took+from+the+dung+heap+a+male+slave-child

The abandonment of children in Ancient Rome was fairly common and infants could often be abandoned without any penalty. Most often the result was death for the infant, but it was also likely that the child might be picked up by someone who would then sell the child into slavery. Rarely did wealthy people fully adopt a child found abandoned. While adoption was a legal process that did occur fairly often, most adoptions took place among wealthy Romans looking for a male heir when one was not already existing in that family. In general, children were viewed as property that could be bought and sold.

Information obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption_in_ancient_Rome and //A History of Children: A Socio-Cultural Survey Across Millennia// by A. R. Colon.