In Barcelona, near the Rambla, the city’s most iconic promenade, there is the Plaza de la Vila de Madrid, where an archaeological site with a well-preserved Roman necropolis can be found. On the tombs, the epitaphs of the buried individuals are still legible, including one with the inscription: “To the Manes Gods, Fabia Tertulia, nurse.”
This is the tomb of Fabia Tertulia, a woman who worked as a nurse in Roman Barcelona during the 2nd century. The Manes Gods were the protective spirits of the home and the deceased.
The role of a nurse, a woman who breastfeeds another’s child, has played an important role throughout history and was recognized in Roman society. In fact, the very founding myth of Rome tells that a wolf breastfed the twins Romulus and Remus.
Many mothers died during childbirth or could not produce enough milk to feed their babies. Others, faced with high infant mortality, chose not to breastfeed in order to quickly become pregnant again, believing that breastfeeding reduced fertility. Additionally, breastfeeding was physically demanding and took time away from productive work, so this task was often delegated to a nurse. Even the children of slaves were breastfed by other women. Some wealthy women preferred to avoid breastfeeding for aesthetic reasons or to maintain their physical well-being.
Nurses not only breastfed but also taught children to speak, walk, and chew; they cared for them when they were ill. They had knowledge of dentistry, speech therapy, and medicinal herbs to prepare drinks and healing ointments. In fact, the very word “educate,” derived from Latin, had a dual meaning: to nourish and to guide. Those who knew Greek were especially valued in wealthy families, as they could teach this language to children.
Most were slaves or women of humble origins, who found in this job an opportunity to gain some financial stability, even enough to afford a tomb. However, their lives were not easy; they were forced to avoid pregnancies to maintain their work, often had to sacrifice attention to their own children to care for others’, and if a child fell ill or died, they could be accused of negligence with serious consequences. Nevertheless, some nurses were highly respected and formed emotional bonds with the children and their families. Epitaphs dedicated to nurses for children who died prematurely, as well as from children thanking them, as adults, for the affection received, have been found. These gestures included granting them freedom or offering them material goods.
Jumping forward in time, in Barcelona in 1891, during a workers’ women’s meeting, the role of nurses was reivindicated as workers who needed to unionize to defend their rights. An invisible thread connected them to that Fabia Tertulia who lived 1,700 years before. A bond that probably connects all people, because a nurse breastfed one of our ancestors. A practice that still persists in many parts of the world today.
References
- Pedrucci, G. (2020). Mothers for Sale. The case of the Wet Nurse in the Ancient Greek and Roman World. An overview. Feminismos y memoria. Contribuciones desde la Historia oral, Estudios, 27, (1), pp. 127-140.
- Puigvert, G i Oller, M. (2024). Quan les dones tenien el poder Lideratge femení a l’antiga Grècia i a Roma. Barcelona: La Magrana.
Historian. Educator at the Verneda Sant Martí Learning Community and member of Tot Història Cultural Association.