[Aspects of senile dementia in ancient Rome: literary fiction and factual reality]

Old people and their pecularities have been the object of writers since the beginning of Western literature. The aim of this study is to verify the social and juridical significance of senile dementia in ancient Rome. Among the few relevant sources the 10th satire of Juvenal attracts attention. It describes a demented patient who revises his succession in favour of a lady with bad reputation. Logically, we wonder whether such dispositions were possible and after all legally binding. Or did Juvenal exaggerate? A look at the Roman legislation shows: Since the Twelve Tablet Law there were instruments to control or to help demented people. This meant care in the sense of the today's curatorship or guardianship. These measures were supposed to prevent extravagancy or doing business and legal acts like marriages or last wills in the state of diminished responsibility. Nevertheless, it must be assumed that there was a considerable discrepancy between juridical theory and daily practice, because the position of the "pater familias" was virtually untouchable, the individual freedom of the full citizen was firmly underlined and the Roman civil law allowed only little executive interferences. Juvenal's bizarre example should not only be taken as good literary fiction. It might reflect the sad, but nevertheless probable reality of the people directly concerned. Apart from that it has to be said that senile dementia played only a minor role in Roman legislation. Mainly because there were considerably less very old people--and in particular people with senile dementia--than today.