History of Europe

The first deaf in history (of which we are aware)

If you were born with some sort of disability or physical deformity in ancient times, the chances of blowing out the candle on your first birthday celebration cake were very slim. Abandonment or infanticide were his present and his future. The bellicose and militarized Spartan society threw their deformed children from Mount Taygetus and the philosopher Aristotle already preached...

As for the upbringing of children, there must be a law that prohibits raising any defective.

Already in Rome, the newborns had to face the father's verdict:sublatus (take it) or expositus (abandonment). If he picked it up from the ground, it meant that he accepted it, legitimized it and began to enjoy all the rights and privileges as a member of the family. If, on the contrary, they were not accepted, the son was exposed, that is, he was abandoned. In such a case, the newborns either died or were adopted by other families. In many cases they were collected by slave traders who raised them to later sell them or, in the case of girls, by some leno (pimp) who ran a brothel to put them to work as soon as he could. The abandonment of children was a common practice in both rich and poor, without going any further, the founders of Rome were two abandoned babies (according to mythology).

We exterminate the rabid dogs and we kill the wild and wild ox and we slaughter the infected cattle so that they do not infect the whole herd; we destroyed the monstrous deliveries, and even our children, if they were born short-sighted and deformed, we drowned them; and it is not anger, but reason, that separates healthy elements from the useless (Seneca).

The criteria used to abandon newborns could be due to some disability or physical deformity, due to doubts that they were theirs or, in the case of the poorest, due to not being able to feed them and, in the case of the patricians, for testamentary issues. So, seeing how things were back then, it is difficult for the story of someone born with a disability, in this case hearing, to survive to this day and live to tell about it... but not impossible. The protagonist of this story is Fifth Pedius , the first deaf in history (1st century BC)

Logically, Quintus was not the first, but he was the first to have his name. His story has come down to us through the work Naturalis Historia Pliny the Elder, who tells us that Quintus, deaf from birth, was the son of Senator Quintus Pedius Publicola and grandson of the consul Quintus Pedius. Since his disability prevented him from following the educational plan of the rest of the children his age, his father looked for a specific alternative in which his son's limitations were not a problem. And it was none other than painting. In addition to showing a certain talent in this discipline, the young Quinto served as therapy for living in a hostile environment, a society that was not prepared to house the weak or the "not equal". Of course, his fate would have been quite another had he not been born into such a powerful family. Unfortunately, Quinto died very young and his story ended too soon.