Homosexuality in ancient Rome
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The deification of Antinous, his medals, statues, temples, city, oracles, and constellation, are well known, and still dishonor the memory of Hadrian. Yet we remark, that, of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct." --Edward Gibbon |
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Sources for Ancient Roman homosexual practice, and attitudes and acceptance of it are abundantly available. There are literary works, poems, graffiti and comments on the sexual predelictions of single emperors. Graphic representations are, on the other hand, rarer in ancient Rome than in classical Greece. Attitudes towards homosexuality changed over the time and from context to context, ranging from strong condemnation to quite open acceptance. Indeed, it was also purported to be one of the cultural facts of certain provinces.
In discussing such attitudes, it is fundamental to recall that the term "homosexuality" is entirely problematic for the ancient world since there is no single word in either Latin or ancient Greek with the same meaning as the modern concept of homosexuality. Although it again and again becomes apparent that bisexuality was more the norm, even the ancient authors agree that there were ancient Roman men who had sexual relations exclusively with men.
Moral opinions
The earliest formal record of legislation is Lex Scantinia, enacted in either 225 or 149 BC which regulated sexual behavior, including pederasty, adultery and passivity, and legislated the death penalty for same-sex behavior among free-born men and there is evidence of punishments in earlier times. Above all, pederasty was condemned in the Republican era and dismissed as a sign of an effeminate Greek lifestyle.
In the mid Republic homosexual acts were widely accepted, if the active partner was a Roman, and the passive partner a slave or non-Roman. Deviations from this pattern were morally condemned, but apparently had few legal consequences. Martial and Plautus describe a wide range of homosexual behaviors, in part to poke fun at them like other minor standard deviations, but without too much moralizing. On the other hand, there is also from the year 108 an indictment against C. Vibius Maximus, a Roman officer in Egypt who had a sexual relationship with a young nobleman.
Juvenal condemned many forms of male homosexuality, and especially laments Roman men of high birth who show a moral front but secretly took the passive role. He found men who openly played the passive role pitiful but at least honest, and praised true love found by a man for a boy. Public speeches usually condemned all forms of homosexuality. When Julius Caesar was ambassador to Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, he was rumoured to have had a relationship with the king and played the passive role but, though this damaged his reputation, it apparently had no legal consequences. The emperor Hadrian had a relationship with the younger Antinous, although this was also criticized but not significant enough to prevent him plunging the empire into mourning following Antinous' apparent death by drowning in 130.
Negative attitudes towards same-sex relations continued following the adoption of Christianity and in 390, laws were re-enacted, making such relations punishable by death.
According to some, the circumstances surrounding the massacre of Thessaloniki in 390 suggest that even in the late 4th century homosexuality was still accepted in large parts of the population, while officially prosecuted. When a popular charioteer was arrested for having sexually harassed an army-commander or servant of the emperor, the people of the town were calling for his release, though this is more likely due to his popularity than to the nature of the allegation.
See also
- Societal attitudes toward homosexuality
- History of homosexuality
- Intersex in history
- Lex Scantinia, a poorly documented Roman law that protected minors from sexual predators
- LGBT history in Italy
