Roman Empire Sex

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Roman Empire Sex


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To understand ancient Roman sexuality, we first need to understand how Roman society functioned. Roman society was first and foremost a patriarchal society where men dominated and set the rules be it in business, politics, legal matters or even religion. Women had fewer rights than men, they could not vote or hold public office, and they were under the control of their husbands or fathers ( patria potestas ). Men could have sexual relationships with partners deemed permissible including slaves or prostitutes and that was not considered adultery 2 , whereas women couldn't. Sexuality for men was related to ideas of masculinity and male domination.







Ancient Rome was also a slave society meaning that a large number of people were slaves. A Roman citizen 's political liberty ( libertas ) included the right to preserve the integrity of his or her own body, meaning that he or she could not be beaten, flogged or sexually abused 3 . Slaves in contrast were regarded as property and could be used by their masters for sex. Masters also controlled the sexuality of their slaves as more children from their slaves added to their wealth. However, slaves could not be used for sex by other Roman citizens unless their masters hired them out for sex 4 .
Prostitutes actually appear in the erotic art of the Suburban Baths of Pompeii suggesting that prostitution was commonplace and well accepted. Until the late Republic , Roman baths had a section for women or different schedule for men and women, while during the Roman Empire, baths, like the Suburban Baths of Pompeii, were mixed. However, women bathing naked with men were probably lower-class women or infames such as entertainers or prostitutes. Emperor Hadrian (reign: 117 – 138 AD) banned mixed bathing, but the ban seems not to have endured 7 .
Was homosexuality more prevalent in Ancient Rome than it is today? Even though no historian can really answer this question, the answer is probably not. There were probably a good number of men who abhorred homosexuality, but in the prevalent patriarchal and slave-oriented culture of Ancient Rome, where some human beings were considered as mere objects, it would have been seen as just another form of sexual activity and... a matter of taste. Even though it is hard to understand today, what was more important was the role (active or passive) and status of the Roman male.
Group sex, sex parties, orgies were probably something reserved to a very small section of the upper class though. Most Romans lived ordinary lives, had to work hard to make ends meet and would probably not want to tarnish their family's reputation by being involved in such activities. Roman orgies are also often confused with the religious festivals such as those in the honor of Bacchus or Lupercus , both fertility gods, which involved a lot of nudity. Sometimes these festivals went out of control and, as a result, were later reformed by the Roman pontifices . For example, the kind of worship of Bacchus which often involved debauchery was criminilized in 186 BC to be replaced by a reformed version.
As we previously pointed out, Roman law protected the Roman citizen from sexual misconduct ( stuprum ) whereas Roman slaves and non-citizens did not enjoy the benefits of libertas . This meant that Roman citizens, male or female, were off-limits while sex with slaves or prostitutes was easily available. According to Roman law, rape could only be committed against a citizen in good standing. A woman who worked as a prostitute, as an actress or as a dancer lost her social standing and became an infamis . By making her body publicly available, she had lost her right to be protected from sexual abuse or physical violence 3 .
As far as homosexuality is concerned, the Lex Scantinia of c. 149 BC prosecuted adult male citizens who took a passive role in sexual relations with other men or who had sex with freeborn male minors. The law did not prohibit homosexual behavior as such, but punished male citizens taking the passive role or committing sex crimes ( stuprum ) against freeborn male minors.
At the beginning of the Roman Empire, Rome's first emperor, Augustus (reign: 27 BC – 14 AD), passed laws (the Leges Juliae ) in 18-17 BC as part of his program to restore the mos maiorum or traditional social norms, following a period of instability, while consolidating his political authority. This goes to show that Rome was traditionally a conservative society and not the modern imagination of a sex-crazed society. The Leges Juliae main objectives were to increase the population by encouraging marriage and having children and to restore the morality of the upper classes. The laws had a section pertaining to adultery, the Lex Iulia de adulteriis (translation: "Julian Law concerning acts of adultery") which was primarily directed at married women who committed adultery. The law made adultery a public matter and punished adultery with banishment and with the confiscation of part of property. Husbands and fathers had the right to kill the partners in adultery under certain circumstances even though this was rarely carried out. Augustus actually applied this law to his very own daughter Julia who was banished and sent to the island of Pandateria.
For example, Lupercalia was a religious festival taking place on February 15 whose purpose was to expel the evil spirits and to purify the city ( februum means purification in Latin), thereby bringing health and fertility. This festival involved some people running half-naked with thongs of goat-skin in imitation of the god Lupercus .
Floralia was another religious festival in honor of the fertility goddess Flora, the goddess of flowers and of the season of spring held between April 28th and May 3rd. This religious festival involved prostitutes who danced naked and fought in mock gladiator combat. There were also a number of gods linked to sexuality such as Liber, the god of viticulture and wine, fertility and freedom, the god Cupid ( Cupido ), the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection, the imported Greek fertility god Priapus protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia, the phallic marriage god Mutunus Tutunus who promoted marital sex. A lot of the sexual art found by archeologists was related to Roman superstitions linked to the Roman religion. For example, the phallus, found in the form of an amulet or wind chimes, was supposed to have powers to ward off the evil eye and other malevolent supernatural forces 1 .
It can be said that all these gods promoted life and fertility as opposed to death. It does not mean that all Roman religion promoted sex. Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home and family, and the guardian of the Roman people and the religious festival Vestalia held between June 7th and 15th was one of the most important in Ancient Rome. Vesta was rarely shown in human form but was personified by the fire of her temple in the Forum Romanum . The Vestal Virgins were full-time priestesses of Vesta who tended the sacred fire at the hearth of the temple. They had to observe absolute chastity for 30 years. A Vestal Virgin who violated her vow of chastity was entombed alive in a ritual that resembled a Roman funeral. Her lover was executed. Therefore, one of the most important goddesses in the Roman religion was a virgin goddess.
The spread of Christianity throughout the Roman empire, its acceptance with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD under Constantine the Great (reign: 306–337 AD), and its adoption as the state religion with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380 AD, had a dramatic impact on Roman customs and sexuality and impacts our culture to this day. Many of the Roman religious traditions either faded away or were banned altogether. As we previously pointed out, Vesta was a very important goddess for the Romans. She was so important that her cult continued well into the fourth century AD until it was forcibly disbanded by emperor Theodosius I in 391 AD. Pope Gelasius I (494-496 AD) considered Lupercalia a vile festival and sought to abolish it. The senate protested and insisted that Lupercalia was essential to Rome's well-being and safety. Then Pope Gelasius suggested with disdain to senator Andromachus that they should celebrate it themselves and run around naked if they thought that this rite was salutary.
The gradual disappearance of all the pagan cults and the establishment of Christianity as the main religion, led to gradual changes in beliefs and attitudes towards sexuality. Some historians believe that the modern perception of Roman society as a decadent society comes in fact from early Christianity. Christians viewed celibacy as ideal and sex as inherently sinful, redeemed somewhat only if it took place within marriage 8 . Christianity put the emphasis on monogamy and expanded the definition of adultery to include married men having sexual relations with anyone other than their wives, including slaves or prostitutes. "But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband." (Corinthians 7:2). Under Emperor Justinian I (reign: 527 – 565 AD), laws against adultery, albeit less strict for men, could also be applied to husbands who cheated on their wives 9 .
Even though Christian Rome was more conservative than pagan Rome when it comes to sexuality, especially the sexuality of men, it also gave more rights to women. For example, under Justinian I, married women were no longer put to death for adultery and were rather sent to a convent. Wronged husbands were no longer required to divorce their wives as with the Lex Iulia de adulteriis and had the right to pardon them. With the previous Roman law, if the wronged husband did not divorce his wife he could be charged with pandering ( lenocinium in Latin from the word leno , "pimp").
With Christianity, the official attitude toward prostitution became chillier. Constantine I , the first Christian emperor, accepted it as a fact of life but taxed prostitutes. Theodosius II prohibited fathers from making a profit from their daughters, and slave owners from prostituting their slaves. Emperor Leo I banned prostitution outright and Theodora , a former prostitute herself, attempted to put an end to it as soon as she became empress 9 10 .
Even though the prosecution of homosexuality as a general crime began before the adoption of Christianity, laws against homosexuality became tougher under the Christian Empire. Men taking the passive role were punished by burning by the end of the 4th century AD. Under the Theodosian Code ( Codex Theodosianus ), the punishment for "a man coupling like a woman" was "death by sword". In the 6th century, under emperor Justinian I, all homosexual sex, passive or active, no matter who the partners were, was declared "contrary to nature" and punishable by death.
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Interesting facts about ancient Roman sexuality

Lesbianism was illegal in Ancient Rome.
It was during the brutal reign of Tiberius, the emperor who lived a life of debauchery, that Jesus was crucified, under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea at the time.
A lot of sexual words such as fellatio , cunnilingus , etc come from Latin.


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In a Roman household sex was in plentiful supply. Except, so it seems, between the actual married couples. The existence of slaves in the house naturally mean that, particularly the men, but also the women (although with the risk of pregnancy and disgrace), had access to sex whenever they so required.
Roman sexuality in its pagan times is perhaps hard to understand by western society with its values heavily influenced by Christianity.
To a Roman sex did not create any kind of bond between two people. It created no obligation between one side and the other. And, for the man at least, there appeared no reason why he should not share many sexual partners, – as long as it didn’t get him into any form of trouble.
What is peculiar though is that, whereas even the sharing of a meal created a form of social relationship with a person, having sex with them did not.
Marriage was a contract between a woman and a man, but it did in way require them to love each other.
If Romans saw marriage as an institution brought about by civilization, then sex to them had nothing to do with civility. In fact it was the direct opposite. It was where the animal still resident in man revealed itself. There was no shame in sexual acts at all. And yet it was seen as indecent to treat it as anything else but a private matter. So, it was definitely not something one talked about.
As far as the law was concerned then sex with slaves was not adulterous. Or at least not for men. And sex with a free-born man or woman was only adultery if they were not doing it for money. Thus, sex with a prostitute did not constitute adultery.
However, adultery with a free-born was a crime, stuprum. And for this there was only one punishment; death.
So as long as one steered clear of committing stuprum, anything was allowed. There was no limits on age and also none on gender.
However, if Rome was a tolerant society in law, then socially it was still not acceptable to be seen to practice sex in excess. This was deemed a flaw in a Roman’s character, making him disreputable.
And if the majority of Romans treated sex with a embarrassed silence, then it was expected that everyone else did so, too.
Worst of all was it to follow the example of the Greeks, who saw sex as some form of pleasurable art. That in Roman eyes was decadent, perverse, if not barbaric. Sex offered many social pitfalls to a citizen. If it followed no particular rules, then its practice could reveal weaknesses about the man.
The worst weakness ever to be discovered in a man was ‘effeminacy’. in fact it was perhaps the worst insult known to Romans to be called effeminate.
For an effeminate man was soft, he had become weak and girlish in the eyes of his fellow countrymen. The easy life had made him so, particularly if he enjoyed sexual relations too much. Such a man become both a homosexual and a womanizer in the eyes of others. Paradoxical as that might be, it was the Roman way. And few were safe from being deemed effeminate. Even Pompey the great general who had led forces into the east and conquered huge sways of territory for Rome, was deemed an effeminate lecher for his excessive love for Julia – his own wife !
If slaves were all bound not merely by ownership but by loyalty (fides) to a particular household, then the rejection of one of the men’s advances could be seen as more than disobedience, but betrayal of sorts. And if the man did refrain from forcing the slave to obey, then it was not necessarily out of respect of the slave’s shared humanity, but could well have been due to his own desire to restrain himself. Self-control and restraint, inner discipline, was a virtue sought by all Romans. To be able to curb his desires and show inner strength both to himself as well as to his slaves will have no doubt made many a master not abuse his powers to too great an extent.
However, the fact that a family would live under the same roof with slaves who had shared the bed with some of the family members. This could lead to some confusion about the relation between slaves and masters. For the children of the slaves might well be half sisters or brothers of the Roman children of the household.
In such situations there was naturally the possibility of incest. Though indeed it would be not seen as such. For incest was only deemed so when involving members of your own ‘official’ family.
But if the master of the house was sleeping with the daughter of a slave who had been a former mistress this was not deemed to be so, despite it being very well possible that the girl was in fact his daughter.And if it were not the master himself, who was to say that his son might not share a bed with the girl, who might be of a similar age to him. If biologically they might be half-sister and half-brother, the law saw nothing wrong with it. And for all the confusion and secrecy about sex in the household, they might well not have known about their shared parentage.
The civilization that was Rome had high demands on its people. The Roman citizen may have enjoyed rights and had room to follow his ambitions, but so too did he…
Love was irrelevant to the success of a marriage in Roman eyes. Marriage was there in order to provide children. Loved was a welcome thing, but by no means necessary.…
Girls enjoyed a similar, if not the same education as boys in early childhood. Though beyond primary education it was generally only daughters of aristocratic families who continued their education.…
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What Song Would Matthew Modine Use to Escape Vecna?
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The emperors of Rome could be wise, just and kind. They could also be vindictive, cruel and insane. And most of all, they could be the worst perverts the world has ever seen — at least according to ancient historians like Suetonius, Pliny, and Cassius Dio. Here are nearly a dozen of the most immoral, disgusting behaviors the rulers of the ancient world indulged in... supposedly. Chances are most of these were rumors made up by political enemies or gossiping plebs. But hey, just because they may not be true doesn't mean they're aren't still entertainingly perverse.
The Emperor Claudius married his brother's daughter Agrippina (his brother being long dead, thank goodness). "[H]is affections were ensnared by the wiles of Agrippina, daughter of his brother Germanicus, aided by the right of exchanging kisses and the opportunities for endearments offered by their relationship; and at the next meeting of the senate he induced some of the members to propose that he be compelled to marry Agrippina, on the ground that it was for the interest of the State; also that others be allowed to contract similar marriages, which up to that time had been regarded as incestuous." Yes, Claudius didn't just make niece-marrying legal, he made it patriotic!
No judgments on anal sex here, but putting professional anal sex experts on the imperial payroll is a bit much. "On retiring to Capri [Tiberius] devised a pleasance for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions." In case these pros were somehow not up to the tasks Tiberius put them too, he had a sex library full of illustrated works so he could just point to what he wanted.
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