6 Laws in History That Sound Absurd But Actually Make Sense

History is full of various weird laws that can make people of this generation laugh, cringe, or shake their heads.

Some laws sound absolutely ridiculous and seem more like dares than actual laws: urine being taxed, beards becoming illegal, men fined for refusing to marry, fathers legally selling their sons, and entire islands where dying was forbidden. From a modern perspective, these laws feel absurd, cruel, or laughably over-the-top.

But these laws didn’t appear out of nowhere. They were shaped by fear, survival, belief systems, and very real problems people were trying to solve. These laws might seem absurd today, but during their time, they made perfect sense.

Let’s take a look at six of these laws throughout history that sound ridiculous until you understand the logic behind them.

1. The Roman Law That Taxed Urine (Vectigal Urinae)
2. Sparta Fined Men for Staying Single
3. Athens Made It Illegal to Cut Down Olive Trees
4. Illegal Beards in Russia
5. Roman Fathers Could Sell Their Sons Three Times
6. Death Was Illegal on the Island of Delos

The Roman Law That Taxed Urine (Vectigal Urinae)

Taxing Urine sounds like a nonsensical joke nowadays, but in ancient Rome, it was business. Urine was not considered waste in Roman society; it was a valuable commodity because its contents, including minerals and chemicals such as phosphorus, ammonia, and potassium.

The Romans purchased it from public latrine owners and sold it to salespeople, who in turn used it as a mouthwash to wash their teeth, as an essential ingredient to clean fabrics, soften animal hides, and for other uses.

Emperor Nero was reported to be the first ruler to introduce the idea, but it was shunned due to public opinion and outrage. However, after he died in 69AD, his successor, Emperor Vespasian, reintroduced the law when Rome was recovering from civil war and desperately needed revenue. The tax applied to urine gathered from public latrines, where waste from both lower and upper-class Romans was collected. Buyers paid a tax on the collected urine from cesspools and private facilities.

When his own son, Titus, criticized the tax, Vespasian reportedly held up a coin and asked whether it smelled bad. When his son said no, Vespasian replied, “Yet it comes from urine.” The story gave rise to the famous phrase “pecunia non olet,” which means “money does not stink.”

Strange as it sounds, the law was practical, and it helped to generate a lot of revenue, funding the imperial treasury and public works, including the Colosseum.

Sparta Fined Men for Staying Single

Sparta did not value personal freedom the way we do nowadays. The state was built around military strength, and men were responsible for marrying and giving birth to children who would eventually become soldiers.

Marriage was not a matter of choice, but a responsibility, and men who refused to marry after the age of 35 were fined, publicly shamed, and sometimes subjected to ritual humiliation. A man who refused to marry was seen as selfish and dangerous to the survival of the state.

Ancient sources describe bachelors being publicly shamed and excluded from important social and religious festivals. They were denied the respect normally granted to older men and were sometimes subjected to ritual humiliation. In some accounts, unmarried men were forced to endure public mockery, including being paraded or compelled to perform degrading acts naked during ceremonies.

Athens Made It Illegal to Cut Down Olive Trees

In ancient Athens, olive trees were more than plants. The city was founded after Athena gifted the olive tree to its people, after a power war with Poseidon. The tree became sacred, but its importance went far beyond just religion. Olive oil was essential to the daily life of the people and to the economy. It fueled lamps, preserved food, treated wounds, etc.

In the 6th century BCE, lawmaker Solon imposed strict controls on how olive groves should be treated. Cutting down trees without permission was illegal and, in some cases, met with severe punishment, because it was believed to be an offense against the city and its gods.

Nowadays, banning the cutting of trees can sound excessive, but then, it was meant to protect the environment and the economy.

Illegal Beards in Russia

In late 17th-century Russia, something as ordinary and intimate as a man’s beard became a matter of state control. Under Tsar Peter I, later known as Peter the Great, facial hair was not merely a personal choice or religious custom. It was a problem resolved through punishment.

This was part of a movement to turn Russia into a westernized state after Peter’s return from Europe. He banned facial hair in men, starting with shaving his court nobles who came to welcome him at his New Year party. He also banned the traditional Russian jacket, cutting it short with scissors to match his version of Western men. It was part of a broader effort to reshape Russia in the image of Western Europe.

However, religious authorities like the Russian Orthodox Church argued that beards were part of the natural image of man as created by God. They raised a group of rebels to protest the law, and lives were lost in the clash.

After many more protests, Peter decided to tax beards instead of outrightly shaving them. Men who wished to retain their facial hair were required to pay an annual fee and carry a small metal token as proof of payment. These beard tokens, first issued in 1705, functioned as both receipts and symbols of submission to state authority, and failure to produce a token could result in immediate punishment, including forced shaving.

The tax varied according to income, and the poor were mostly exempted. The tax remained in effect long after Peter’s death, by which time Western grooming standards had already taken root among the Russian elite.

Roman Fathers Could Sell Their Sons Three Times

Roman family law granted fathers extraordinary authority and sovereignty over their children, especially the male child. This power, known as patria potestas, included control over property, marriage, and, in extreme cases, the right to sell a child into servitude.

By modern standards, the idea is absolutely horrifying, but in ancient Rome, this was a normal thing. Fathers had the right to sell their daughters and grandchildren once, but sons thrice. After the third sale, the son was legally freed from paternal control.

The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus noted that Roman law gave fathers power over their sons “even during their whole life,” including the ability to imprison or sell them, regardless of the son’s public status or age. A son could be married, middle-aged, and politically powerful, yet still be legally subject to his father as long as the father lives.

To dissolve this power and its hold on the son, Roman law relied on a legal framework called emancipatio. The father would sell his son to a trusted third party, usually a friend, relative, or associate. That person would immediately free the son through a legal act called manumission.

After the first and second sales, the son automatically returned under the father’s authority. But after the third sale, the father’s authority over the son was broken. When the buyer freed the son for the final time, the son did not return to his father. Instead, he becomes legally independent and no longer subject to his father.

Over time, this absolute power weakened. Sons were free of their father's power once they got married. Sons were also allowed to own properties in the military, thereby the father couldn’t have control over it.

Death Was Illegal on the Island of Delos

Of all the strange laws in history, banning death might just be the most unbelievable one. On the Greek island of Delos, not only was death banned, but giving birth on the island was also banned.

This was because the island was considered the birthplace of the twin deities Apollo and Artemis. To honor the status and preserve the divinity, authorities in the 6th century BCE ordered the removal of all graves from the island. People nearing death or about to give birth were moved to the nearby, smaller island of Rhenea, which served as a designated zone for these life events.

When viewed through a modern lens, these laws seem absurd, cruel, or outright laughable. They clash violently with modern ideas of personal freedom and human rights. But none of these laws were created out of madness or randomness. They emerged from very real fears and needs occurring at the time.

The real reason these laws sound ridiculous today is not that people in the past were foolish, but because their priorities were different. What feels ridiculous now once felt necessary. And someday, future generations may look back at our own laws with the same disbelief.

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