Roman Sexuality

Question 1

How was roman sexuality different?

Answer 1

Men were free to pursue partners outside of marriage, possible to purchase sexual partners, no notion of sexual identity, sexual pleasure had a positive (blessing from venus)

Question 2

What literary sources are there?

Answer 2

Legal and historical texts, poetry, and political papers written by elite males

Question 3

What limitations of evidence is there?

Answer 3

Literary sources written by males wrote only of sexual activity deemed fit for men, location-based observations also difficult

Question 4

What other sources are there?

Answer 4

Artistic evidence: paintings, lamps, vases, mosaics

Question 5

Where would items deemed offensive or crude be stored from general view?

Answer 5

Secret Cabinet at the National Museum of Naples

Question 6

How were literary sources affected by expurgation?

Answer 6

Translations omitted “immoral” material or left it in latin and/or translated to italian

Question 7

What is essentialism?

Answer 7

People have properties that are essential to who they are, such properties are definitive of identity

Question 8

What is constructivism?

Answer 8

Different times and places produce different results, sex and sexuality are cultural constructions and vary from place to place

Question 9

What were sexual categories in Rome?

Answer 9

Penetrator (active/masculine) and penetrated (passive/feminine)

Question 10

Sexual corresponded to —–?

Answer 10

Social status and gender (i.e. being the penetrated or involved in sexual torture was a mark of low status)

Question 11

What did roman sexuality operate on?

Answer 11

The basis of gender identity, NOT sexuality

Question 12

What was the perceptions of lesbianism?

Answer 12

Not recognized as sexual as it did not include a penis, but Martial’s literary evidence describes a dildo as a “monstrous organ”

Question 13

What was the phallus?

Answer 13

An apotropaic object, with a protective purpose - also inspiring ideas of power and pride (the larger the penis, the greater the awe or amusement)

Question 14

What were the attitudes towards female sexuality?

Answer 14

• Women were seen as nymphomaniacs and transgressive if they were sexually active
• Women unable to control sexual appetites
• Citizen women not able to engage in extra-marital sex, adultery also limited to them

Question 15

Where could erotic images be found?

Answer 15

Roman households (indicative of high status and refined taste) and public spaces in order to protect or give the ambience of high-status (suburban baths in pompeii and brothels above prostitutes living quarter)

Question 16

Were sexual scenes used as pornography?

Answer 16

Yes, evidence suggests Tiberius used erotic images for sexual stimulation as much of the population did

Question 17

Attitudes towards oral sex?

Answer 17

Thought to dirty the mouth, organ of speech, causing os impurum

Question 18

Same-sex male couplings?

Answer 18

• Entirely normal as long as penetrator was a citizen and the penetrator was a younger non-citizen
• Status was indicative of whether a sexual act was considered acceptable or not

Question 19

What evidence of same-sex male couplings is there?

Answer 19

Martial’s epigrams detailing a wife growing jealous or concerned about the husband taking slave boy’s to bed

Question 20

What accusations were used to destroy status and image?

Answer 20

That a man was sexually passive or cinaedus: an effeminate man that abandoned all masculine ideals to submit to other men (in behaviour and appearance, as well as penetration)

Question 21

Same-sex couplings women?

Answer 21

• Little literary or visual evidence because it wasn’t considered sexual
• Tribades: women who used a dildo or stimulated each other manually
• These behaviours were seen as transgressive

Question 22

What is stuprum?

Answer 22

• Sexual misconduct
• Cases usually handled within family boundaries
• Women could be punished for engaging in activities believed to lead to stuprum (i.e. women charged her dowry for drinking wine)
• Augustus differentiated between adultery and stuprum
• Punished with relegatio or deportatio

Question 23

Rape and the law?

Answer 23

• per vim stuprum: stuprum through force/violence
• Rape of free women or boys was made a crime by Caesar before it was prosecuted under iniuria (law on damaged reputation and physical harm)
• Rape as death penalty under Augustus
• If a slave was raped without their master’s permission, the offender could be prosecuted for property damage

Question 24

What was thought to be needed for conception? What evidence of orgasm is there?

Answer 24

Female orgasm (e.g. Martial’s writings of encouraging a woman to fake orgasm if needed in order to enhance her partner’s gratification)