Shaving a beard for the first time in ancient Rome sanctioned the transition from adolescence to adulthood
Cutting the beard for the first time is still an important moment for boys today, a significant “first time” that is also due to the Roman tradition. This important moment is famous known as “Depositio barbae”. The cutting of the first beard was for the ancient Romans a solemn initiation rite that sanctioned the transition from adolescence to the next phase. The freshly cut “beard” (“lanugo”) was kept and offered to the gods.
The ancient peoples considered the beard a symbol of power. The elders were the ones who wore the longest beard, as a sign of age, wisdom and leadership.
Only later was it used to shave and cut one’s hair as a sign of accuracy and civility.
In ancient Greece the beard was considered a sign of strength and virility for which it was grown in abundance. The Greeks of the classical period also wore beards.
The oldest Romans did not shave. As reported by Romano Impero, it is said that Brenno, the author of the “sack of Rome”, who entered the Capitol at the head of the Gauls, was surprised and disconcerted to find only the elderly senators present, all bearded and waiting, ready to perish for the homeland and we are in 390 BC
About a hundred years after the fashion of Alexander the Great conquered all of Greece and also spread to Rome, so much so that, in 299 BC, Publio Ticino Menea (or Menas) was the first to introduce, as Varrone informs, the barbitons in Rome, leading a troop of barbers from Sicily. Sicily was practically Greek, so before Rome it had already absorbed fashion.
Unlike the rich who had access to shaving at home, the common people gathered in the shop. The activity usually took place inside a single room with a bench running along the walls where customers waited their turn and a stool in the center where the shaving took place.
Beard trimming wasn’t exactly a painless practice. The skin was not in fact prepared with ointments or soaps and the cut was done dry with an iron razor. There were many wounds and cuts from shaving.
Pliny narrates that Scipio Africano (235-183 BC) was one of the first to be shaved. Being a hero it makes sense that he was largely imitated. The Carthaginians were bearded, the Romans were not.
It is said that at the age of fifty many Romans let their beards grow again.
Shaving every morning, especially with the blades of the time, was not supposed to be a simple task, but the Romans did it. For the soldiers, shaving meant maintaining authority, discipline and a sense of Romanism.
Julius Caesar shaved every morning, indeed he shaved all over his body and demanded that his soldiers also shave.
Among the emperors, Octavian shaved, after him Tiberius also shaved and so did Caligula and Claudius, but not Nero.
There was in fact a problem, as mentioned the razors of the time were not the best. Used dry and dull, shaving was practically a risk of cuts and infections.
Both Vespasiano and his son Tito shaved and Domitian also shaved and so did Nerva and Traiano. Most likely if the emperors shaved their subjects too.
With Adriano, a lover of classical Greek culture, things change, for the sake of Greek philosophy he lets his beard grow. It was also said that he had an ugly scar and that he intended to cover it in this way, the fact is that even his successors: Antoninus Pius, Lucio Vero, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, and Caracalla did not shave at all, and so Giuliano (332-363 AD ).
