Roman lawyer and patrician around 100 AD Pliny He sent a letter to his third wife, Calpurnia, who was in another part of Italy. Express How much he loved and missed her.
I love you so much. We are not used to separation. That is why I can’t sleep at night thinking about you. […] The only time I am relieved from this misery is when I am in court, exhausted by the cases of my friends, and you will then understand what kind of life I lead, resting from work and distracted by problems and anxieties.
Most people living today have experienced or will experience some form of passionate love at some point in their lives, and often an equal amount of heartbreak.
When we have problems in our relationships, we try to console ourselves by thinking that this happens to many other people, and this is certainly true.
Of course, this has been happening for thousands of years.
Why do we fall in love?
One of the most famous ancient descriptions of passionate love is found in the writings of the Roman physician Galen (126-219). In his book On Prognosis, Galen wrote: explain I was visiting the home of a man whose wife seemed unwell due to insomnia, although she did not have a fever.
Garen questioned her, trying to understand why she couldn’t sleep, but she didn’t answer.
She answered hesitantly, or not at all, as if to show the foolishness of such a question, and at last she turned over, buried herself quite deeply in the blankets, covered her head with her little bundle, and lay there as if she wanted to sleep.
On a subsequent visit, he learned that the woman was in love (and infatuated) with a dancer named Pylades whom she had seen performing at the city’s theater, and her condition was bad because she knew the love would never amount to more than a secret desire.
Ancient peoples recognized that love can arise seemingly randomly, for both simple and complex reasons.
In the play “The Man Who Loved the Flute” Theophilus (4th century BC), one of the characters explain Basic reasons why he fell in love with someone:
Personally, I’m in love with a young woman who plays the harp. […] She’s pretty, tall and good at her job.
The passionate embraces and affections of ancient lovers were sometimes recorded in great detail.
An anonymous Poetry (date unknown) The author describes how, after his lover had won a boxing match, he kissed her on the lips even though her face was covered in blood:
When Menechalmus, the son of Anticles, won the boxing match, I bestowed upon him ten tender garlands and kissed him thrice upon his blood, which was sweeter to me than myrrh.
The difficulty of love
Greek and Roman tales abound about unrequited love and the misery it brings.
According to the philosopher Aristoxenus (4th century BC), there was a woman named Harparike. He died of grief. She fell in love with a man named Iphiculus and was rejected.
There are also stories of people struggling to be (and stay) with their significant other.
Galen How to explain One of his patients, a slave, pretended to have a knee injury so that he wouldn’t have to leave his lover for work.
Elsewhere, Galen Write about People in secret relationships:
They often have sex when they are drunk or have not digested any food, and they often engage in secret affairs so that no one will notice.
He explains with dry humor that these “secret affairs” are the reason “the resemblance between parents and children in humans is not so striking.”
Marital disputes were common back then, much like they are today. In a letter written around 200 AD, a traveler in Alexandria, Egypt, wrote: I have written He returns home to his wife and complains that she doesn’t pay much attention to him.
Your inconsistency and disinterest in my affairs keep me up at night.
Is love a disease?
Some ancient physicians believed that love was a major factor in determining a person’s mental and physical health.
For example, Galen Believed His patients’ illnesses can be partly blamed on love.
I have known men and women who have fallen passionately in love, become depressed, lose sleep, and then suffer from a temporary fever caused by something other than love. […] It is difficult for people who constantly think about love to recover from their illness.
Galen Recommendation Lovesick people should change their lifestyle and indulge in things like bathing, drinking alcohol, horse riding, traveling, etc. He also recommended that they channel their emotions into other pursuits, such as gladiator fights and dog hunting.
Other physicians believed that love had the power to cure people of their psychological problems. The 5th century physician Caelius Aurelianus Said Love can be both the cure and the cause of madness.
Either way, it cannot be denied
The influential playwright wrote in one of his plays Antiphanes (active early 4th century BC) I have written:
There are two things a man cannot hide: he is drinking wine, and he is in love, for these two states are so evident in his countenance and in his words that he is the one who is most obviously guilty of denying them.
So the next time you find yourself thinking about love, take comfort in the knowledge that you’re not alone. For thousands of years, people have been dealing with these difficult emotions, with both glory and disaster, and coming through unscathed — at least, most of the time.