drinking created significant social tensions. Many Roman moralists felt that if men and women present drank on a par with one another, thoughts would inevitably turn to adultery. A Christian philosopher explained the chemistry of this process quite simply:

"The eating of meat and the drinking of wine and the fullness of the stomach is the seed plot of lust." (St. Jerome, Against Jovinianus II.7)

REFERENCES

1) Frezza, M. et al., 1990: "High blood alcohol levels in women: the role of decreased gastric consumption. Alcohol dehydrogenase and first-pass metabolism," New England Journal of Medecine 322.2, 95-99.

2) IAS, 2000: Institute of Alcohol Studies factsheet via the Website www.ias.org.uk.