at the autopsy being found to be
double sexed. So that, while most of the cases mentioned are fictitious
and only apparent, the fact remains that the existence of true
hermaphrodites is indisputable.[42]

If the subject of either apparently or true hermaphrodism is one of
unhappiness, and oftentimes of discomfort and misery, history relates
that this unfortunate class has suffered additionally, from the laws and
action of ignorant and barbarian times, as such freaks of nature must
of necessity have occurred at all times; only in the then ignorant state
of medicine and anatomy they must have been considered as occurring much
oftener--every deviation from the normal being considered as
hermaphroditic. Opmeyer relates that in excavating in the neighborhood
of the capitol in Rome, the laborers discovered the bronze tables on
which were inscribed the twenty-two laws of Romulus, termed by many
historians "The Double Decalogue of Romulus." Article XV of this law, as
well as Articles IX and X, seem to be directed against the life of these
androgynes. In Roman history, however, we have an event which would seem
to contradict that there existed any laws in actual force against this
unfortunate class. It happened during the existence of the Punic wars,
when the people were more or less laboring under fear and excitement,
which would readily prepare them to accept any superstitious notion. It
was during these times that three of these androgynes were known to
exist in Italy. Titus Livius mentions that the existence of one of these
was denounced during the consulships of C. Claudius Nero and of Marcus
Livius. Etruscan soothsayers and seers were summoned to Rome, that they
might consult the signs and the conditions of the constellations that
accompanied the nativity of this hermaphrodite, or androgyne. These
impostors, after a careful consultation of all attending circumstances,
gave it as their opinion that the occurrence was an unfortunate
impurity, and that it could only result to the disadvantage of Rome,
unless she at once took steps to purify herself of such a monstrosity,
with the conclusion that the androgyne should be first exiled from Roman
soil, and then drowned in the depths of the sea. The unfortunate being
was accordingly inclosed in a chest and put on board a galley, which
put immediately to sea; when the vessel was out of sight of land the
chest was thrown into the Mediterranean.[43]

A hermaphrodite born in Umbria