Were there any laws about underage drinking in Greece and Rome, back in ancient times?
No. Laws that regulated the consumption of any drug, be it alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, opium, tobacco did not exist until the late nineteenth century, at the earliest. And in the case of alcohol, it likely came from the fact that some drinks like milk went bad if not drunk immediately or kept cold. Since refrigeration was not invented yet, and Greece and Rome were warm Mediterranean countries, milk was not the first choice of beverage. The alcohol in wine or beer, however, made sure that they did not easily spoil. The only other drink that Rome and Greece would have used that rivaled wine and beer was water. And amazingly, these ancient states were able to gather clean water rather easily. Roman aqueducts are still in use in some parts of Europe. But, when the Roman Empire began to decline around time of Marcus Aurelius’s death, and leading up to Rome’s fall in 476 CE, much of the knowledge needed to maintain those systems was lost. During the medieval period, wine and beer were drunk
