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Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, cult prostitution, and religious prostitution are purported rites consisting of paid intercourse performed in the context of religious worship, possibly as a form of fertility rite or divine marriage. Scholars prefer the terms "sacred sex" or "sacred sexual rites" in cases where payment for services is not involved.
The stola was the traditional garment of Roman women, corresponding to the toga that was worn by men. It was also called vestis longa in Latin literary sources, pointing to its length.
Freeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives), but could not vote or hold political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by Roman historians. But while Roman women held no direct political power, those from wealthy or powerful families could and did exert influence through private negotiations. Exceptional women who left an undeniable mark on history include Lucretia and Claudia Quinta, whose stories took on mythic significance; fierce Republican-era women such as Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, and Fulvia, who commanded an army and issued coins bearing her image; women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, most prominently Livia and Agrippina the Younger, who contributed to the formation of Imperial mores; and the empress Helena, a driving force in promoting Christianity.
Male prostitution is a form of sex work consisting of act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. Although clients can be of any gender, the vast majority are older males looking to fulfill their sexual needs. Male prostitutes have been far less studied than female prostitutes by researchers. Even so, male prostitution has an extensive history including regulation through homosexuality, conceptual developments on sexuality, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic impact. In the last century, male sex work has seen various advancements such as popularizing new sexual acts, methods of exchange, and carving out a spot in cinema.
Marriage in ancient Rome was a fundamental institution of society and was used by Romans primarily as a tool for interfamilial alliances. The institution of Roman marriage was a practice of marital monogamy: Roman citizens could have only one spouse at a time in marriage but were allowed to divorce and remarry. This form of prescriptively monogamous marriage that co-existed with male resource polygyny in Greco-Roman civilization may have arisen from the relative egalitarianism of democratic and republican city-states. Early Christianity embraced this ideal of monogamous marriage by adding its own teaching of sexual monogamy, and perpetrated it worldwide and became as an essential element in many later Western cultures.
Sexual attitudes and behaviors in ancient Rome are indicated by art, literature, and inscriptions, and to a lesser extent by archaeological remains such as erotic artifacts and architecture. It has sometimes been assumed that "unlimited sexual license" was characteristic of ancient Rome, but sexuality was not excluded as a concern of the mos maiorum, the traditional social norms that affected public, private, and military life. Pudor, "shame, modesty", was a regulating factor in behavior, as were legal strictures on certain sexual transgressions in both the Republican and Imperial periods. The censors—public officials who determined the social rank of individuals—had the power to remove citizens from the senatorial or equestrian order for sexual misconduct, and on occasion did so. The mid-20th-century sexuality theorist Michel Foucault regarded sex throughout the Greco-Roman world as governed by restraint and the art of managing sexual pleasure.
Homosexuality in ancient Rome often differs markedly from the contemporary West. Latin lacks words that would precisely translate "homosexual" and "heterosexual". The primary dichotomy of ancient Roman sexuality was active / dominant / masculine and passive / submissive / feminine. Roman society was patriarchal, and the freeborn male citizen possessed political liberty (libertas) and the right to rule both himself and his household (familia). "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. Roman men were free to enjoy sex with other males without a perceived loss of masculinity or social status as long as they took the dominant or penetrative role. Acceptable male partners were slaves and former slaves, prostitutes, and entertainers, whose lifestyle placed them in the nebulous social realm of infamia, so they were excluded from the normal protections accorded to a citizen even if they were technically free. Freeborn male minors were off limits at certain periods in Rome.
Prostitution was a common aspect of ancient Greece. In the more important cities, and particularly the many ports, it employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels, but rather only instituted regulations on them.
The concept of rape, both as an abduction and in the sexual sense, makes its appearance in early religious texts.
Vistilia was a Roman matron of the gens Vistilia known by her contemporaries for having seven children by six different husbands; Pliny the Elder was more impressed by the fact most of her pregnancies were remarkably brief. Five of her sons became consuls, her daughter Milonia Caesonia became Roman empress through her marriage to Caligula, and her granddaughter Domitia Longina became empress through her marriage with Domitian. Due to her fertility Vistilia became a byword for prodigious fecundity in antiquity.
The Lupanar is the ruined building of an ancient Roman brothel in the city of Pompeii. It is of particular interest for the erotic paintings on its walls, and is also known as the Lupanare Grande or the "Purpose-Built Brothel" in the Roman colony. Pompeii was closely associated with Venus, the ancient Roman goddess of love, sex, and fertility, and therefore a mythological figure closely tied to prostitution.
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in the field is usually called a prostitute or sex worker, but other words, such as hooker and whore, are sometimes used pejoratively to refer to those who work in prostitution. The majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients.
Prostitution is illegal in Egypt. The Egyptian National Police officially combats prostitution but, like almost all other countries, prostitution exists in Egypt. UNAIDS estimate there to be 23,000 prostitutes in the country, including Egyptians, West African and Eastern Europeans.
The Lex Scantinia is a poorly documented Roman law that penalized stuprum against a freeborn male minor. The law may also have been used to prosecute adult male citizens who willingly took a passive role in having sex with other men. It was thus aimed at protecting the citizen's body from sexual abuse but did not prohibit homosexual behavior as such, as long as the passive partner was not a citizen in good standing. The primary use of the Lex Scantinia seems to have been harassing political opponents whose lifestyles opened them to criticism as being passive homosexuals or pederasts in the Hellenistic manner.
Prostitution in ancient Rome was legal and licensed. Men of any social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval, as long as they demonstrated self-control and moderation in the frequency and enjoyment of sex. Brothels were part of the culture of ancient Rome, as popular places of entertainment for Roman men.
In ancient Rome, infamia was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term in Roman law, infamia was juridical exclusion from certain protections of Roman citizenship, imposed as a legal penalty by a censor or praetor. In more general usage during the Republic and Principate, infamia was damage to the esteem (aestimatio) in which a person was held socially; that is, to one's reputation. A person who suffered infamia was an infamis.
Prostitution has been practiced throughout ancient and modern cultures. Prostitution has been described as "the world's oldest profession", though this is unverifiable, and most likely incorrect.
Publius Suillius Rufus was a Roman senator who was active during the Principate. He was notorious for his prosecutions during the reign of Claudius; and he was the husband of the step-daughter of Ovid. Rufus was suffect consul in the nundinium of November-December 41 as the colleague of Quintus Ostorius Scapula.
Lucius Pomponius Flaccus was a Roman senator, who held a number of imperial appointments during the reign of Tiberius. He was consul in AD 17 with Gaius Caelius Rufus as his colleague.
Concubinatus was a monogamous union, intended to be of some duration but not necessarily permanent, that was socially and to some extent legally recognized as an alternative to marriage in the Roman Empire. Concubinage became a legal concern in response to Augustan moral legislation that criminalized adultery and imposed penalties on some consensual sexual behaviors outside marriage.
References
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- 1 2 Ziogas, Ioannis (2021-01-28). Law and Love in Ovid: Courting Justice in the Age of Augustus. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-258379-6.
- 1 2 McGinn, Thomas A. J. (2003-01-30). Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-802486-6.
- ↑ Edwards, Catharine (2020-10-06), "THREE. Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome", Roman Sexualities, Princeton University Press, pp. 66–96, doi:10.1515/9780691219547-005, ISBN 978-0-691-21954-7 , retrieved 2024-06-24
- ↑ Champlin, Edward (2011). "Sex on Capri". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 141 (2): 315–332. ISSN 0360-5949. JSTOR 41289747.
- 1 2 Bond, Sarah (2014-05-19). "Altering Infamy Status, Violence, and Civic Exclusion in Late Antiquity". Classical Antiquity. 33 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1525/CA.2014.33.1.1. ISSN 0278-6656.
- ↑ Natalie Nagel, Barbara (2013-06-01). "The Tyrant as Artist: Legal Fiction and Sexual Violence under Tiberius". Law & Literature. 25 (2): 286–310. doi:10.1525/lal.2013.25.2.286. ISSN 1535-685X.
- ↑ Kertzer, David I.; Saller, Richard P. (1991-01-01). The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05550-4.
- 1 2 Strong, Anise K. (2016-07-12). Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-14875-8.
- ↑ Riggsby, Andrew M. (2010-06-07). Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86751-1.
- 1 2 McGinn, Thomas A. J. (2003-01-30). Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988294-6.
- ↑ Gilligan, Carol; Richards, David A. J. (2008-11-10). The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy's Future. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-47522-8.
- 1 2 Ditmore, Melissa Hope (2006-08-30). Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work: [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-0-313-08387-7.
- ↑ Pagán, Victoria Emma (2023-05-24). The Tacitus Encyclopedia. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-74333-0.
- ↑ Justinian I, Digest 48.5.2