Chapters
During the time of the Republic, Roman citizens had the right (libertas) to protect their bodies from physical coercion, including both corporal punishment and sexual violence. Roman society was typically patriarchal and masculinity was based on the principle of governing not only oneself but also other persons, especially those from the lower class.
It was socially acceptable for a free-born Roman to have sex with a woman or a man assuming a dominant role. Both women and young men were perceived as natural objects of desire. Outside of marriage, a man could have sex with slaves, prostitutes (who were usually slaves) and the so-called infames (the restricted man). It did not matter with which gender the Roman indulged in until he did not exceed certain social norms. For example, it was immoral to have sex with another citizen’s free-born wife, his daughter by marriage, his underage son, or the man himself.
During imperial times, the fear of losing political freedom and submitting to power to the emperor led to an increase in the frequency of free-born men assuming a passive position during sex. This is evidenced by the sources that mention a greater number of executions and corporal punishment imposed on free citizens of Rome.
Generally speaking, in civilian life homosexuality was rather rare and treated with disfavour (as evidenced by references in source texts, where things that were outrageous, characteristic and not often encountered were recorded), and such relations were tolerated, as I have mentioned, if a Roman citizen was the active party (otherwise, Roman blood was contaminated. It is worth presenting here a controversial fragment from Caesar’s life. In 80 BCE, the young Gaius Julius Caesar arrived at the court of Nicomedes IV, the king of Bithynia (north-western Asia Minor). Caesar was sent there on the orders of praetor Marcus Minucius Thermus from Asia to obtain a Bithynian fleet to help in the siege of the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. He carried out this mission very well, and even managed to become closer friends with the king. It was often suggested – probably rightly – that they were lovers. From this, we can conclude that Caesar was bisexual, later known for his famous affairs with numerous women; bisexuality was a common phenomenon among the Roman aristocracy at the time. The episode in Bithynia was often the subject of satirical commentary, but it did not affect Caesar’s political career. The attack on Caesar stemmed from the fact that he was supposedly the passive party during intercourse. It was also important for a Roman to have sex with a man who was in some way socially inferior (younger, lower class, slave). In this way, the stereotype of the Roman, commander and conqueror was preserved. Homosexuality among men was tolerated and accepted, but it was certainly not the rule.
So if any high-ranking free-born Roman allowed himself to be passive during intercourse, he risked mockery. Their victim was, among others Mark Antony, who had a long relationship with Publius Clodius. Cicero ridiculed this account in fourteen malicious Philipics, mentioning, inter alia, the escape of the future triumvir over the roofs from the angry father of his lover. Cicero had to pay his head for this mockery – when Marcus Antony came to power, he ordered his head to be cut off with a blunt knife, and the triumvir’s wife Fulvia additionally pierced the orator’s tongue with a nail.
Loud – because very unusual – was also the relationship between Marcus Antony and his peer, Scribonia Curio. The lovers were not separated by the age difference, and they indulged in sex so passionately that Scriboni’s father placed his son under house arrest. It was to no avail, Marcus Antony broke in, through the roof, only to satisfy the need to meet his lover.
Not only Marcus Antony was famous for male lovers. Emperor Vitellius always prepared an exclusive menu for his young lovers, aimed at stimulating the imagination and potency: wild boar liver, pheasant brain, flamingo tongues and dandelion moray. Known for his extremely audacious – not only sexual – practitioners of Caligula his first official lover Lepidus married his sister (with whom he also remained in an active erotic relationship). However, Lepidus joined a group of conspirators who planned to deprive the emperor of power, for which he sentenced him to be beheaded. He then anointed Valenius Catullus as his official lover, who – whether out of his innate bragging rights or to lick his ruler – bragged all over the city that he was insanely sore after making love with Caligula. However, Caligula, with the consistent characteristic of the mentally ill, although he himself is strongly bisexual, ordered all homosexuals to be sent to hard labour in Sardinia one day.