ABSTRACT
The subject of infanticide has been frequently explored by historians and philosophers both in antiquity and the present. More than many topics in ancient history, it is likely to elicit an emotional response and to reveal a writer's biases and values. All discussions of the practice which admit that it existed are either neutral or condemnatory; no one praises this form of population control. Greek and Roman authors used infanticide as a topos of social criticism. They reported that it was practised by their own corrupt compatriots, but not by aliens including Egyptians and Jews (Cameron, 1932). Infanticide is not only a secular issue. Before Islam, it is said, unwanted females could be buried alive (Saleh, 1972, :p. 124). But the extent of this practice was doubtless exaggerated by those who wished to demonstrate the benefits of Islam. Catholic scholars too have found much to condemn in this practice. To the Greeks and Romans abortion was the same as late contraception (Hopkins, 1965, pp. 13642). To press this line of reasoning one step further — infanticide is simply late abortion. In antiquity it was certainly preferable to late abortion from the standpoint of the mother's health.
