The 'pushy parent' syndrome in ancient Rome


In 94 AD young Quintus Sulpicius Maximus died.

A Roman lad who lived just 11 years, five months and 12 days, he had recently taken part in a grown-up poetry competition, a sort of Rome's Got Talent. He had composed and performed a long poem in Greek.

And, though he hadn't actually won, everyone agreed that he had done amazingly well for his age. The sad thing was that only a few months later he dropped down dead.

We know this because his tombstone still survives, put up by his grieving mum and dad. There's a little statue of him in the middle, dressed up in his toga, and his poem is carved all over the stone - so everyone would know how brilliant it was.

How had he died? As his parents explain, he had collapsed from too much hard work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17701080