{{Short description|Sexuality in ancient Rome}} {{Format footnotes|date=April 2026}} {{Multiple image|total_width=320|image2=Sousse mosaic Ganymede.JPG|image1=Marble Busts of Hadrian & Antinous, from Rome, Roman Empire, British Museum (16497688477).jpg|footer=''(left)'' Busts of the [[Roman emperor]] [[Hadrian]] (left) and his male lover [[Antinous]], now at the [[British Museum]] ''(right)'' Roman [[mosaic]] from [[Susa, Libya]], depicting the myth of [[Zeus]] in the form of an eagle abducting the boy [[Ganymede (mythology)| Ganymede]]}}
'''Homosexuality in ancient Rome''' is a subject of research and scholarly debate. Homosexuality in ancient Rome [[Societal attitudes toward homosexuality|differed markedly]] from the contemporary [[Western culture|West]]. [[Latin]] lacks words that would precisely [[Translation|translate]] "[[homosexual]]" and "[[heterosexual]]".<ref>Craig Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'' (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 304, citing Saara Lilja, ''Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome'' (Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1983), p. 122.</ref> The primary dichotomy of [[Sexuality in ancient Rome|ancient Roman sexuality]] was<!--The hsp's and nowrap's starting here: --> {{nowrap|active{{hsp}}/}}{{hsp}}{{nowrap|[[Dominance and submission|dominant]]{{hsp}}/}}{{hsp}}masculine and {{nowrap|passive{{hsp}}/}}{{hsp}}{{nowrap|[[Dominance and submission|submissive]]{{hsp}}/}}{{hsp}}feminine.<!-- and ending here are for line-wrapping control and are best left as is, please and thank you--> Roman society was [[patriarchy|patriarchal]], and the [[ingenui|freeborn]] male [[Roman citizenship|citizen]] possessed political liberty (''libertas'') and the right to rule both himself and his household (''[[paterfamilias|familia]]''). "Virtue" (''[[virtus (virtue)|virtus]]'') was seen as an active quality through which a man (''vir'') defined himself.
The conquest mentality and "cult of [[virility]]" shaped same-sex relations. [[Pederasty]] between males was documented, and such relationships were accepted as long as the Roman man took an active/dominant role and passive younger male partner was not a freeborn youth/boy. Acceptable male partners were [[slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]] and former slaves, [[Prostitution in ancient Rome|prostitutes]], and [[Entertainment|entertainers]], whose lifestyle placed them in the nebulous social realm of ''[[infamia]]'', so they were excluded from the normal protections afforded to a citizen even if they were technically free. [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Sexuality and children|Freeborn male minors]] were off limits at certain periods in Rome. It is difficult to know up to what extent homosexuality in general and pederasty in particular were practiced in ancient Rome.<ref>Amy Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor'' (Oxford University Press, 1983, 1992)</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hubbard|first=ThomasK.|title=Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a Sourcebook of Basic Documents. |publisher=University of California Press.|year=2003|isbn=0520234308}}</ref>
[[File:024MAD Antinous.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of Antinous (Delphi)]], polychrome [[Parian marble]] depicting [[Antinous]], made during the reign of [[Hadrian]] (r. 117–138 AD), his lover]] Same-sex relations among women are far less documented<ref>{{cite book|author= Kristina Minor|quote=Despite the best efforts of scholars, we have essentially no direct evidence of female homoerotic love in Rome: the best we can do is a collection of hostile literary and technical treatments ranging from Phaedrus to Juvenal to the medical writers and Church fathers, all of which condemn sex between women as low-class, immoral, barbarous, and disgusting.|year=2014|title=Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii|page=212|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199684618}}</ref> and, if Roman writers are to be trusted, female [[homoeroticism]] may have been very rare, to the point that [[Ovid]], in the Augustine era describes it as "unheard-of".<ref>Skinner, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture'', p. 69</ref> However, there is scattered evidence—for example, a couple of spells in the [[Greek Magical Papyri]]—which attests to the existence of individual women in Roman-ruled provinces in the later [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]] who fell in love with members of the same sex.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ancient Greek Love Magic|year=2001|author=Christopher A. Faraone|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=148|isbn=978-0674006966}}</ref>
==Overview== During the [[Roman Republic|Republic]], a Roman citizen's political liberty (''libertas'') was defined in part by the right to preserve his body from physical compulsion, including both corporal punishment and sexual abuse.<ref>Thomas A.J. McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 326. See the statement preserved by [[Aulus Gellius]] 9.12. 1 that "it was an injustice to bring force to bear against the body of those who are free" (''vim in corpus liberum non aecum ... adferri'').</ref> Roman society was [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] (see ''[[paterfamilias]]''), and [[masculinity]] was premised on a capacity for governing oneself and others of lower status.<ref>[[Eva Cantarella]], ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'' (Yale University Press, 1992, 2002, originally published 1988 in Italian), p. xii.</ref> ''[[Virtus (virtue)|Virtus]]'', "valor" as that which made a man most fully a man, was among the active virtues.<ref>[[Elaine Fantham]], "The Ambiguity of ''Virtus'' in Lucan's ''Civil War'' and Statius' ''Thebiad''," ''Arachnion'' 3; Andrew J.E. Bell, "Cicero and the Spectacle of Power," ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 87 (1997), p. 9; Edwin S. Ramage, "Aspects of Propaganda in the ''De bello gallico'': Caesar’s Virtues and Attributes," ''Athenaeum'' 91 (2003) 331–372; Myles Anthony McDonnell, ''Roman manliness:'' virtus ''and the Roman Republic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006) ''passim''; Rhiannon Evans, ''Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and Decline at Rome'' (Routledge, 2008), pp. 156–157.</ref> Sexual conquest was a common metaphor for [[imperialism]] in Roman discourse,<ref>Davina C. Lopez, "Before Your Very Eyes: Roman Imperial Ideology, Gender Constructs and Paul's Inter-Nationalism," in ''Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses'' (Brill, 2007), pp. 135–138.</ref> and the "[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Sex and imperialism|conquest mentality]]" was part of a "cult of [[virility]]" that particularly shaped Roman homosexual practices.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. xi; Marilyn B. Skinner, introduction to ''Roman Sexualities'' (Princeton University Press, 1997), p. 11.</ref> Roman ideals of masculinity were thus premised on taking an active role that was also, as [[Craig A. Williams]] has noted, "the prime directive of masculine sexual behavior for Romans".<ref>Craig A. Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 18.</ref> In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, scholars have tended to view expressions of Roman [[male sexuality]] in terms of a "penetrator-penetrated" [[Binary opposition|binary model]]; that is, the proper way for a Roman male to seek sexual gratification was to insert his penis into his partner.<ref>[[Rebecca Langlands]], ''Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 13.</ref> Allowing himself to be penetrated threatened his liberty as a free citizen as well as his sexual integrity.<ref>For further discussion of how sexual activity defines the free, respectable citizen from the slave or "un-free" person, see [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Master-slave relations|Master-slave relations in ancient Rome]].</ref>
{{multiple image | align = right | total_width = 400 | image_style = border:none; | image1 = Drawing (BM 2010,5006.570).jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = A drawing based on a fragment of an ancient Roman glass vessel. 1826 - 1827 British Museum, London | image2 = Fragment of an open vessel - Glass - 1 of 4.jpg | alt2 = | caption2 = A fragment of a glass vessel showing a homosexual scene. Cameo. Around 15 BCE - 1st Century CE. British Museum, London }} It was socially acceptable, though not necessarily respected, for a freeborn Roman man to want sex with both female and male partners, as long as he took an active role and the appropriate partner was a prostitute or slave.<ref>Amy Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor'' (Oxford University Press, 1983, 1992), p. 225.</ref> Outside of marriage a man was supposed to act on his desires with only slaves, prostitutes (who were often slaves), and the ''[[Infamia|infames]]''. It was immoral to have sex with another freeborn man's wife, his marriageable daughter, his underage son, or with the man himself; sexual use of another man's slave was subject to the owner's permission. Lack of self-control, including in managing one's [[sex life]], indicated that a man was incapable of governing others; too much indulgence in "low sensual pleasure" threatened to erode the elite male's identity as a cultured person.<ref>Catharine Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome," in ''Roman Sexualities'', pp. 67–68.</ref> Some scholars argue that Lex scantinia, protected freeborn boys from sexual advances of men.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craig A. Williams |url=http://archive.org/details/romanhomosexuali00will_0 |title=Roman homosexuality |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-19-512505-4}}</ref>
[[File:Arezzo, coppe in terra sigillata con scene erotiche, I secolo ac.-I dc ca. (arezzo, museo archeologico) 01.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Arretine earthenware with an erotic scene. Artist Unknown. 1st century CE]] [[Homoeroticism|Homoerotic]] themes are introduced to [[Latin literature]] during a period of increasing [[Hellenization|Greek influence]] on [[Roman culture]] in the 2nd century BC. While in ancient Greece, pederasty between freeborn male citizens of equal status was idealized by some classical greek elites, such an attachment to a male outside the family, within Roman society threatened the authority of the ''[[Pater familias|paterfamilias]]''.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. xi; Skinner, introduction to ''Roman Sexualities'', p. 11.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Hubbard |first=Thomas K. |title=Historical Views of Homosexuality: Roman Empire |date=2020-03-31 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics |url=https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1243 |access-date=2025-04-29 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1243 |isbn=978-0-19-022863-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Since Roman women were active in educating their sons and mingled with men socially, and women of the governing classes often continued to advise and influence their sons and husbands in political life, [[homosociality]] was not as pervasive in Rome as it had been in [[Classical Greece|Classical Athens]], where it is thought to have contributed to the particulars of pederastic culture.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', pp. xi–xii; Skinner, introduction to ''Roman Sexualities'', pp. 11–12.</ref>
In the Imperial era, a perceived increase in passive homosexual behavior among free males was associated with anxieties about the subordination of political liberty to the emperor, and led to an increase in executions and corporal punishment.<ref>Amy Richlin, "Sexuality in the Roman Empire," in ''A Companion to the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 2006), p. 329. The lower classes (''humiliores'') were subject to harsher penalties than the elite (''honestiores'').</ref> The sexual license and decadence under the empire was seen as a contributing factor and symptom of the loss of the ideals of physical integrity (''libertas'') under the Republic.<ref>This is a theme throughout Carlin A. Barton, ''The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster'' (Princeton University Press, 1993).</ref>
==Homoerotic literature and art== Love or desire between males is a very frequent theme in Roman literature. In the estimation of [[Amy Richlin]], out of the poems preserved to this day, those addressed by men to boys are as common as those addressed to women, with most of them directed towards slave boys.<ref>Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 33. "Whatever the relationship between the poetry and the reality, it is a fact that poems to ''pueri'' are as common as poems to mistresses, and are similar in tone."</ref>
Among the works of Roman literature that can be read today, those of [[Plautus]] are the earliest to survive in full to modernity, and also the first to mention homosexuality. Their use to draw conclusions about Roman customs or morals, however, is controversial because these works are all based on Greek originals. However, Craig A. Williams defends such use of the works of Plautus. He notes that the homo- and heterosexual exploitation of slaves, to which there are so many references in Plautus' works, is rarely mentioned in Greek New Comedy, and that many of the puns that make such a reference (and Plautus' oeuvre, being comic, is full of them) are only possible in Latin, and can not therefore have been mere translations from the Greek.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 36–39.</ref>
[[File:Nisos Euryalos Louvre LL450 n2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Heroic portrayal of [[Nisus and Euryalus]] (1827) by [[Jean-Baptiste Roman]]: Vergil described their love as ''pius'' in keeping with Roman morality]]
The [[Roman consul|consul]] [[Quintus Lutatius Catulus]] was among a circle of poets who made short, light [[Hellenistic poetry|Hellenistic poems]] fashionable. One of his few surviving fragments is a poem of desire addressed to a male with a Greek name.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. 120; Edward Courtney, ''The Fragmentary Latin Poets'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 75.</ref> In the view of [[Ramsay MacMullen]], who is of the opinion that, before the flood of Greek influence, the Romans were against the practice of homosexuality, the elevation of [[ancient Greek literature|Greek literature]] and [[Ancient Greek art|art]] as models of expression promoted the celebration of homoeroticism as the mark of an urbane and sophisticated person.<ref>[[Ramsay MacMullen]], "Roman Attitudes to Greek Love," ''Historia'' 31.4 (1982), pp. 484–502.</ref> The opposite view is sustained by Craig Williams, who is critical of [[Ramsay MacMullen|Macmullen's]] discussion on Roman attitudes toward homosexuality:<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 16, 327, 328.</ref> he draws attention to the fact that Roman writers of love poetry gave their beloveds Greek pseudonyms no matter the sex of the beloved. Thus, the use of Greek names in homoerotic Roman poems does not mean that the Romans attributed a Greek origin to their homosexual practices or that homosexual love only appeared as a subject of poetic celebration among the Romans under the influence of the Greeks.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 70–78.</ref>
References to homosexual desire or practice, in fact, also appear in Roman authors who wrote in literary styles seen as originally Roman, that is, where the influence of Greek fashions or styles is less likely. In an [[Atellan farce]] authored by [[Quintus Novius]] (a literary style seen as originally Roman), it is said by one of the characters that "everyone knows that a boy is superior to a woman"; the character goes on to list physical attributes, most of which denoting the onset of puberty, that mark boys when they are at their most attractive in the character's view.<ref name=w23 /> Also remarked elsewhere in Novius' fragments is that the sexual use of boys ceases after "their butts become hairy".<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 24.</ref> A preference for smooth male bodies over hairy ones is also avowed elsewhere in Roman literature (e.g., in ''Ode'' 4.10 by Horace and in some epigrams by [[Martial]] or in the ''[[Priapeia]]'').<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 19.</ref>
In a work of satires, another literary genre that Romans saw as their own,<ref>[[Quintilian]], ''[[Institutio Oratoria]]'', 10.1.93.</ref> [[Gaius Lucilius]], a second-century BC poet, draws comparisons between anal sex with boys and vaginal sex with females; it is speculated that he may have written a whole chapter in one of his books with comparisons between lovers of both sexes, though nothing can be stated with certainty as what remains of his oeuvre are just fragments.<ref name=w23>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 23.</ref>
[[File:Martialis.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Poets like [[Martial]] (above) and [[Juvenal]] enthused about the love of boys, but were hostile to homosexually passive adult men.]] In other satire, as well as in Martial's erotic and invective epigrams, at times boys' superiority over women is remarked (for example, in [[Satire 6|Juvenal 6]]). Other works in the genre (e.g., Juvenal 2 and 9, and one of Martial's satires) also give the impression that passive homosexuality was becoming a fad increasingly popular among Roman men of the first century AD, something which is the target of invective from the authors of the satires.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. 154.</ref> The practice itself, however, was perhaps not new, as over a hundred years before these authors, the dramatist [[Lucius Pomponius]] wrote a play, ''Prostibulum'' (''The Prostitute''), which today only exists in fragments, where the main character, a male prostitute, proclaims that he has sex with male clients also in the active position.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 12.</ref>
"[[neoteric|New poetry]]" introduced at the end of the 2nd century included that of [[Gaius Valerius Catullus]], whose work include expressing desire for a freeborn youth explicitly named "Youth" (''Iuventius'').<ref>[[Catullus]], ''Carmina'' 24, 48, 81, 99.</ref> The Latin name and freeborn status of the beloved subvert Roman tradition.<ref>[[John Pollini]], "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver," ''Art Bulletin'' 81.1 (1999), p. 28.</ref> Catullus's contemporary [[Lucretius]] also recognizes the attraction of "boys"<ref>Lucretius, ''De rerum natura'' 4.1052–1056). See also [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Epicurean sexuality]].</ref> (''[[#Puer|pueri]]'', which can designate an acceptable submissive partner and not specifically age<ref>Amy Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the ''cinaedus'' and the Roman Law against Love between Men," ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'' 3.4 (1993), p. 536.</ref>). Homoerotic themes occur throughout the works of [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|poets writing during the reign of Augustus]], including elegies by [[Tibullus]]<ref>[[Tibullus]], Book One, elegies 4, 8, and 9.</ref> and [[Propertius]],<ref>[[Propertius]] 4.2.</ref> several ''[[Eclogues]]'' of [[Vergil]], especially the second, and some poems by [[Horace]]. In the ''[[Aeneid]],'' Vergil—who, according to a biography written by [[Suetonius]], had a marked sexual preference for boys<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 35 and 189.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/de_Poetis/Vergil*.html|title=The Life of Vergil|author=Suetonius|website=[[University of Chicago]]}}</ref>—draws on the [[Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece|Greek tradition of pederasty in a military setting]] by portraying the love between [[Nisus and Euryalus]],<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 116–119.</ref> whose military valor marks them as solidly Roman men (''viri'').<ref>Mark Petrini, ''The Child and the Hero: Coming of Age in Catullus and Vergil'' (University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 24–25.</ref> Vergil describes their love as ''pius'', linking it to the supreme virtue of ''[[pietas]]'' as possessed by the hero [[Aeneas]] himself, and endorsing it as "honorable, dignified and connected to central Roman values".<ref>James Anderson Winn, ''The Poetry of War'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 162.</ref>
By the end of the Augustan period [[Ovid]], Rome's leading literary figure, showed a heterosexual preference and love with a woman is more enjoyable because unlike the forms of same-sex behavior permissible within Roman culture, the pleasure is mutual.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'' 2.683–684; Pollini, "Warren Cup," p. 36.</ref> Even Ovid himself, however, did not claim exclusive heterosexuality<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Judith P. Hallett|editor1-link=Judith P. Hallett |editor2= Marilyn Skinner|year=1997|title=Roman Sexualities|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=55}}</ref> and he does include mythological treatments of homoeroticism in the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'',<ref>As at ''Metamorphoses'' 10.155ff.</ref> but [[Thomas Habinek]] has pointed out that the significance of Ovid's rupture of human erotics into categorical preferences has been obscured in the [[history of sexuality]] by a later heterosexual bias in Western culture.<ref>[[Thomas Habinek|Habinek]], "The Invention of Sexuality in the World-City of Rome," p. 31 ''et passim''.</ref>
Several other Roman writers, however, expressed a bias in favor of males when sex or companionship with males and females were compared, including [[Juvenal]], [[Lucian]], [[Straton of Sardis|Strato]],<ref>{{cite book|title=In Bed with the Romans|author=Paul Chrystal|year=2017|publisher=Amberley Publishing|isbn=978-1445666730}}</ref> and the poet [[Martial]], who often derided women as sexual partners and celebrated the charms of ''pueri''.<ref>{{cite book|ref=Potter2009|editor=Potter, David S. |title=A Companion to the Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4ZmqsyC5kEC|date=2009|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-9918-6|page=335|chapter=Sexuality in the Roman Empire}}</ref> In literature of the [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]], the ''[[Satyricon]]'' of [[Petronius]] is so permeated with the culture of male–male sex that in 18th-century European literary circles, his name became "a byword for homosexuality".<ref>Louis Crompton, ''Byron and Greek Love'' (London, 1998), p. 93.</ref> Pederasty, even with slaves, wasn't always accepted. Musoneus Rufus condemned all sexual acts with either sex, except for procreation within marriage.
===Sex, art, and everyday objects=== [[File:Relief - 3a.jpg|thumb|right|300px|<small>Sex between two females and two males.<ref name="Clarke1998">{{cite book |author=John R Clarke|date=1998 |title=Looking at Lovemaking |page=244|url=https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520229044/looking-at-lovemaking |publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520229044}}</ref> On the right are two females and the figure furthest to the right has raised their legs around the person next to them.<ref name=Clarke1998/> On the left is anal sex between two males.<ref name=Clarke1998/>Fragment of a terracotta vessel. Stamped with the name Vitalis. 65 - 80 AD. [[Vorarlberg Museum]], Austria</small>]]
{{See also|Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum}}
Homosexuality appears with much less frequency in the visual art of Rome than in its literature.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 351, n. 150.</ref> Out of several hundred objects depicting images of sexual contact—from wall paintings and oil lamps to vessels of various types of material—only a small minority exhibits acts between males, and even fewer among females.<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Catherine Johns|Johns, Catherine]]|title=Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome |publisher=[[British Museum]]|pages=102–104|year=1982}}</ref>
Male homosexuality occasionally appears on vessels of numerous kinds, from cups and bottles made of expensive material such as silver and [[cameo glass]] to mass-produced and low-cost bowls made of [[Terra_sigillata#Arretine_ware|Arretine pottery]]. This may be evidence that sexual relations between males had the acceptance not only of the elite, but was also openly celebrated or indulged in by the less illustrious,<ref name=clarke514>Clarke, “Sexuality and Visual Representation,” p. 514</ref> as suggested also by ancient graffiti.<ref>Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 223.</ref>
When whole objects rather than mere fragments are unearthed, homoerotic scenes are usually found to share space with pictures of opposite-sex couples, which can be interpreted to mean that heterosexuality and homosexuality (or male homosexuality, in any case) are of equal value.<ref name=clarke514 /><ref name=skin369>Skinner, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture'', p. 369</ref> The Warren Cup (discussed below) is an exception among homoerotic objects: it shows only male couples and may have been produced in order to celebrate a world of exclusive homosexuality.<ref>{{cite book|author=James L. Butrica|chapter=Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality|title=Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition|publisher=Haworth Press|year=2005|page=210}}</ref>
The treatment given to the subject in such vessels is idealized and romantic, similar to that dispensed to heterosexuality. The artist's emphasis, regardless of the sex of the couple being depicted, lies in the mutual affection between the partners and the beauty of their bodies.<ref name="clarke78">Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking'', p. 78.</ref>
Such a trend distinguishes Roman homoerotic art from that of the Greeks.<ref name=skin369 /> With some exceptions, Greek vase painting attributes desire and pleasure only to the active partner of homosexual encounters, the ''erastes'', while the passive, or ''eromenos'', seems physically unaroused and, at times, emotionally distant. It is now believed that this may be an artistic convention provoked by reluctance on the part of the Greeks to openly acknowledge that Greek males could enjoy taking on a "female" role in an erotic relationship;<ref>[[Andrew Lear]], “Ancient Pederasty: An Introduction,” in ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', edited by Thomas K. Hubbard, 102–127 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), p: 107.</ref> reputation for such pleasure could have consequences to the future image of the former ''eromenos'' when he turned into an adult, and hinder his ability to participate in the socio-political life of the ''[[polis]]'' as a respectable citizen.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Nick Fisher|author2=[[Aeschines]]|title=[[Against Timarchus]]|page=50|year=2001|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0198149026}}</ref> Because, among the Romans, normative homosexuality took place, not between freeborn males or social equals as among the Greeks, but between master and slave, client and prostitute or, in any case, between social superior and social inferior, Roman artists may paradoxically have felt more at ease than their Greek colleagues to portray mutual affection and desire between male couples.<ref name="clarke78"/> This may also explain why anal penetration is seen more often in Roman homoerotic art than in its Greek counterpart, where [[intercrural sex|non-penetrative intercourse]] predominates.<ref name=clarke78 />
[[File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 05.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Threesome from the Suburban Baths in [[Pompeii]], depicting a sexual scenario as described also by [[Catullus]], ''Carmen'' 56]] A wealth of wall paintings of a sexual nature have been spotted in ruins of some Roman cities, notably [[Pompeii]], where there were found the only examples known so far of Roman art depicting sexual congress between women. A [[frieze]] at a brothel annexed to the [[Suburban Baths (Pompeii)|Suburban Baths]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pompeii.org.uk/m.php/museum-suburban-bath-pompeii-en-80-m.htm|title=The monuments of the ancient Pompeii - SUBURBAN BATH - POMPEII|website=www.pompeii.org.uk}}</ref> in Pompeii, shows a series of sixteen sex scenes, three of which display homoerotic acts: a bisexual [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Group sex|threesome]] with two men and a woman, intercourse by a female couple using a strap-on, and a foursome with two men and two women participating in homosexual anal sex, heterosexual [[fellatio]], and homosexual [[cunnilingus]].
[[File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 04.jpg|thumb|left|300px|[[Cunnilingus]], [[fellatio]] and anal sex between two females and two males - mural. Suburban baths, Pompeii]] Contrary to the art of the vessels discussed above, all sixteen images on the mural portray sexual acts considered unusual or debased according to Roman customs: e.g., female sexual domination of men, heterosexual oral sex, passive homosexuality by an adult man, lesbianism, and group sex. Therefore, their portrayal may have been intended to provide a source of ribald humor rather than sexual titillation to visitors of the building.<ref>John R. Clarke, “Sexuality and Visual Representation,” in ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', edited by Thomas K. Hubbard, 509–33 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).</ref>
[[Threesome]]s in Roman art typically show two men penetrating a woman, but one of the Suburban scenes has one man entering a woman from the rear while he in turn receives anal sex from a man standing behind him. This scenario is described also by Catullus, ''Carmen'' 56, who considers it humorous.<ref>John R. Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art 100 B.C.–A.D. 250'' (University of California Press, 1998, 2001), p. 234.</ref> The man in the center may be a ''[[#Cinaedus|cinaedus]]'', a male who liked to receive anal sex but who was also considered seductive to women.<ref>Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking'', pp. 234–235.</ref> [[Foursome (group sex)|Foursomes]] also appear in Roman art, typically with two men and two women, sometimes in same-sex pairings.<ref>Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking'', p. 255.</ref>
[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Male nudity|Roman attitudes toward male nudity]] differ from those of the ancient Greeks, who regarded idealized portrayals of the nude male. The wearing of the [[toga]] marked a Roman man as a free citizen.<ref>Habinek, "The Invention of Sexuality in the World-City of Rome," in ''The Roman Cultural Revolution'', p. 39.</ref> Negative connotations of nudity include defeat in war, since captives were stripped, and slavery, since slaves for sale were often displayed naked.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 69–70.</ref>
[[File:Amulettes phalliques gallo-romaines Musée Saint-Remi 120208.jpg|thumb|right|180px|[[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman]] bronze examples of the ''[[fascinum]]'', a phallic [[amulet]] or charm]] At the same time, the [[phallus]] was displayed ubiquitously in the form of the ''[[fascinum]]'', a magic charm thought to ward off malevolent forces; it became a customary decoration, found widely in the ruins of [[Pompeii]], especially in the form of [[wind chime]]s (''[[Tintinnabulum (Ancient Rome)|tintinnabula]]'').<ref>Amy Richlin, "Pliny's Brassiere," in ''Roman Sexualities'', p. 215.</ref> The outsized phallus of the god [[Priapus]] may originally have served an [[apotropaic]] purpose, but in art it is frequently laughter-provoking or grotesque.<ref>David Fredrick, ''The Roman Gaze: Vision, Power, and the Body'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), p. 156.</ref> Hellenization, however, influenced the depiction of male nudity in Roman art, leading to more complex signification of the male body shown nude, partially nude, or costumed in a [[muscle cuirass]].<ref>Paul Zanker, ''The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus'' (University of Michigan Press, 1988), pp. 239–240, 249–250 ''et passim''.</ref>
====Warren Cup==== {{Main|Warren Cup}} [[File:Coppa_warren,_5-15_dc.,_02.JPG|thumb|The [[Warren Cup]] in the [[British Museum]], portraying a mature bearded man and a youth on its "Greek" side]] The Warren Cup is a piece of [[Symposium (ancient Greece)|convivial]] silver, usually dated to the time of the [[Julio-Claudian dynasty]] (1st century AD), that depicts two scenes of male–male sex.<ref>John Pollini, "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver," ''Art Bulletin'' 81.1 (1999) 21–52. John R. Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art 100 B.C.–A.D. 250'' (University of California Press, 1998, 2001), p. 61, asserts that the Warren cup is valuable for art history and as a document of Roman sexuality precisely because of its "relatively secure date."</ref> It has been argued<ref>Pollini, "The Warren Cup," ''passim''.</ref> that the two sides of this cup represent the duality of pederastic tradition at Rome, the Greek in contrast to the Roman. On the "Greek" side, a bearded, mature man is penetrating a young but muscularly developed male in a rear-entry position. The young man, probably meant to be 17 or 18, holds on to a sexual apparatus for maintaining an otherwise awkward or uncomfortable sexual position. A child-slave watches the scene furtively through a door ajar. The "Roman" side of the cup shows a ''[[#Puer delicatus|puer delicatus]]'' [fig., ''delicious boy''], age 12 to 13, held for intercourse in the arms of an older male, clean-shaven and fit. The bearded pederast may be Greek, with a partner who participates more freely and with a look of pleasure. His counterpart, who has a more severe haircut, appears to be Roman, and thus uses a slave boy; the myrtle wreath he wears symbolizes his role as an "[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Sexual conquest and imperialism|erotic conqueror]]".<ref>Pollini, "Warren Cup," pp. 35–37, 42.</ref> The cup may have been designed as a [[conversation piece]] to provoke the kind of dialogue on ideals of love and sex that took place at a Greek [[Symposium (ancient Greece)|symposium]].<ref>Pollini, "Warren Cup," p. 37.</ref>
More recently, academic Maria Teresa Marabini Moevs has questioned the authenticity of the cup, while others have published defenses of its authenticity. Marabini Moevs has argued, for example, that the Cup was probably manufactured by the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and that it supposedly represents perceptions of Greco-Roman homosexuality from that time,<ref>Maria Teresa Marabini Moevs, “Per una storia del gusto: riconsiderazioni sul Calice Warren,” ''Bollettino d’Arte'' 146 (2008): 1-16.</ref> whereas defenders of the legitimacy of the cup have highlighted certain signs of ancient corrosion and the fact that a vessel manufactured in the 19th century, would have been made of pure silver, whereas the Warren Cup has a level of purity equal to that of other Roman vessels.<ref>{{cite web|author=Dalya Alberge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/12/british-museum-warren-cup-forgery |title=German archaeologist suggests British Museum's Warren Cup could be forgery | Science |work=The Guardian |date=12 March 2014 |access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> To address this issue, the [[British Museum]], which holds the utensil, performed a chemical analysis in 2015 to determine the date of its production. The analysis concluded that the silverware was indeed made in classical antiquity.<ref>[[Luca Giuliani]], “Der Warren-Kelch im British Museum: Eine Revision.” ''Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte'' 9, no. 3 (2015): 89–110.</ref>
==Male–male sex==
===Roles=== A man or boy who took the "receptive" role in sex was variously called ''[[wiktionary:cinaedus|cinaedus]]'', ''[[wiktionary:pathicus|pathicus]]'', ''[[exoletus]]'', ''''[[wiktionary:amasius|amasius]]'' (young males), ''concubinus'' (male concubine), ''spint(h)ria'' ("analist"), ''puer'' ("boy"), ''pullus'' ("chick"), ''pusio'', ''delicatus'' (especially in the phrase ''puer delicatus'', "exquisite" or "dainty boy"), ''mollis'' ("soft", used more generally as an aesthetic quality counter to the aggressive masculinity), ''tener'' ("delicate"), ''debilis'' ("weak" or "disabled"), ''effeminatus'', ''discinctus'' ("loose-belted"), ''pisciculi,'' and ''morbosus'' ("sick"). As Amy Richlin has noted, "'[[gay]]' is not exact, 'penetrated' is not self-defined, '[[Top, bottom and versatile|passive]]' misleadingly connotes inaction" in translating this group of words into English.<ref name="auto">Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 531.</ref> [[File:Tito,_70-81_ca,_collez._albani.JPG|thumb|left|upright|100px|According to Suetonius, emperor [[Titus]] (above) kept a great number of ''exoleti'' (see below) and [[eunuch]]s at his disposal]] Some terms, such as ''exoletus'', specifically refer to an adult; Romans who were socially marked as "masculine" did not confine their same-sex penetration of male prostitutes or slaves, [[wiktionary:amasius|amasius]], to those who were "boys" under the age of 20.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 85 ''et passim''.</ref> Some older men may have at times preferred the passive role. Martial describes, for example, the case of an older man who played the passive role and let a younger slave occupy the active role.<ref>Martial, [[s:la:Epigrammaton liber III#LXXI|3.71]].</ref> An adult male's desire to be penetrated was considered a sickness (''morbus''); the desire to penetrate a handsome youth was thought normal.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 200.</ref> <!--the following list is alphabetical--> ====''Cinaedus''==== ''Cinaedus'' is a derogatory word denoting a male who was gender-deviant; his choice of sex acts, or preference in sexual partner, was secondary to his perceived deficiencies as a "man" (''vir'').<ref name="auto2">Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 197.</ref> Catullus directs the slur ''cinaedus'' at his friend Furius in his notoriously obscene [[Catullus 16|''Carmen'' 16]].<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 181ff. and 193.</ref> Although in some contexts ''cinaedus'' may denote an anally passive man<ref name="auto2"/> and is the most frequent word for a male who allowed himself to be penetrated anally,<ref name="auto1">Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 193.</ref> a man called ''cinaedus'' might also have sex with and be considered highly attractive to women.<ref name="auto2"/> In ''Epigrams'' 7.58, [[Martial]] satirises a woman named Galla who has been 'married' to ''cinaedi'' on six to seven occasions for her attraction to their tender, effeminate appearance, though the 'marriage' ended unsatisfactorily as each cinaedus had a penis as tender and effeminate as his appearance, of which Galla has found attractive.<ref> Tom Sapsford, ''"Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures"'', p. 141. </ref> ''Cinaedus'' is not equivalent to the English vulgarism "[[Faggot (slang)|faggot]]",<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 6.</ref> except that both words can be used to deride a male considered deficient in manhood or with androgynous characteristics whom women may find sexually alluring.<ref>James L. Butrica, "Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality," in ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity'', p. 223, compares ''cinaedus'' to "faggot" in the [[Dire Straits]] song "[[Money for Nothing (song)|Money for Nothing]]", in which a singer referred to as "that little faggot with the earring and the make-up" also "gets his money for nothing and his chicks for free."</ref>
The clothing, use of cosmetics, and mannerisms of a ''cinaedus'' marked him as [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Effeminacy and transvestism| effeminate]],<ref name="auto2"/> but the same effeminacy that Roman men might find alluring in a ''puer'' became unattractive in the physically mature male.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 203–204.</ref> The ''cinaedus'' thus represented the absence of what Romans considered true manhood, and the word is virtually untranslatable into English.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 55, 202.</ref>
Originally, a ''cinaedus'' (Greek ''kinaidos'') was a professional dancer, characterized as non-Roman or "Eastern"; the word itself may come from a language of [[Asia Minor]]. His performance featured [[Tympanum (hand drum)|tambourine]]-playing and movements of the buttocks that suggested anal intercourse.<ref name="auto1"/> The [[Kinaidokolpitai|Cinaedocolpitae]], an [[Arabia]]n tribe recorded in Greco-Roman sources of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, may have a name derived from this meaning.<ref>[[Hélène Cuvigny|H. Cuvigny]] and C. J. Robin, [https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1996_num_6_2_1690 "Des Kinaidokolpites dans un ostracon grec du désert oriental (Égypte)"], ''Topoi. Orient-Occident'' '''6'''–2 (1996): 697–720, at 701.</ref>
====''Concubinus''==== [[File:Marble busts of Hadrian (left, 117-138 CE, probably from Rome) and Antinous (right, 130-138 CE, from Rome). Antinous was Hadrian's lover. He met Hadrian in 120s CE and died in the Nile, Egypt, in 130 CE. The British Museum, London.jpg|thumb|right|The young [[Antinous]] was likely the primary partner of the emperor [[Hadrian]] (both pictured above), despite the fact that the latter was married]] Some Roman men kept a male [[concubine]] (''concubinus'', "one who lies with; a bed-mate") before they married a woman. [[Eva Cantarella]] has described this form of concubinage as "a stable sexual relationship, not exclusive but privileged".<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. 125.</ref> Within the hierarchy of household slaves, the ''concubinus'' seems to have been regarded as holding a special or elevated status that was threatened by the introduction of a wife. In a [[epithalamium|wedding hymn]], Catullus<ref>Catullus, ''Carmen'' 61, lines 119–143.</ref> portrays the groom's ''concubinus'' as anxious about his future and fearful of abandonment.<ref>Butrica, "Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality," pp. 218, 224.</ref> His long hair will be cut, and he will have to resort to the female slaves for sexual gratification—indicating that he is expected to transition from being a receptive sex object to one who performs penetrative sex.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 534; [[Ronnie Ancona (Classicist)|Ronnie Ancona]], "(Un)Constrained Male Desire: An Intertextual Reading of Horace ''Odes'' 2.8 and Catullus Poem 61," in ''Gendered Dynamics in Latin Love Poetry'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 47; Mark Petrini, ''The Child and the Hero: Coming of Age in Catullus and Vergil'' (University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 19–20.</ref> The ''concubinus'' might father children with women of the household, not excluding the wife (at least in [[invective]]).<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 229. note 260: Martial 6.39.12-4: "''quartus cinaeda fronte, candido voltu / ex concubino natus est tibi Lygdo: / percide, si vis, filium: nefas non est.''"</ref> The feelings and situation of the ''concubinus'' are treated as significant enough to occupy five stanzas of Catullus's wedding poem. He plays an active role in the ceremonies, distributing the traditional nuts that boys threw (rather like rice or birdseed in the modern Western tradition).<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', pp. 125–126; Robinson Ellis, ''A Commentary on Catullus'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 181; Petrini, ''The Child and the Hero'', p. 19.</ref>
The relationship with a ''concubinus'' might be discreet or more open: male concubines sometimes attended [[Symposium (ancient Greece)|dinner parties]] with the man whose companion they were.<ref>[[Quintilian]], ''[[Institutio Oratoria]]'' 1.2.8, who disapproves of consorting with either ''concubini'' or "girlfriends" (''amicae'') in front of one's children. [[Ramsey MacMullen]], "Roman Attitudes to Greek Love," ''Historia'' 31 (1982), p. 496.</ref> [[Martial]] even suggests that a prized ''concubinus'' might pass from father to son as an especially coveted inheritance.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 24, citing Martial 8.44.16-7: ''tuoque tristis filius, velis nolis, cum concubino nocte dormiet prima.'' ("''and your mourning son, whether you wish it or not, will lie first night sleep with your favourite''")</ref> A military officer on campaign might be accompanied by a ''concubinus''.<ref>[[Caesarian Corpus]], ''[[De Bello Hispaniensi|The Spanish War]]'' 33; MacMullen, "Roman Attitudes to Greek Love," p. 490.</ref> Like the [[catamite]] or ''[[#Puer delicatus|puer delicatus]]'', the role of the concubine was regularly compared to that of [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]], the [[Troy|Trojan]] prince abducted by [[Jove]] (Greek [[Zeus]]) to serve as his [[cupbearer]].<ref>"They use the word ''Catamitus'' for Ganymede, who was the ''concubinus'' of Jove," according to the [[lexicographer]] [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] (38.22, as cited by Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 332, note 230.</ref>
The ''[[Concubinatus#Concubina|concubina]]'', a female concubine who might be free, held a protected legal status under [[Roman law]], but the ''concubinus'' did not, since he was typically a slave.<ref>Butrica, "Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality," in ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity'', p. 212.</ref>
====''Amasius''====
The term "[[wiktionary:amasius|amasius]]" functioned as a colloquial label for a male lover or a "kept" youth, often blurring the line between a romantic partner and a male prostitute. In the Roman comedies of "[[Plautus]]", the word is frequently used to describe younger males who provide sexual favors in exchange for gifts or financial support. Unlike the "[[wiktionary:amator|''amator'']]", who was the active pursuer, the amasius occupied a passive role that carried significant social stigma. This transactional relationship aligned the amasius with the broader category of the "[[wiktionary:scortum|''scortum'']]", a term used for professional prostitutes. In later satirical texts, the word highlighted the loss of status associated with selling one's body, distinguishing these individuals from the respectable citizens of the Roman Empire.
====''Exoletus''==== [[File:Bust of Elagabalus - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016 (2).jpg|left|thumb|upright|175px|Head of Emperor [[Elagabalus]], said to have surrounded himself with ''[[Exoletus|exoleti]]'']] ''[[Exoletus]]'' (pl. ''exoleti'') is the past-participle form of the verb ''exolescere'', which means "to grow up" or "to grow old".<ref name="auto6">Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 91.</ref> The term denotes a male prostitute who services another sexually despite the fact that he himself is past his prime according to the ephebic tastes of Roman homoerotism.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 91–92.</ref> Though adult men were expected to take on the role of "penetrator" in their love affairs, such a restriction did not apply to ''exoleti''. In their texts, Pomponius and Juvenal both included characters who were adult male prostitutes and had as clients male citizens who sought their services so they could take a "female" role in bed (see [[Homosexuality_in_ancient_Rome#Homoerotic literature and art|above]]). In other texts, however, ''exoleti'' adopt a receptive position.<ref name="auto6"/>
The relationship between the ''exoletus'' and his partner could begin when he was still a boy and the affair then extended into his adulthood.<ref name=vey>{{cite book|chapter=The Roman Empire|author=[[Paul Veyne]]|title=A History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium|page=79|year=1992|publisher=Belknap Press, Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674399747}}</ref>{{better source|date=July 2019}} It is impossible to say how often this happened. For even if there was a tight bond between the couple, the general social expectation was that pederastic affairs would end once the younger partner grew facial hair. As such, when Martial celebrates in two of his epigrams (1.31 and 5.48) the relationship of his friend, the centurion Aulens Pudens, with his slave Encolpos, the poet more than once gives voice to the hope that the latter's beard come late, so that the romance between the pair may last long. Continuing the affair beyond that point could result in damage to the master's repute. Some men, however, insisted on ignoring this convention.<ref name=vey />{{better source|date=July 2019}}
''Exoleti'' appear with certain frequency in Latin texts, both fictional and historical, unlike in Greek literature, suggesting perhaps that adult male-male sex was more common among the Romans than among the Greeks.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., pp. 89, 90, 92, and 93.</ref> Ancient sources impute the love of, or the preference for, ''exoleti'' (using this or equivalent terms) to various figures of Roman history, such as the tribune [[Publius Clodius Pulcher|Clodius]],<ref>Cicero, ''Milo'' 55.</ref> the emperors Tiberius,<ref>Suetonius, ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Tiberius*.html Tiberius]'' 43: secessu vero Caprensi etiam sellaria excogitavit, sedem arcanarum libidinum, in quam undique conquisiti puellarum et exoletorum greges monstrosique concubitus repertores, quos spintrias appellabat, triplici serie conexi, in vicem incestarent coram ipso, ut aspectu deficientis libidines excitaret.</ref> [[Galba]],<ref>Suetonius, ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Galba*.html Galba]'' 22.</ref> Titus,<ref>Suetonius, ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Titus*.html Titus]'' 7: praeter saevitiam suspecta in eo etiam luxuria erat, quod ad mediam noctem comissationes cum profusissimo quoque familiarium extenderet; nec minus libido propter exoletorum … .</ref> and [[Elagabalus]],<ref name="auto6"/> besides other figures encountered in anecdotes, told by writers such as [[Tacitus]], on more ordinary citizens.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}
====''Pathicus''==== [[File:Gaius_Caesar_Caligula.jpg|upright|thumb|A young aristocrat by the name of Valerius Catullus boasted of penetrating the emperor [[Caligula]] (above) during a lengthy intimate session<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Caligula*.html|title=Life of Caligula|author=Suetonius|website=[[University of Chicago]]}}</ref>]] ''Pathicus'' was a "blunt" word for a male who was penetrated sexually. It derived from the unattested Greek adjective ''pathikos'', from the verb ''paskhein'', equivalent to the Latin [[deponent verb|deponent]] ''patior, pati, passus'', "undergo, submit to, endure, suffer".<ref name="auto1"/> The English word "passive" derives from the Latin ''passus''.<ref name="auto"/>
''Pathicus'' and ''cinaedus'' are often not distinguished in usage by Latin writers, but ''cinaedus'' may be a more general term for a male not in conformity with the role of ''vir'', a "real man", while ''pathicus'' specifically denotes an adult male who takes the sexually receptive role.<ref>Holt N. Parker, "The Teratogenic Grid," in ''Roman Sexualities'', p. 56; Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 196.</ref> A ''pathicus'' was not a "homosexual" as such. His sexuality was not defined by the gender of the person using him as a receptacle for sex, but rather his desire to be so used. Because in Roman culture a man who penetrates another adult male almost always expresses contempt or revenge, the ''pathicus'' might be seen as more akin to the sexual [[Sadomasochism|masochist]] in his experience of pleasure. He might be penetrated orally or anally by a man or by a woman with a [[dildo]], but showed no desire for penetrating nor having his own penis stimulated. He might also be dominated by a woman who compels him to perform [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Cunnilingus and fellatio|cunnilingus]].<ref>Parker, "The Teratogenic Grid," p. 57, citing Martial 5.61 and 4.43.</ref>
====''Puer''==== In the discourse of sexuality, ''puer'' ("boy") was a role as well as an age group.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 535.</ref> Both ''puer'' and the feminine equivalent ''puella'', "girl", could refer to a man's sexual partner, regardless of age.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 75.</ref> As an age designation, the freeborn ''puer'' made the [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Rites of passage|transition from childhood]] at around age 14, when he assumed the [[toga virilis|"toga of manhood"]], but he was 17 or 18 before he began to take part in public life.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 547.</ref> A slave would never be considered a ''vir'', a "real man"; he would be called ''puer'', "boy", throughout his life.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 536; Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 208.</ref> ''Pueri'' might be "functionally interchangeable" with women as receptacles for sex,<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 536.</ref> but freeborn male minors were strictly off-limits.<ref>[[Elaine Fantham]], "''Stuprum'': Public Attitudes and Penalties for Sexual Offences in Republican Rome," in ''Roman Readings: Roman Response to Greek Literature from Plautus to Statius and Quintilian'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2011), p. 130.</ref> To accuse a Roman man of being someone's "boy" was an insult that impugned his manhood, particularly in the political arena.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 538.</ref> The aging ''cinaedus'' or an anally passive man might wish to present himself as a ''puer''.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 199.</ref>
====''Puer delicatus''==== [[File:Warren Cup BM GR 1999.4-26.1 n2.jpg|thumb|left|"Roman" side of the [[Warren Cup]], with the wreathed "erotic conqueror" and his ''puer delicatus'' ("dainty boy").<ref>As analyzed by John Pollini, "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver," ''Art Bulletin'' 81.1 (1999) 21–52.</ref> [[British Museum]], London.]] The ''puer delicatus'' was an "exquisite" or "dainty" child-slave chosen by his master for his beauty as a "[[Age disparity in sexual relationships|boy toy]]",<ref>Elizabeth Manwell, "Gender and Masculinity," in ''A Companion to Catullus'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 118.</ref> also referred to as {{vanchor|deliciae|text=''deliciae''}} ("sweets" or "delights").<ref>Guillermo Galán Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2002), p. 120.</ref> Unlike the freeborn Greek ''[[eromenos]]'' ("beloved"), who was protected by social custom, the Roman ''delicatus'' was in a physically and morally vulnerable position.<ref>{{Citation |last=Manwell |first=Elizabeth |title=Gender and Masculinity |date=2007 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/HRKHQJVMM839E4ZU5P8Y?target=10.1002/9780470751565.ch7 |work=A Companion to Catullus |page=118 |editor-last=Skinner |editor-first=Marilyn B. |access-date=2023-09-22 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9780470751565.ch7 |isbn=978-1-4051-3533-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The "coercive and exploitative" relationship between the Roman master and the ''delicatus'', who might be prepubescent, can be characterized as [[pedophilia|pedophilic]], in contrast to Greek ''[[Pederasty in ancient Greece|paiderasteia]]''.<ref>Beert C. Verstraete and Vernon Provencal, introduction to ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition'' (Haworth Press, 2005), p. 3.</ref>
Funeral inscriptions found in the ruins of the imperial household under [[Augustus]] and [[Tiberius]] also indicate that ''deliciae'' were kept in the palace and that some slaves, male and female, worked as beauticians for these boys.<ref name=will35>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', 2nd ed., p. 35.</ref> One of Augustus' ''pueri'' is known by name: Sarmentus.<ref name=will35 />
The boy was sometimes [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Castration and circumcision|castrated]] in an effort to preserve his youthful qualities; Caroline Vout asserts that the emperor [[Nero]]'s eunuch [[Sporus]], whom he castrated and married, may have been a ''puer delicatus''.<ref>[[Caroline Vout]], ''Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 136 (for Sporus in [[Alexander Pope]]'s poem "[[Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot]]", see [[Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?]]).</ref>
''Pueri delicati'' might be idealized in poetry and the relationship between him and his master may be painted in what his master viewed as strongly romantic colors. In the ''[[Silvae]]'', [[Statius]] composed two epitaphs (2.1 and 2.6) to commemorate the relationship of two of his friends with their respective ''delicati'' upon the death of the latter. These poems have been argued to demonstrate that such relationships could have an emotional dimension,<ref>Butrica, "Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality," p. 231.</ref> and it is known from inscriptions in Roman ruins that men could be buried with their ''delicati'', which is evidence of the degree of control that masters would not relinquish, even in death, as well as of a sexual relationship in life.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Desperately Different? Delicia Children in the Roman Household|author=Christian Laes|page=318|editor1=David L. Balch|editor2=Carolyn Osiek|year=2003|title=Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|isbn=978-0802839862}}</ref> [[File:Domiziano da collezione albani, fine del I sec. dc. 02.JPG|thumb|upright|Emperor [[Domitian]]]] Both Martial and Statius in a number of poems celebrate the freedman [[Flavius Earinus|Earinus]], a eunuch, and his devotion to the emperor [[Domitian]].<ref name=will35 /> Statius goes as far as to describe this relationship as a marriage (3.4).
In the erotic elegies of [[Tibullus]], the ''delicatus'' Marathus wears lavish and expensive clothing.<ref>Alison Keith, "Sartorial Elegance and Poetic Finesse in the Sulpician Corpus," in ''Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture'', p. 196.</ref> The beauty of the ''delicatus'' was measured by [[Apollo]]nian standards, especially in regard to his long hair, which was supposed to be wavy, fair, and scented with perfume.<ref>Fernando Navarro Antolín, ''Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6: Lygdami Elegiarum Liber'' (Brill, 1996), pp. 304–307.</ref> The mythological type of the ''delicatus'' was represented by [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]], the [[Troy|Trojan]] youth abducted by [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]] (Greek [[Zeus]]) to be his divine companion and cupbearer.<ref>Vioque, ''Martial, Book VII'', p. 131.</ref> In the ''[[Satyricon]]'', the tastelessly wealthy freedman [[Trimalchio]] says that as a child-slave he had been a ''puer delicatus'' serving both the master and, secretly, the mistress of the household.<ref>William Fitzgerald, ''Slavery and the Roman Literary Imagination'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 54.</ref>
====''Pullus''==== ''Pullus'' was a term for a young animal, and particularly a [[chicken|chick]]. It was an affectionate word<ref>As at [[Horace]], ''Satire'' 1.3.45 and [[Suetonius]], ''Life of Caligula'' 13, as noted by Dorota M. Dutsch, ''Feminine Discourse in Roman Comedy: On Echoes and Voices'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 55. See also [[Plautus]], ''Poenulus'' 1292, as noted by Richard P. Saller, "The Social Dynamics of Consent to Marriage and Sexual Relations: The Evidence of Roman Comedy," in ''Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies'' (Dumbarton Oaks, 1993), p. 101.</ref> traditionally used for a boy (''puer'')<ref>The words ''pullus'' and ''puer'' may derive from the same Indo-European root; see Martin Huld, entry on "child," ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), p. 107.</ref> who was loved by someone "in an obscene sense".
The [[lexicographer]] [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] provides a definition and illustrates with a comic anecdote. [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus]], a [[Roman consul|consul]] in 116 BC and later a [[Roman censor|censor]] known for his moral severity, earned his ''[[cognomen]]'' meaning "[[Ivory]]" (the modern equivalent might be "[[Porcelain]]") because of his fair good looks (''candor''). Eburnus was said to have been struck by lightning on his buttocks, perhaps a reference to a [[birthmark]].<ref>[[Amy Richlin]], ''The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor'' (Oxford University Press, 1983, 1992), p. 289.</ref> It was joked that he was marked as "[[Jove]]'s chick" (''pullus Iovis''), since the characteristic instrument of the king of the gods was the lightning bolt<ref>[[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] p. 285 in the 1997 [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana|Teubner]] edition of Lindsay; Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 17; Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint, originally published 1883), p. 47.</ref> (see also the relation of Jove's cupbearer Ganymede to "[[catamite]]"). Although the sexual inviolability of underage male citizens is usually emphasized, this anecdote is among the evidence that even the most well-born youths might go through a phase in which they could be viewed as "sex objects".<ref>Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 289.</ref> Perhaps tellingly,<ref>Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 289, finds Eburnus's reputation as "Jove's chick" and his later excessive severity against the ''impudicitia'' of his son to be "thought-provoking".</ref> this same member of the illustrious [[Fabia gens|Fabius family]] ended his life in exile, as punishment for killing his own son for ''[[#Impudicitia|impudicitia]]''.<ref>[[Cicero]], ''Pro Balbo'' 28; [[Valerius Maximus]] 6.1.5–6; Pseudo-Quintilian, ''Decl.'' 3.17; [[Orosius]] 5.16.8; [[T.R.S. Broughton]], ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'' (American Philological Association, 1951, 1986), vol. 1, p. 549; Gordon P. Kelly, ''A History of Exile in the Roman Republic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 172–173; Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 289.</ref>
The 4th-century [[Gallo-Roman]] poet [[Ausonius]] records the word ''pullipremo'', "chick-squeezer", which he says was used by the early satirist [[Gaius Lucilius|Lucilius]].<ref>Williams, ''Roman Sexuality'', p. 17.</ref>
====''Pusio''==== ''Pusio'' is etymologically related to ''puer,'' and means "boy, lad". It often had a distinctly sexual or sexually demeaning connotation.<ref>As at [[Apuleius]], ''[[The Golden Ass|Metamorphoses]]'' 9.7; [[Cicero]], ''Pro Caelio'' 36 (in reference to his personal enemy [[Clodius Pulcher]]); Adams, ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), pp. 191–192; Katherine A. Geffcken, ''Comedy in the Pro Caelio'' (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1995), p. 78.</ref> [[Juvenal]] indicates the ''pusio'' was more desirable than women because he was less quarrelsome and would not demand gifts from his lover.<ref>Juvenal, ''Satire'' 6.36–37; Erik Gunderson, "The Libidinal Rhetoric of Satire," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 231.</ref> ''Pusio'' was also used as a [[personal name]] (''[[cognomen]]'').
====''Scultimidonus''==== ''Scultimidonus'' ("asshole-bestower")<ref name="auto3">Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', p. 169.</ref> was rare and "florid" slang<ref name="auto1"/> that appears in a fragment from the early Roman satirist [[Gaius Lucilius|Lucilius]].<ref name="auto3"/> It is [[gloss (annotation)|glossed]]<ref>Glossarium codicis Vatinici, ''[[Corpus Glossarum Latinarum]]'' IV p. xviii; see Georg Götz, ''Rheinisches Museum'' 40 (1885), p. 327.</ref> as "Those who bestow for free their ''scultima'', that is, their anal orifice, which is called the ''scultima'' as if from the inner parts of whores" (''scortorum intima'').<ref name="auto1"/>
===''Impudicitia''=== The abstract noun ''impudicitia'' (adjective ''impudicus'') was the negation of ''[[pudicitia]]'', "sexual morality, chastity". As a characteristic of males, it often implies the willingness to be penetrated.<ref>RIchlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 531.</ref> Dancing was an expression of male ''impudicitia''.<ref>RIchlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', pp. 92, 98, 101.</ref>
''Impudicitia'' might be associated with behaviors in young men who retained a degree of boyish attractiveness but were old enough to be expected to behave according to masculine norms. [[Julius Caesar]] was accused of bringing the notoriety of ''infamia'' upon himself, both when he was about 19, for taking the passive role in an affair with [[Nicomedes IV of Bithynia|King Nicomedes of Bithynia]], and later for many adulterous affairs with women.<ref>[[Suetonius]], ''Life of the Divine Julius'' 52.3; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 532.</ref> [[Seneca the Elder]] noted that "''impudicitia'' is a crime for the freeborn, a necessity in a slave, a duty for the freedman":<ref>As quoted by Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. 99.</ref> male–male sex in Rome asserted the power of the citizen over slaves, confirming his masculinity.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', p. 100.</ref>
===Subculture=== [[File:Roman-era perfume bottle made of cameo glass showing homoerotic scene.jpg|thumb|upright|280px|Perfume bottle made of cameo glass found in the Roman necropolis of Ostippo (Spain). Side B of the bottle, shown above, shows two young men in bed. Side A, not shown, shows a man and a woman. The George Ortiz Collection 25 BCE - 14 CE]] Latin had such a wealth of words for men outside the masculine norm that some scholars<ref>Primarily Amy Richlin, as in "Not before Homosexuality."</ref> argue for the existence of a homosexual [[subculture]] at Rome; that is, although the noun "homosexual" has no straightforward equivalent in Latin, literary sources reveal a pattern of behaviors among a minority of free men that indicate same-sex preference or orientation. [[Plautus]] mentions a street known for male prostitutes.<ref>Plautus, ''Curculio'' 482-84</ref> Public baths are also referred to as a place to find sexual partners. [[Juvenal]] states that such men scratched their heads with a finger to identify themselves. In his 9th satire, Juvenal describes the life of a male gigolo who earned his living servicing rich passive homosexual men.
[[Apuleius]] indicates that ''cinaedi'' might form social alliances for mutual enjoyment, such as hosting dinner parties. In his novel ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', he describes one group who jointly purchased and shared a ''[[#Concubinus|concubinus]]''. On one occasion, they invited a "well-endowed" young [[wikt:hick|hick]] (''rusticanus iuvenis'') to their party, and took turns performing oral sex on him.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 201.</ref>
Other scholars, primarily those who argue from the perspective of [[social constructionism]], maintain that there is not an identifiable social group of males who would have self-identified as "homosexual" as a community.<ref>As summarized by John R. Clarke, "Representation of the ''Cinaedus'' in Roman Art: Evidence of 'Gay' Subculture," in ''Same-sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity'', p. 272.</ref>
===Marriage between males=== {{See also|Marriage in ancient Rome}} Although in general the Romans regarded [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Marital sex|marriage as a male–female union]] for the purpose of producing children, a few scholars believe that in the early Imperial period some male couples were celebrating [[Marriage in ancient Rome|traditional marriage rites]] in the presence of friends. Male–male weddings are reported by sources that mock them. Both Martial and Juvenal refer to marriage between males as something that occurs not infrequently, although they disapprove of it.<ref>Martial 1.24 and 12.42; Juvenal 2.117–42. Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 28, 280; Karen K. Hersh, ''The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 36; Caroline Vout, ''Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 151ff.</ref> [[Roman law]] did not recognize marriage between males, but one of the grounds for disapproval expressed in Juvenal's satire is that celebrating the rites would lead to expectations for such marriages to be registered officially.<ref name="auto4">Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 280.</ref> As the empire was becoming Christianized in the 4th century, legal prohibitions against marriage between males began to appear.<ref name="auto4"/>
[[File:Nero_Palatino_Inv618.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Emperor [[Nero]]]] Various ancient sources state that the emperor [[Nero]] celebrated two public weddings with males, once taking the role of the bride (with a [[freedman]] [[Pythagoras (freedman)|Pythagoras]]), and once the groom (with [[Sporus]]); there may have been a third in which he was the bride.<ref>[[Suetonius]], [[Tacitus]], [[Dio Cassius]], and [[Aurelius Victor]] are the sources cited by Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 279.</ref> The ceremonies included traditional elements such as a [[dowry]] and the wearing of the Roman bridal veil.<ref name="auto5">Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 279.</ref> In the early 3rd century AD, the emperor [[Elagabalus]] is reported to have been the bride in a wedding to his male partner. Other mature men at his court had husbands, or said they had husbands in imitation of the emperor.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 278–279, citing Dio Cassius and [[Aelius Lampridius]].</ref> Although the sources are in general hostile, [[Dio Cassius]] implies that Nero's stage performances were regarded as more scandalous than his marriages to men.<ref>Dio Cassius 63.22.4; Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 285.</ref>
The earliest reference in Latin literature to a marriage between males occurs in the ''[[Philippicae|Philippics]]'' of [[Cicero]], who insulted [[Mark Antony]] for being promiscuous in his youth until [[Gaius Scribonius Curio (praetor 49 BC)|Curio]] "established you in a fixed and stable marriage (''matrimonium''), as if he had given you a ''[[stola]]''", the traditional garment of a married woman.<ref>Cicero, ''Phillippics'' 2.44, as quoted by Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 279.</ref> Although Cicero's sexual implications are clear, the point of the passage is to cast Antony in the submissive role in the relationship and to impugn his manhood in various ways; there is no reason to think that actual marriage rites were performed.<ref name="auto5"/>
===Male–male rape=== [[File:Inkunabel.ValMax.001.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|Page from an [[incunable]] of [[Valerius Maximus]], ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'', printed in red and black by [[Peter Schöffer]] ([[Mainz]], 1471).]] [[Roman law]] addressed the rape of a male citizen as early as the 2nd century BC,<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 561.</ref> when it was ruled that even a man who was "disreputable and questionable" (''famosus,'' related to ''infamis'', and ''suspiciosus)'' had the same right as other free men not to have his body subjected to forced sex.<ref>As recorded in a fragment of the speech ''De Re Floria'' by [[Cato the Elder]] (frg. 57 Jordan = [[Aulus Gellius]] [[:s:la:Noctes_Atticae/Liber_IX#XII.|9.12]].7), as noted and discussed by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 561.</ref> The ''Lex Julia de vi publica'',<ref>''Digest'' 48.6.3.4 and 48.6.5.2.</ref> recorded in the early 3rd century AD but probably dating from the [[Roman dictator|dictatorship]] of Julius Caesar, defined rape as forced sex against "boy, woman, or anyone"; the rapist was subject to execution, a rare penalty in Roman law.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," pp. 562–563. See also ''Digest'' 48.5.35 [34] on legal definitions of rape that included boys.</ref> Men who had been raped were exempt from the loss of legal or social standing suffered by those who submitted their bodies to use for the pleasure of others; a male prostitute, an ''[[wiktionary:amasius|amasius]]'' or entertainer was ''infamis'' and excluded from the legal protections extended to citizens in good standing.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," pp. 558–561.</ref> As a matter of law, a [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Master-slave relations|slave]] could not be raped; he was considered property and not [[person (law)|legally a person]]. The slave's owner, however, could prosecute the rapist for property damage.<ref>Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', pp. 99, 103; McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law'', p. 314.</ref>
Fears of mass rape following a military defeat extended equally to male and female potential victims.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 104–105.</ref> According to the jurist [[Sextus Pomponius|Pomponius]], "whatever man has been raped by the force of robbers or the enemy in wartime" ought to bear no stigma.<ref>''Digest'' 3.1.1.6, as noted by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 559.</ref>
The threat of one man to subject another to anal or oral rape (''[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Irrumatio|irrumatio]]'') is a theme of invective poetry, most notably in [[Catullus]]'s notorious [[Catullus 16|''Carmen'' 16]],<ref>Richlin, ''The Garden of Priapus'', pp. 27–28, 43 (on Martial), 58, ''et passim''.</ref> and was a form of masculine braggadocio.<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', p. 20; Skinner, introduction to ''Roman Sexualities'', p. 12; Amy Richlin, "The Meaning of ''irrumare'' in Catullus and Martial," ''Classical Philology'' 76.1 (1981) 40–46.</ref> Rape was one of the traditional punishments inflicted on a male adulterer by the wronged husband,<ref>Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'', pp. 27, 76 (with an example from [[Martial]] 2.60.2.</ref> though perhaps more in revenge fantasy than in practice.<ref>Catharine Edwards, ''The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 55–56.</ref>
In a collection of twelve anecdotes dealing with assaults on chastity, the historian [[Valerius Maximus]] features male victims in equal number to female.<ref>[[Valerius Maximus]] 6.1; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 564.</ref> In a "[[mock trial]]" case described by [[Seneca the Elder|the elder Seneca]], an ''adulescens'' (a man young enough not to have begun his formal career) was gang-raped by ten of his peers; although the case is hypothetical, Seneca assumes that the law permitted the successful prosecution of the rapists.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 564.</ref> Another hypothetical case imagines the extremity to which a rape victim might be driven: the freeborn male (''[[ingenui|ingenuus]]'') who was raped commits suicide.<ref>[[Quintilian]], ''Institutio oratoria'' 4.2.69–71; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 565.</ref> The Romans considered the rape of an ''ingenuus'' to be among the worst crimes that could be committed, along with [[parricide]], the rape of a female virgin, and robbing a [[Roman temple|temple]].<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 565, citing the same passage by Quintilian.</ref>
===Same-sex relations in the military=== The Roman soldier, like any free and respectable Roman male of status, was expected to show self-discipline in matters of sex. [[Augustus]] (reigned 27 BC – 14 AD) even prohibited soldiers from marrying, a ban that remained in force for the Imperial army for nearly two centuries.<ref>Men of the governing classes, who would have been officers above the rank of [[centurion]], were exempt. Pat Southern, ''The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 144; Sara Elise Phang, ''The Marriage of Roman Soldiers (13 B.C.–A.D. 235): Law and Family in the Imperial Army'' (Brill, 2001), p. 2.</ref> Other forms of sexual gratification available to soldiers were prostitutes of any gender, [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Master-slave relations|male slaves]], [[war rape]], and same-sex relations.<ref>Phang, ''The Marriage of Roman Soldiers'', p. 3.</ref> The ''[[De Bello Hispaniensi|Bellum Hispaniense]]'', about [[Caesar's civil war]] on the front in [[Roman Spain]], mentions an officer who has a male concubine (''concubinus'') on [[military campaign|campaign]]. Sex among fellow soldiers, however, violated the Roman decorum against intercourse with another freeborn male. A soldier maintained his masculinity by not allowing his body to be used for sexual purposes.<ref>Sara Elise Phang, ''Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 93.</ref>
In warfare, rape symbolized defeat, a motive for the soldier not to make his body sexually vulnerable in general.<ref>Phang, ''Roman Military Service'', p. 94. See section above on [[#Male–male rape|male rape]]: Roman law recognized that a soldier might be raped by the enemy, and specified that a man raped in war should not suffer the loss of social standing that an ''infamis'' did when willingly undergoing penetration; ''Digest'' 3.1.1.6, as discussed by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 559.</ref> During the Republic, homosexual behavior among fellow soldiers was subject to harsh penalties, including death,<ref>Thomas A.J. McGinn, ''Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 40.</ref> as a violation of [[military discipline]]. [[Polybius]] (2nd century BC) reports that the punishment for a soldier who willingly submitted to penetration was the ''[[fustuarium]]'', clubbing to death.<ref>[[Polybius]], ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|Histories]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/6*.html#37 6.37.9] (translated as [[bastinado]]).</ref>
Roman historians record cautionary tales of officers who abuse their authority to coerce sex from their soldiers, and then suffer dire consequences.<ref>Phang, ''The Marriage of Roman Soldiers'', pp. 280–282.</ref> The youngest officers, who still might retain some of the adolescent attraction that Romans favored in male–male relations, were advised to beef up their masculine qualities by not wearing perfume, nor trimming nostril and underarm hair.<ref>Phang, ''Roman Military Service'', p. 97, citing among other examples Juvenal, ''Satire'' 14.194–195.</ref> An incident related by [[Plutarch]] in his biography of [[Gaius Marius|Marius]] illustrates the soldier's right to maintain his sexual integrity despite pressure from his superiors. A good-looking young recruit named [[Trial of Trebonius|Trebonius]]<ref>The name is given elsewhere as Plotius.</ref> had been [[sexual harassment|sexually harassed]] over a period of time by his superior officer, who happened to be Marius's nephew, Gaius Lusius. One night, after having fended off unwanted advances on numerous occasions, Trebonius was summoned to Lusius's tent. Unable to disobey the command of his superior, he found himself the object of a sexual assault and drew his sword, killing Lusius. A conviction for killing an officer typically resulted in execution. When brought to trial, he was able to produce witnesses to show that he had repeatedly had to fend off Lusius, and "had never prostituted his body to anyone, despite offers of expensive gifts". Marius not only acquitted Trebonius in the killing of his kinsman, but gave him a [[Roman military decorations and punishments#Crowns|crown for bravery]].<ref>Plutarch, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marius*.html#14 ''Life of Marius'' 14.4–8]; see also Valerius Maximus 6.1.12; Cicero, ''Pro Milone'' 9, in Dillon and Garland, ''Ancient Rome'', p. 380; and [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] 16.4. Discussion by Phang, ''Roman Military Service'', pp. 93–94, and ''The Marriage of Roman Soldiers'', p. 281; Cantarella, ''Bisexuality in the Ancient World'', pp. 105–106.</ref>
===Sex acts=== [[File:Spintria - 15.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Spintria token with sex between two males on a bed. On the reverse side is the numeral XV. Around 22 to 79 CE.<ref name="Clarke1998"/> <ref name="2007 Brisbane">{{cite conference |url= http://www.heterodoxnews.com/htnf/htn58/HETSA2007%20Complete.pdf |title= Is that a Spintria in your Pocket, or Are You Just Pleased to See Me?|last1= Fishburn|first1=Geoffrey|date=11 July 2007 |publisher=University of Queensland Printery |book-title=Regarding the Past|pages=225–236 |location=Brisbane |conference=20th Conference of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia |isbn= 9781864998979|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417140817/http://www.heterodoxnews.com/htnf/htn58/HETSA2007%20Complete.pdf|archive-date=17 April 2022}}</ref>]]
In addition to repeatedly described anal intercourse, oral sex was common. A graffito from [[Pompeii]] is unambiguous: "Secundus is a fellator of rare ability" (''Secundus felator rarus'').<ref>''CIL'' 4, 9027; translation from Hubbard, ''Homosexuality'', 423</ref> In contrast to ancient Greece, a large penis was a major element in attractiveness. [[Petronius]] describes a man with a large penis in a public bathroom.<ref>Petronius: ''Satyricon''</ref> Several emperors are reported in a negative light for surrounding themselves with men with large sexual organs.<ref>Aelius Lampridius: [[Historia Augusta|Scripta Historia Augusta]], Commodus, 10.9</ref>
The [[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman]] poet [[Ausonius]] (4th century AD) makes a joke about a male threesome that depends on imagining the configurations of group sex: <blockquote>"Three men in bed together: two are sinning,<ref>The Latin joke is hard to translate: Ausonius says that two men are committing ''[[stuprum]]'', a sex crime; "sin" is generally a Christian concept, but since Ausonius was at least nominally a Christian, "sin" may capture the intention of the wordplay.</ref> two are sinned against."<br />"Doesn't that make four men?"<br />"You're mistaken: the man on either end is implicated once, but the one in the middle does double duty."<ref>[[Ausonius]], ''Epigram'' 43 Green (39); Matthew Kuefler, ''The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity'' (University of Chicago Press, 2001), p. 92.</ref></blockquote>
In other words, a 'train' is being alluded to: the first man penetrates the second, who in turn penetrates the third. The first two are "sinning", while the last two are being "sinned against".
==Lesbianism in ancient Rome== {{See also|History of lesbianism}} [[File:Pompeii - Terme Suburbane - Apodyterium - Scene V.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Female couple from a series of erotic paintings at the Suburban Baths, Pompeii]]
===Roman Sexual Norms=== Modern scholarship indicates that ancient Roman men viewed lesbianism with hostility. According to scholar James Butrica, lesbianism "challenged not only the Roman male's view of himself as the exclusive giver of sexual pleasure but also the most basic foundations of Rome's male-dominated culture". No historical documentation exists of or from particular Roman women who had other women as partners.<ref name="Verstraete2005">Verstraete, Beert; {{Proper name|Provencal}}, Vernon (eds.) (2005). ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and In the Classical Tradition of the West'', Harrington Park Press. {{ISBN|1-56023-604-3}}. pp. 238–240.</ref>
References to sex between women are infrequent in the Roman literature of the Republic and early [[Principate]]. During the Roman Imperial era, sources for same-sex relations among women, though still rare, are more abundant, in the form of love spells, medical writing, texts on astrology and the interpretation of dreams, and other sources.<ref>[[Bernadette Brooten|Bernadette J. Brooten]], ''Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism'' (University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 1.</ref>
Since Romans thought a sex act required an active or dominant partner who was "[[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Phallic sexuality|phallic]]", male writers imagined that in female–female sex one of the women would use a [[dildo]] or have an exceptionally large [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Female genitals|clitoris]] for penetration, and that she would be the one experiencing pleasure.<ref>Jonathan Walters, "Invading the Roman Body: Manliness and Impenetrability in Roman Thought," pp. 30–31, and Pamela Gordon, "The Lover's Voice in ''Heroides'' 15: Or, Why Is Sappho a Man?," p. 283, both in ''Roman Sexualities''; John R. Clarke, "Look Who's Laughing at Sex: Men and Women Viewers in the ''Apodyterium'' of the Suburban Baths at Pompeii," both in ''The Roman Gaze'', p. 168.</ref> Dildos are rarely mentioned in Roman sources, but were a popular comic item in Classical Greek literature and art.<ref>Richlin, "Sexuality in the Roman Empire," p. 351.</ref> There is only one known depiction of a woman penetrating another woman in Roman art, whereas women using dildos is common in [[Greek vase painting]].<ref>Diana M. Swancutt, "''Still'' before Sexuality: 'Greek' Androgyny, the Roman Imperial Politics of Masculinity and the Roman Invention of the ''tribas''," in ''Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses'' (Brill, 2007), pp. 11–12.</ref>
Martial describes women acting sexually actively with other women as having outsized sexual appetites and performing penetrative sex on both women and boys.<ref>Martial 1.90 and 7.67, 50; Richlin, "Sexuality in the Roman Empire," p. 347; John R. Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art 100 B.C.–A.D. 250'' (University of California Press, 1998, 2001), p. 228.</ref> Imperial portrayals of women who sodomize boys, drink and eat like men, and engage in vigorous physical regimens may reflect cultural anxieties about the growing independence of Roman women.<ref>Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking'', p. 228.</ref>
===Pompeiian Graffiti=== While graffiti written in Latin by men in Roman ruins commonly express desire for both males and females,<ref name=graff /> graffiti imputed to women overwhelmingly express desire only for males,<ref name=graff /> though one graffito from Pompeii may be an exception, and has been read by many scholars as depicting the desire of one woman for another: <blockquote> I wish I could hold to my neck and embrace the little arms, and bear kisses on the tender lips. Go on, doll, and trust your joys to the winds; believe me, light is the nature of men.<ref>The Latin indicates that the ''I'' is of [[grammatical gender|feminine gender]]; [[CIL 4.5296|''CIL'' 4.5296]], as cited by Richlin, "Sexuality in the Roman Empire," p. 347.</ref> </blockquote> The poem is written with feminine declensions for both speaker and addressee, and identified archivally as [[CIL_4.5296|Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 4.5296]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Milnor |first=Kristina |date=2014 |title=Graffiti & the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>
Other readings, unrelated to female homosexual desire, are also possible. According to Roman studies scholar Craig Williams, the verses can also be read as, "a poetic soliloquy in which a woman ponders her own painful experiences with men and addresses herself in Catullan manner; the opening wish for an embrace and kisses express a backward-looking yearning for her man."<ref name=graff>Craig A. Williams, “Sexual Themes in Greek and Latin Graffiti,” in ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', edited by Thomas K. Hubbard, 493–508 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).</ref>
===Roman-Era Greek References=== Greek words for a woman who prefers sex with another woman include ''hetairistria'' (compare ''[[hetaira]]'', "courtesan" or "companion"), ''tribas'' (plural ''tribades''), and ''Lesbia''; Latin words include the [[loanword]] ''tribas'', ''fricatrix'' ("she who rubs"), and ''[[virago]]''.<ref>Brooten, ''Love between Women,'' p. 4.</ref> An early reference to same-sex relations among women is found in the Roman-era Greek writer [[Lucian]] (2nd century CE): "They say there are women like that in Lesbos, masculine-looking, but they don't want to give it up for men. Instead, they consort with women, just like men."<ref>Lucian, ''Dialogues of the Courtesans'' 5.</ref> [[File:George Hare - Victory of Faith.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[The Victory of Faith (painting)|The Victory of Faith]] by [[Saint George Hare]] depicts two Roman Christians in the eve of their [[damnatio ad bestias]]. The painting has been described by [[Kobena Mercer]] as depicting an interracial lesbian couple, likening it to ''Les Amis'' by [[Jules Robert Auguste]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mercer |first=Kobena |author-link=Kobena Mercer |title=Travel & See: Black Diasporic Art Practices Since the 1980s |year=2016 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |isbn=978-0-8223-7451-0}}</ref>]]
===Myth of Iphis and Ianthe=== In 8 CE, Book IX of [[Ovid]]'s the ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' portrayed a lesbian love story between [[Iphis]] and Ianthe. When Iphis' mother becomes pregnant, her husband declares that he will kill the child if it is a girl. She bears a girl conceals her sex by giving her a name that is of ambiguous gender: Iphis. When the "son" is thirteen, the father chooses a golden-haired maiden named Ianthe as the "boy's" bride. The love of the two girls is written sympathetically:
<blockquote> They were of equal age, they both were lovely,<br />Had learned the ABC from the same teachers,<br />And so love came to both of them together<br />In simple innocence, and filled their hearts<br />With equal longing. </blockquote>
As the marriage draws closer, Iphis recoils, calling her love "monstrous and unheard of", and fearing discovery. The gods hear the girl's moans and turn her into a man.<ref name="300000Kisses">{{Cite book |last=Hewitt |first=Seán |title=300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World |last2=Edward Hall |first2=Luke |date=Oct 10, 2023 |publisher=Clarkson Potter |isbn=9780593582442}}</ref>{{rp|p=79-86}}
===Roman Egyptian Love Spell=== A lesbian "binding spell" from the Supplementum Magicum, from the 3rd of 4th century CE Roman Egypt, enchants a woman named Gorgonia to fall in love with a woman named Sophia. According to scholar Lucy Parr, the language used in this binding spell was common in heterosexual erotic spells.<ref name="300000Kisses"/>{{rp|p=89-92}}
<blockquote> Drive Gorgonia, daughter of Nilogenia, to torment and never let it rest: day and night, night and day, force her through the streets and through the houses in lust for Sophia, in love for her: let her submit like a slave, let her hand over all her possessions to Sophia, let the gods demand it!<ref name="300000Kisses"/>{{rp|p=89-92}} </blockquote>
==Gender presentation==
[[File:Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 13.jpg|thumb|Hercules and Omphale cross-dressed (mosaic from [[Roman Spain]], 3rd century AD)]]
Cross-dressing appears in Roman literature and art in various ways to mark the uncertainties and ambiguities of gender: * as political invective, when a politician is accused of dressing seductively or effeminately; * as a mythological [[trope (literature)|trope]], as in the story of [[Hercules]] and [[Omphale]] exchanging roles and attire;<ref>Ovid adduces the story of Hercules and Omphale as an explanation for the ritual nudity of the [[Lupercalia]]; see [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Male nudity|"Male nudity in ancient Rome"]] and Richard J. King, ''Desiring Rome: Male Subjectivity and Reading Ovid's Fasti'' (Ohio State University Press, 2006), pp. 185, 195, 200, 204.</ref> * as a form of religious [[investiture]], as for the priesthood of the [[Galli]]; * and rarely or ambiguously as [[transvestic fetishism]].
A section of the ''Digest'' by [[Ulpian]] categorizes [[Clothing in ancient Rome|Roman clothing]] on the basis of who may appropriately wear it: ''vestimenta virilia'', "men's clothing", is defined as the attire of the ''paterfamilias'', "head of household"; ''puerilia'' is clothing that serves no purpose other than to mark its wearer as a "child" or minor; ''muliebria'' are the garments that characterize a ''materfamilias''; ''communia'', those that are "common", that is, worn by either sex; and ''familiarica'', clothing for the ''familia'', the subordinates in a household, including the staff and slaves. A man who wore women's clothes, Ulpian notes, would risk making himself the object of scorn.<ref>''Digest'' 34.2.23.2, as cited by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 540.</ref> Female prostitutes were the only women in ancient Rome who wore the distinctively masculine toga. The wearing of the toga may signal that prostitutes were outside the normal social and legal category of "woman".<ref>Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions," p. 81.</ref>
A fragment from the playwright [[Lucius Accius|Accius]] (170–86 BC) seems to refer to a father who secretly wore "virgin's finery".<ref>''Cum virginali mundo clam pater'': Kelly Olson, "The Appearance of the Young Roman Girl," in ''Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture'' (University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 147.</ref> An instance of [[transvestism]] is noted in a legal case, in which "a certain senator accustomed to wear women's evening clothes" was disposing of the garments in his will.<ref>''Digest'' 34.2.33, as cited by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 540.</ref> In the "[[mock trial]]" exercise presented by [[Seneca the Elder|the elder Seneca]],<ref>See above under "male–male rape."</ref> the young man (''adulescens'') was gang-raped while wearing women's clothes in public, but his attire is explained as his acting on a dare by his friends, not as a choice based on gender identity or the pursuit of erotic pleasure.<ref>[[Seneca the Elder]], ''Controversia'' 5.6; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 564.</ref>
Gender ambiguity was a characteristic of the priests of the goddess [[Cybele]] known as Galli, whose ritual attire included items of women's clothing. They are sometimes considered a [[transgender]] or [[transsexual]] priesthood, since they were required to be castrated in imitation of [[Attis]]. The complexities of gender identity in the religion of Cybele and the Attis myth are explored by Catullus in one of his longest poems, ''Carmen'' 63.<ref>Stephen O. Murray, ''Homosexualities'' (University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 298–303; Mary R. Bachvarova, "Sumerian ''Gala'' Priests and Eastern Mediterranean Returning Gods: Tragic Lamentation in Cross-Cultural Perspective," in ''Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 19, 33, 36.</ref>
[[Macrobius]] describes a masculine form of "Venus" (Aphrodite) who received cult on [[Cyprus]]; she had a beard and male genitals, but wore women's clothing. The deity's worshippers cross-dressed, men wearing women's clothes, and women men's.<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 3.8.2. Macrobius says that Aristophanes called this figure ''Aphroditos''.</ref> The Latin poet [[Laevius]] wrote of worshipping "nurturing Venus" whether female or male (''[[Si deus si dea|sive femina sive mas]]'').<ref>''Venerem igitur almum adorans, sive femina sive mas est,'' as quoted by Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 3.8.3.</ref> The figure was sometimes called ''[[Aphroditos]]''. In several surviving examples of Greek and Roman sculpture, the love goddess pulls up her garments to reveal her male genitalia, a gesture that traditionally held [[apotropaic]] or magical power.<ref>Dominic Montserrat, "Reading Gender in the Roman World," in ''Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity, and Power in the Roman Empire'' (Routledge, 2000), pp. 172–173.</ref>
==Intersex== {{main|Intersex in history|Sexuality in ancient Rome#Hermaphroditism and androgyny}} The Romans explored intersex identity through the myth of [[Hermaphroditus]], from which derives the term "hermaphrodite". The myth relates how a beautiful youth on the cusp of adulthood is sexually assaulted by a nymph; their identities became fused into one. Hermaphroditus was a popular subject of Roman art as a subversion of binary gender roles, represented often in sculpture and wall painting.<ref>John Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art 100 B.C.–A.D. 250'' (University of California Press, 2001), pp. 50–55.</ref> The biological reality of intersex persons was also observed. For example, [[Pliny the Elder]] notes that "there are even those who are born of both sexes, whom we call hermaphrodites, at one time ''[[androgyn]]i''" (''andr-'', "man", and ''gyn-'', "woman", from the Greek),<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 7.34: ''gignuntur et utriusque sexus quos hermaphroditos vocamus, olim androgynos vocatos''; [[Véronique Dasen]], "Multiple Births in Graeco-Roman Antiquity," ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'' 16.1 (1997), p. 61.</ref> and [[Philostratus]] offers a historical account of a congenital "[[eunuch]]".<ref name = "Philostratus">Philostratus, VS 489</ref>
==Under Christian rule== Attitudes toward same-sex behavior changed as Christianity became more prominent in the Empire. The modern perception of Roman sexual decadence can be traced to early [[Christian polemic]].<ref>Alastair J.L. Blanshard, "Roman Vice," in ''Sex: Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 1–88.</ref> Apart from measures to protect the liberty of citizens, the prosecution of male–male sex as a general crime began in the 3rd century when [[male prostitution]] was banned by [[Philip the Arab]]. A series of laws regulating male–male sex were promulgated during the [[Crisis of the Third Century|social crisis of the 3rd century]], from the [[statutory rape]] of minors to marriage between males.<ref>[[John Boswell]], ''Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century'' (University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 70.</ref>
By the end of the 4th century, anally passive men under the [[Constantine the Great and Christianity|Christian Empire]] were [[Death by burning|punished by burning]].<ref>Michael Groneberg, "Reasons for Homophobia: Three Types of Explanation," in ''Combatting Homophobia: Experiences and Analyses Pertinent to Education'' (LIT Verlag, 2011), p. 193.</ref> "Death by sword" was the punishment for a "man coupling like a woman" under the [[Theodosian Code]].<ref>''Codex Theodosianus'' 9.7.3 (4 December 342), introduced by the sons of Constantine in 342.</ref> It is in the 6th century, under [[Justinian]], that legal and moral discourse on male–male sex becomes distinctly [[Abrahamic]]:<ref>Christopher Records, "When Sex Has Lost its Significance: Homosexuality, Society, and Roman Law in the 4th Century", in UCR Undergraduate Research Journal, Volume IV (June 2010)[http://ugrj.ucr.edu/journal/volume4/christopher_records.pdf]</ref> all male–male sex, passive or active, no matter who the partners, was declared contrary to nature and punishable by death.<ref>Groneberg, "Reasons for Homophobia," p. 193.</ref> Male–male sex was pointed to as cause for [[Divine retribution|God's wrath]] following a series of disasters around 542 and 559.<ref>Michael Brinkschröde, "Christian Homophobia: Four Central Discourses," in ''Combatting Homophobia'', p. 166.</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|LGBTQ}} {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * [[Catamite]] * [[Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum]] * [[Greek love]] * [[Kagema]] * [[Homoeroticism]] * [[History of erotic depictions]] * [[History of homosexuality]] * [[Homosexuality in ancient Greece]] * [[Homosexuality in China]] * [[Homosexuality in India]] * [[Homosexuality in Japan]] * ''[[Lex Scantinia]]'', a poorly documented Roman law that regulated erotic affairs between freeborn men * [[LGBT history in Italy]] * [[Pederasty]] * [[Pederasty in ancient Greece]] * [[Sexuality in ancient Rome]] * [[Societal attitudes toward homosexuality]] * [[Spintria]] * [[Wakashū]] {{div col end}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==Literature== * [[John Boswell|Boswell, John]]. ''Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Esp. pp. 61–87. * Clarke, John R. “Sexuality and Visual Representation.” In ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', edited by Thomas K. Hubbard, 509–33. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. *{{cite book |last1=Gazzarri |first1=Tommaso |last2=Weiner |first2=Jesse |title=Searching for the cinaedus in ancient Rome |date=2023 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=9789004548374}} * Hubbard, Thomas K., ed. ''Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents''. Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-520-23430-8}} * Lelis, Arnold A., [[William Armstrong Percy III|William A. Percy]], and Beert C. Verstraete. ''The Age of Marriage in Ancient Rome''. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2003. * Skinner, Marilyn B. ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture''. 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. * Williams, Craig. ''Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. * Williams, Craig. ''Roman Homosexuality''. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
==External links== * {{Commons category inline|LGBT history in Italy}}
{{LGBT history}} {{LGBT in Italy}}
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