Today, there is a lot of shouting about the total decline in morals and the violation of family values. And indeed - the stars of the porn industry are no longer persona non grata, but lead auto races, pedophile scandals with frequency have already overshadowed financial scandals. But those who exclaim - "where the world is heading!", do not even suspect what a chaste society we actually live in.

Here in the days of antiquity, the world still fell into tartarara. What was the norm for the ancient Greeks and Romans would shock us. So, an excursion into the times of ancient customs.

I came, I saw, I had

To understand the psychology of the people of that time, you need to familiarize yourself with their myths.

For the Greeks and Romans wrote their gods from themselves, so the behavior of the celestials is the embodiment of the innermost desires of mere mortals. Greek myths are not recommended for children under the age of sixteen to read. There is so much sex, gore, and violence that XXX-level porn films seem like an innocent transmission of “Good night, kids!”. Take Zeus (among the Romans - Jupiter), the ruler of the sky, thunder, lightning, in charge of the whole world. This sexy terrorist cheats on his wife Hera left and right and is guided by one thing: to fertilize everything that moves. For the sake of this, he is ready to become at least a carcass, at least a stuffed animal. He loves women and men equally: in the guise of a snake he seduces Demeter and Persephone, in the skin of a bull - Europe, under the guise of a swan - Leda, pretending to be an eagle - the beautiful young man Ganymede, in the guise of an ant - Eurymedus, as a dove - Phthia, in a fiery guise - Aegina, as a satyr - Antiope, under the guise of a cloud - Io, in the guise of a hedgehog ... no, it seems that there was no hedgehog. But even the underground bunker, where Danae was hidden from this maniac, is not an obstacle for him. Zeus turns into golden rain, seeps through the ceiling and enters her womb. Well, what do you want? The guy has a bad heredity: dad is a god-eater. His father Kronos swallowed his children so that they would not be overthrown, and Zeus was not digested just because the wise mother slipped her husband a stone wrapped in diapers instead of a newborn. However, Zeus' dad threw out worse things. Since his own father Uranus mistreated mother Earth, Kronos once ambushed his parents' bedchamber and, at the very moment of his father's orgasm, waved a sickle in the balls, revealing his dearest thing. He threw the reproductive organ of his father into the sea, thanks to which the beautiful Aphrodite was born.

Yes, I will disappoint the beautiful ladies, who are sure that the goddess of love appeared from the sea foam, tender and fragrant, like the German remedy Badusan. Everything is much more brutal. Here is what the researcher of ancient culture Hans Licht writes about this: “In the oldest source (Hesiod, Theogony), the following is unambiguously stated: “For a long time, a member was worn on the sea, and white foam emanating from an immortal member whipped around it, and in it Aphrodite was born. That is, the genital organ, cut off at the time of sexual intercourse, was full of semen, which is now erupted outward, giving birth to Aphrodite, into the sea and together with the sea. There is no hint of sea foam here.” Now imagine for a moment that for the people of the ancient world, all this is by no means a fairy tale. This is a story as real as the Tatar-Mongol yoke is for us. The ancient Greeks did not doubt the exploits of Hercules and were equal to the gods in everything - from deeds to sex.

No sex minorities

The first thing that would strike us in ancient society is the absence of a firm sexual orientation. The Greeks and Romans were not divided into heterosexuals, homosexuals or bisexuals - they were all-sexual. Even to bestiality (from ritual to everyday), they were quite tolerant, because their sexually preoccupied gods did not shy away from it either. This can be confirmed by the myths about Leda and the swan, the Minotaur, Triton, insatiable goat-legged satyrs, centaurs and ugly cynocephals - people with dog heads. All this is an echo of the sexual contacts of the ancients with representatives of other biological species. For the ancient pagans, sex was not a sin under any circumstances. On the contrary, it is a priceless gift from the gods. It was they who made man sexually omnivorous, and in Plato's famous dialogue "Symposia" it is said how it was. Zeus, when creating a person, immediately relied on three sexes: a man, a woman, and a husband-woman (androgyne). He divided each sex in half - that's why those who came from the original man are looking for their soul mate in the form of men, who came from the original woman - they prefer women. And only from the androgynes did men who love women, and women who love men, lead their race. So love for one's gender is natural and pleasing to God in Hellas and Ancient Rome. They didn’t even have special words corresponding to our “gay” or “lesbian”. But the personal name Pedophile was. And the ancient Greeks did not see anything reprehensible in it (as in the phenomenon itself).

Platonic love

The ancient Greeks would hardly have appreciated the common modern joke that “a pedophile differs from a teacher in that the former truly loves children”. Pedophilia and pederasty were the most important part of the intellectual, spiritual and physical development of a young man. Method of education, sanctioned by the state. Upon reaching the age of twelve, every Greek teenager was to acquire a senior mentor who would show him all kinds of courtesies, give gifts, admire his beauty and instruct in all male virtues, acting as a guardian, adviser, friend, coach and sexual partner. The younger in such pairs was called "ait" - the listener, and the elder - "eyspnel", the inspirer. And it was considered a violation of duty for a man not to attract a young man to himself, and for a young man it was a shame not to be honored with such friendship.

By the way, those who consider the expression “Platonic love” to be synonymous with love without physical contact will be curious to know that according to Plato, the highest manifestation of love is a harmonious fusion of the spiritual principle and the physical bodies of the mentor and student. "Platonic love" is homosexual love. The Greeks considered homosexual love to be more sublime and deeper than the relaxing and pampering of men love for women. The world of ancient Hellas is a man's world. The woman in it is a lower being, unable to satisfy the intellectual needs of men. It is suitable only for childbearing and carnal pleasures. While high thoughts are open to young men, that is why high relationships are possible only with them. A beautiful young man is always preferable to a Greek to a beautiful woman. No wonder Plato writes in Protagoras: “The youthful color of a twelve-year-old boy makes me happy, but a boy of thirteen is preferable. The one who is fourteen is an even sweeter flower of Eros, and even more charming is the one who has just turned fifteen.

The sixteenth year is the age of the gods, and wishing for seventeen years is not my destiny, but Zeus’s ... ” Stratoy echoes him: “Neither the luxury of hair, nor curly curls attract me, if they are not produced by nature, but by the zeal of art. No, I love the thick dirt on the boy, who is fresh from the palestra, and the gentle sheen of his body, moistened with fresh olive oil. Love without embellishment is sweet to me, and artificial beauty is the work of female Cyprida. No one could convince the ancient Greek of the educational benefits of pederasty, because it was from the pederasts, in their opinion, that the best defenders of the fatherland grew up. After all, a man in love with his partner did not run away from the enemy, but fought fiercely for his beloved until the very end. And this is true. The elite Sacred Squad, formed in Thebes, consisting of 150 love couples, heroically showed itself on the battlefields and completely died in the battle of Chaeronea. Finally, everyone in Hellas knew that homosexuality is good for health. The famous Hippocrates was two hands for homosexual relationships, because "for adult men they bring youth and health, and masculinity and other positive qualities of an adult man through his seed are transmitted to adolescents." True, there were limitations. Homosexuality is the lot of free citizens, slaves had no right to have sex with free-born boys. Male prostitution was also not welcomed - it was believed that a person selling his own body for money would easily renounce the general interests of the state. Rome, having adopted sexual customs from the Hellenes, was also very loyal to homosexuality. Edward Gibbon, an 18th-century English historian, speaking of the first fifteen emperors, states that "Claudius was the only one whose taste in love affairs was completely natural." All the rest cohabited with boys. Moreover, the emperor Hadrian, passionately in love with the teenage Greek Antinous, after he drowned, officially deified him and erected statues of him throughout the empire.

The law is harsh

Nevertheless, neither the ancient Greeks nor the ancient Romans can be called adepts of free love. They had strict rules about sexual behavior.

A Roman citizen could indulge in any sexual fun with women, men and teenagers. But - subject to two conditions. First: in an intimate relationship with a partner, he should always dominate. Be active, not passive. A passive role in anal sex was considered a disgrace, since the citizen becomes "effeminate" and, having lost his virtus (courage, valor), turns out to be useless in civil and military terms. In the army, passive homosexuality was considered a crime; a soldier convicted of it was simply beaten with sticks. In civilian life, those who liked to play a passive role were contemptuously called “kineds” or “patikus”, lowering their legal status below the plinth. Like prostitutes, gladiators and actors, passive homosexuals did not have the right to vote in elections, nor could they represent themselves in court. The second rule: the subject of a citizen's sexual desire must be at a lower social level than he is. This was dictated by purely economic reasons: so that the appearance of an illegitimate son of the same rank would not jeopardize the hereditary rights of legitimate offspring. If both rules were observed, no one would ever reproach a Roman for his sexual addictions.

Kama Sutra for Slaves

The sexual life of married couples in ancient Rome was quite insipid. Although in the Roman house they openly talk about sex, hiding nothing from the younger generation. Often the wife and husband, having retired to the bedroom, do not even pull the canopy over the bed. Everyone can see the act of intercourse between the owner and the mistress - up to the domestic servant, who continues to calmly clean up the house. However, a number of restrictions were imposed on the relationship between husband and wife in bed. It would never occur to a wife to ask her husband to give her oral sex. Nor would her husband have asked for it. Oral sex between equals was taboo in ancient Rome. I will say more - for this they were deprived of citizenship. A free Roman could enjoy, but not deliver it. It was considered shameful and indecent. But this taboo did not apply to slaves, freedmen and non-citizens. And therefore, an ancient Roman citizen, like an ancient Roman citizen, could get their own by resorting to the services of lower ranks. They could call a slave or a slave, go for inaccessible caresses to the nearest brothel, but they could not get them from their legal spouse.

As archaeologist and historian Alberto Angela writes in his excellent book A Day in Ancient Rome, “The Romans were just obsessed with their mouths. For them, the mouth is something noble, almost sacred. It is a social instrument because people speak, address each other, exchange information, make speeches, and therefore, it must be pure and undefiled. In the Senate, the mouth generally becomes a political tool. Therefore (...) to accuse a senator of having had oral sex, to call him a Fellator, is to inflict a grave insult on him. It was tantamount to a charge of treason for having defiled a mouth that had such an important function in the service of society." In this vein, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, which almost cost the US president his chair, looks curious. A man endowed with serious power allowed himself to be satisfied orally by his subordinate. Was in his right. If Clinton had lived in ancient times, he would not have had to apologize to his wife or pay lawyers. But Lewinsky would not have turned into a celebrity and a millionaire, but would have been on the same level as slaves and prostitutes. The doors of decent houses would close before her forever...

Handmade

Christian theologians and priests have for centuries frightened masturbators with a madhouse and a cemetery, claiming that masturbation leads to dementia, blindness, stomach cramps, diarrhea, consumption and epilepsy. And the Greeks saw masturbation as an outlet. Masturbation reduced, in their opinion, the number of rapes, the number of illegitimate children and suicides about unrequited love, so it's a useful thing. They loved to depict such scenes on vases, and their language had an amazing number of words to reflect this concept, including the poetic “sing a wedding song with your hand” and “fight Aphrodite with your hand.” By the way, the Greeks preferred to use the left hand for this purpose (closer to heart). And don't be afraid to do it in public. In particular, a prominent representative of the philosophical school of the Cynics, Diogenes of Sinop (the one who lived in a barrel, or rather, in a pithos - a hefty earthen vessel for grain). Calling on fellow citizens in the square to be content with little and renounce passions in order to taste the serene joy of being, he often lifted up his tunic and began to masturbate, accompanying the action with a wise maxim: “Oh, if I could just as easily, rubbing my stomach, get rid of hunger and need” . Women in this area did not lag behind men. In the bedroom of every Greek woman there were devices called baubons or olisbs. These dildos were made everywhere, but the best were considered self-satisfiers from the city of Miletus, from where they were exported throughout the Oikoumene. Women were proud of them and often exchanged among themselves. So, in the sixth mimiyamba Geronda, entitled "Two friends, or a confidential conversation", the girl Metro complains that her friend Corrito had a wonderful olisbe, but she, not having time to use it, handed it over to her friend Evbula, and she gave it to someone else , which is a pity - after all, Metro would really like to get this instrument, since it was made by a skilled craftsman.

Loyalty is a relative concept

According to Euripides, the Greeks were the first of the ancient peoples to observe the principle of monogamy, believing that bringing many wives into the house was a barbaric custom and unworthy of a noble Greek. But at the same time, adultery in antiquity applied only to women. The betrayal of a wife was severely condemned, and the husband had every right to kill her lover, and sometimes herself. Society turned a blind eye to her husband's betrayal and the presence of many concubines.

As Hans Licht writes, “Greek public opinion was unaware of the arguments by which one could condemn a man who is tired of the eternal monotony of married life and seeks rest in the arms of an intelligent and charming courtesan or who knows how to brighten up the daily routine with a conversation with a pretty young man.” And it is impossible not to admit that in this the Greeks were more moral than we are, since they recognized that a man had a penchant for polygamy and acted not secretly, but openly.

Therefore, the poets praised the ideal of an understanding woman who did not interfere with her husband's love affairs. For example, the Greek had every right to even fall with friends in the company of girls to his home - in this case, the wife was supposed to show modesty, retire to the women's part of the house and patiently wait for the end of the feast. In Sparta, treason was actually welcomed. This small and warlike state was vitally interested in increasing the number of warriors strong in body and spirit. Moreover, older Spartan husbands could delegate their marital duties to younger men they chose, since each of them equally disposed of both his own children and strangers.

In Rome, the laws of Augustus provided for strict punishment for adultery, for adultery with another's wife, but men were not punished for concubinage, for having sex with a concubine. And, of course, every man of the ancient world had every right to visit brothels. After all, communication with a prostitute was not considered treason at all.

Night butterflies

Neither Ancient Greece nor Ancient Rome knew the lack of brothels and prostitutes. The ancient world looked at corrupt love without prejudice. It is necessary, useful, profitable. Moreover, it is very beneficial for the state budget.

Brothels in Greece were under the supervision of city officials, and the owners of brothels were required to pay an annual tax to the state. The Romans treated visiting brothels in much the same way as we do visiting public latrines. He walked, pressed, went in, went out. At the same time, the wife could easily wait for her husband in the tavern opposite and even ask him not to hurry. It seems wild to us. For the Romans - completely normal. After all, they did not see adultery in this. A husband became an adulterer only when he had sex with his equal. And the rest - how to relieve yourself, how to brush your teeth. Therefore, a Roman matron could easily, bored, gnaw a peach in her room, while in the next room her husband, with wild cries, frolic with might and main with a slave or a slave. And she was not at all shocked that in the evening he went with his friends to blow off steam at the nearest brothel. The brothels (they were called lupanaria) in the Eternal City were like dirt, and they all worked on the principle of an assembly line, which Henry Ford himself would envy. To speed up customer service and automate the process of providing sex services, the owners of lupanariums have even introduced special tokens - spintrias. They were made of bronze, less often of bone, and resembled coins. On one side it depicted sexual intercourse, on the other there was a number. The position depicted on the spintria corresponded to the service rendered by the prostitute for this token, and the figure - either the price or the number of the booth. There is no consensus among historians on this matter. However, the price was ridiculous. On average - 2 asses, like a glass of cheap wine. Child prostitution was also widespread. Entire farms of laborers and sex workers flourished in Rome, the owners of which bought child slaves and raised orphaned children for prostitution. Their sexual use was permitted by law, for which taxes were regularly paid to the treasury. Moreover, the rape of a pimp of a slave or a slave was not punishable.

In Rome, the laws of August provided for severe penalties for adultery, but every man in the ancient world had every right to visit brothels. after all, communication with a prostitute was not considered treason at all.

Size matters...

The image of the phallus on the streets of ancient cities was almost more common than today the word of three letters on the fence. The phallus was idolized. He was worshiped. The Greeks placed in front of temples and houses square columns with a male head and an erect sexual organ, which, in their opinion, guarded roads, borders and gates. The Romans preferred huge stone members, which were installed in squares, streets, in front of houses and taverns. They were cut down on the walls of porticos, on pavements, hung over children's cradles, bakers' ovens, they were an integral part of the landscape of gardens, fields and orchards. Bronze phalluses (and often whole bunches of them) with bells inside were hung from the ceiling of the dwelling or at the entrance. They were called "tintinnabulas" and rang when they were touched. And everyone who passed by touched them, because otherwise he risked losing his luck and health. And all because the people of antiquity believed that an erect penis is a terrible force. He was for them a symbol of prosperity, prosperity, abundance, fertility and fertility. A symbol of victory, wealth and success in business. In addition, the phallus, as a source of seed and life, was attributed the magical ability to drive away troubles, misfortunes and scare away evil spirits. And if a Christian, faced with something terrible and unknown, today exclaims “the power of the Cross is with us!”, Then the ancient Roman would have invoked phallic power for the same purpose. Therefore, the first thing that an ancient Roman boy received as a gift from his parents was a rattle in the form of a penis and a fascinum - a stone, bronze or bone image of the phallus, which he wore around his neck like an amulet, sometimes adding to it, for reliability, also the image of a fig, fig - an ancient symbol of sexual intercourse. And in life, the ancient Romans, like the Greeks, preferred a member of a modest size. They considered a large manhood to be impractical, unaesthetic and even comical. What is easy to see by glancing at the ancient statues. Dangling between their legs is by no means an XXL miracle, but a device that requires tweezers and a magnifying glass to study. Almost child size. The ancients believed that size is not the main thing. The main thing is the love heat and the ability to fertilize. And they believed that for this, the shorter the device, the better. Aristotle wrote that a short penis has a lot of advantages: it looks more beautiful, the seed has to travel a shorter distance, and therefore it reaches its goal more accurately. Logics! The theater was an exception. In the Eternal City, performances of acrobatic sex began to be in demand - a kind of analogue of modern film porn. The actors on the stage tried to impress the audience with their incredible poses, which put the Kama Sutra to shame, and the audience tried to see everything in detail. Therefore, in these shows (shown in between classic comedies and tragedies), actors with huge penises were appreciated. After all, they could be seen even from the distant rows. Ancient people were reverent about penis hygiene. They regularly washed it, anointed it with oil, and before performing physical exercises they subjected it to infibulation, namely: they pulled the foreskin over the head and tied it with a ribbon so that, God forbid, it would not be damaged. So the antique fitness room looked much funnier than modern ones: a crowd of naked men - and each member with a bow.

Beautiful Ass Goddess

If we talk about the canon of female beauty, then the tastes of the ancient Greeks and Romans were close to the tastes of today's Caucasians. They appreciated curvy blondes. And in order to be competitive with the fair-haired German slaves, women invented many ingenious recipes. Wigs, citric acid, onion peel, milk and even lime were used. And since light, shiny skin, according to men, testified not only to aristocracy, but also to passion, women tried not to sunbathe and washed themselves with goat and donkey milk.

However, to be considered a sex bomb, more was required. A low forehead, a straight nose and large bulging eyes were needed, and the distance between the eyes should have been at least the size of one eye, and the mouth should have been one and a half times the size of the eye. In addition, wide hips, powerful thighs, a chest that fits into a man's palm or a little more, and a slightly overhanging bulging belly were needed. These forms were considered perfect, as they served as a guarantee of fertility. Great attention was paid to the buttocks. The Greeks generally had a clear fad about this. They idolized Aphrodite Callipyga - Aphrodite Beautiful-assed, built a special temple for her and regularly held competitions in her honor to identify the best callipyga of Hellas. These beauty contests of female asses were incredibly popular in all Greek policies, the sirloin excited Greek men clearly more than women's breasts. By the way, the familiar symbol of a heart pierced by an arrow comes from Ancient Greece. But it has nothing to do with the anatomical heart. This is a stylized part of the female ass, and the arrow piercing it is one of the oldest phallic symbols. Draw your own conclusions ... The second Greco-Roman fad in the field of sexual and aesthetic preferences was hairy vegetation. They could not stand it, they considered it a terribly unaesthetic sign of barbarism. And everywhere - and on the legs, and under the armpits, and in the genital area. Their ideal was a woman with a clean-shaven bosom, and the men did not care at all about the torment with which this was achieved. And here women can only sympathize. Thus, the comedian Plato speaks of “myrtle bushes plucked by hand,” and according to Aristophanes, women often used a lit lamp or hot ashes for this purpose. Beauty requires sacrifice. At least in this we are united with the ancient world.

Dmitry Lychkovsky

She was absolutely liberated and devoid of any sexual taboos. Free Roman society was allowed almost everything that could bring sexual pleasure. For the most part, this was due to the fact that Eastern and Greek tendencies gradually emasculated the foundations of the harsh Roman military culture.

Sexual life in ancient Rome is still considered the standard of loyalty to all forms of carnal pleasures. It is not for nothing that so many sexual terms have come down to us from the Latin language - coitus, cunnilingus, masturbation, fellatio ...

Women in Ancient Rome

The Romans treated their wives somewhat differently than the Greeks. It was believed that the Greek marries in order to have children and a mistress in the house. The Roman was looking for a faithful friend and life partner. The Roman woman was respected at home and in society: in her presence it was impossible to speak rudeness and behave obscenely. In her house, the Roman woman was the sovereign mistress. The wife could eat food at the same table with her husband and his friends, and was in society.

As for sex, in Rome a woman was equal with a man in the right to enjoy love. Moreover, it was believed that without fully tasting erotic pleasure, she would never give birth to a healthy child. With the beginning of our era, emancipation flourished in Rome. Women were allowed to inherit the fortunes of their husbands who died in wars. They also received money in the event of a divorce, which was a real revolution. Wealthy ladies, following the men, gave themselves up to erotic leisure.

An orgy in a bath with the participation of three and five ladies became a common event, which was captured in their works by ancient Roman artists.

Prostitution and brothels

Prostitution in ancient Rome took on a truly colossal scale. With whitened faces and soot-lined eyes, Roman prostitutes carried on their ancient craft. They stood everywhere - at the walls of the Colosseum, in theaters and temples. Visiting women of easy virtue was considered by the Romans to be a very common occurrence. Cheap harlots sold quick sex in the quarters of the old city. Priestesses of love of a higher rank, supported by attendants, acted in Roman baths. As in ancient Greece, Roman prostitution also had its own classification: one or another name indicated the specifics of the harlot. For example, Alicariae or bakers - girls who stayed near the bakers and sold cakes in the form of male and female genital organs. Diobolares are old, worn-out prostitutes who demanded only two aces for their love. Nani are little girls who have been involved in prostitution since the age of six.

As the Roman Empire flourished, the ranks of the representatives of the ancient profession were replenished by foreign slaves. There were even so-called "whore farms" whose owners bought slaves or raised orphaned children for prostitution. The slave trade was also a legal source. Pimps bought women and sent them to work. The sexual use of slave girls was legal in Rome. The rape of a slave by a pimp was also not punishable. Brothel owners also offered boys.

Roman courtesans

Existed in ancient Rome and a special kind of prostitution. Courtesans who belonged to this class were called "bonae meretrices", which indicated their higher perfection in the craft. In fact, they had nothing to do with ordinary priestesses of love. They all had their preferred lovers, and they were like Greek hetaerae. Like the latter, they had a great influence on fashion, art, literature and on the whole of patrician society.

Starting from the year 40 AD. prostitutes in ancient Rome had to pay taxes. Their calculation was made on the basis of one act per day. Earned above this rate was not taxed. All Roman Caesars held fast to the tax on living goods, which brought a fair amount of income to the treasury. Even in Christian Rome, the favorable tax was maintained for a long time. After 30 years, a prostitute in Rome was almost not quoted. The usual fate of such harlots was drunkenness, illness and early death. A rare woman managed to save a little money for old age.

As for brothels, in Rome the inhabitants of brothels were called "lupae" (she-wolves), and the brothels themselves were called "lupanaria". There were cheap inns in the city. When the host asked a visitor if he wanted a room "with or without", it meant "with or without a girl". On the account of the inn, found in Pompeii, it appeared: for wine - 1/6, for bread - 1, for roast - 2, for hay for a donkey - 2 and for a girl - 8 aces. In brothels, the name of the girl who lived there and her minimum price were indicated on each room. When she had a guest, she would lock the door and put up a sign saying "Occupied".

ancient roman baths

In addition to brothels, the needs for sex in ancient Rome were also satisfied in terms or baths. It usually began with the slave rubbing oil into the client's skin. Wealthy bath-goers were always offered a choice of several boys to serve. Young men from poor families here often became lovers of elderly clients. In return, they received education and promotion. In Rome alone, the number of baths with erotic services reached more than 900 by the year 300.

Until four o'clock, brothels were not allowed to open, so as not to distract young people from their studies. Most of the guests were either very young or very old men; the latter preferred young girls. In an era when the slogan “Who does not enjoy, he cannot please himself” prevailed, the need for such establishments was very great. In Pompeii, where there were barely 20 thousand inhabitants, seven brothels were discovered during excavations, some of them simultaneously served as taverns, others as barbers. In "Vicolo del Lupanare" you can still see rooms resembling caves with beds made of stone. Enticing inscriptions are displayed on the outer walls: "For those who love life is sweet, like for bees (in these cells)". Another brothel had the inscription "Hic habitat felicitas" ("Here dwells pleasure").

Sexual Preferences of the Ancient Romans

Sex in ancient Rome did not imply the existence of any relationship between two partners. Men and women could do it whenever they wanted. There were no moral or legal obligations between them, and nothing limited the number of each other's sexual partners. In ancient Rome, oral sex was the cheapest sexual service. It was considered normal when a prostitute or a man of a lower social status (slave or debtor) satisfied a partner. For others, it was a humiliating occupation. So, for example, freely born women were strictly forbidden to provide such caresses. Moreover, oral sex was even more shameful than anal sex. The ancient Romans believed that the performers of such services had halitosis and were often not invited to the dinner table. The women who practiced it were considered "unclean" in Rome, they did not drink from the same glass with them, they were not kissed.

In ancient Rome, mass orgies were widespread, known to all as bacchanalia. They became especially ugly during the era of Nero (I century BC), where almost all types of sexual perversions were practiced: homosexuality, lesbianism, group sex, sadism, masochism, voyeurism, and so on. The immorality of the Romans reached the point that they involved children in their orgies. In the end, such mass orgies were banned in 186 AD.

Description of an orgy in the ancient Roman novel by Petronius "Satyricon"

"... The slave pulled out two braids from her bosom and tied our arms and legs with them ... The girl threw herself on his neck and, without meeting resistance, showered him with countless kisses ... Finally, a kined (corrupt homosexual) appeared in green clothes from shaggy wool, girded with a sash. He either rubbed against us with his parted hips, or soiled us with smelly kisses ... Finally, Quartilla, raising a whip from a whalebone and belting her dress high, ordered us to give us unfortunate respite ... ".

In those days, bestiality was also widespread. Mass public copulations of animals and people in ancient Rome are a unique phenomenon in the history of mankind. Animals were specially trained in such mating. If the girls or women resisted, then the animal attempted to rape. Various animals were trained for such events: bulls, giraffes, leopards and cheetahs, wild boars, zebras, stallions, donkeys, huge dogs, monkeys and others.

homosexual relationship

Sex in all its manifestations between same-sex partners existed in ancient Rome, but without division into sexual orientations. To achieve physical pleasure, it was considered normal to have sex, including with a partner of the same sex. It was completely independent of a person's sexual preferences in life.

However, there were certain taboos on same-sex relationships between men in Rome. In particular, a man of a higher social status had to play an active role in sex. Otherwise, he was publicly ridiculed and ostracized from high society. He was deprived of the right to participate in elections or represent his interests in court. At the top of the social hierarchy in ancient Rome were the so-called "masculine" or "Vir" men, who were considered "impenetrable infiltrators". "Vir" in Latin means "man" and from this word came the English "virility", which translates as "masculinity."

There were also lesbian relationships in ancient Rome. For example, at the very beginning of spring, the feast of Venus the Fruitful was celebrated in Rome. Married women and adult girls went to Mount Quirinal. There was a monstrous phallic idol carved from a lemon tree. The women put him on their shoulders and, singing erotic hymns, carried him to the temple of Venus of Ericea. Then, for several hours, they indulged in love games in the temple, after which they returned the idol to its original place.

Sex and art of ancient Rome

Erotic art in ancient Rome reached its highest peak. Images of love orgies have become almost the main theme of art. Moreover, a frank image of copulation in those days was not at all considered pornography. Sexual paintings adorned all public places and even the walls of houses. Plots that evoke erotic pleasure were also depicted on dishes and household items. During the excavations of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, numerous evidences of Roman sexuality were found. For example, the houses of the upper class Romans were decorated with frescoes and works of art depicting people shamelessly participating in sexual orgies. The gardens were decorated with statues of fertility gods with huge phalluses. The taverns and brothels frequented by the lower strata of the population had their own specific manifestations of sexuality. In particular, one could see various talismans and amulets there.

Sex also conquered the theatrical stage. Everywhere in Rome, performances of acrobatic sex were arranged, in which the artists were engaged in the most incredible poses. Such sexual "detente" was usually shown in between performances. Performers of theatrical sex were no less popular than serious artists, and the walls of taverns were painted with pictures of their performances. At an erotic show in Rome, actors with huge phalluses that could be seen from afar were especially appreciated. However, a large penis was not at all a sign of male beauty. The ancient Romans and ancient Greeks rather considered it comical.

Famous Romans

Emperor Tiberius- all his life he enjoyed sex in all its forms. In his old age, he even maintained a personal gym, where all kinds of sexual games were played out before his eyes. When he swam, young boys, whom he called "fish", moved between his legs and licked and caressed him.

Emperor Caligula- In ancient Rome, the laws against incest, like many other laws, were very severe. During the formation of the Roman Republic, people who committed this act were sentenced to death. Perhaps the most famous unpunished person in ancient Rome who committed incest can be considered Caligula (12 - 41 AD). One of his three sisters, Drusilla, was taken away from her husband and kept as his lawful wife.

Valeria Messalina- the most famous nymphomaniac of ancient Rome. Her very name is often used as a synonym for nymphomania, the so-called "Messalina complex" (increased sexual excitability and the need to make appropriate demands on partners). Having an insatiable sexual appetite, she became famous both as a prostitute and as a seductress. At the age of sixteen, she married the Emperor Claudius. It is believed that she began to have an active sexual life at the age of thirteen or fourteen. If she liked any man, Claudius ordered him to submit to her whims (marriage to the emperor gave her great advantages). Dio Cassius claimed that she supplied her dissolute husband with maidservants as sexual partners. She herself often had fun with clients in a local brothel. Once she even arranged a sex competition, challenging the most famous prostitute in Rome. They competed to see who could satisfy the most men in 24 hours. Valeria came out the winner, having managed to "accept" 25 men in a day.

Conclusion

The end of ancient Roman freedom of sex was put by the Christian religion, when it began to penetrate Rome at the beginning of the 4th century. The prohibitions began to grow stronger every day, and sinful pleasures were finished. The heroes of the time were the severe ascetics - the holy fathers, who devoted themselves to the service of the Almighty. No one else remembered the unfortunate goddess of love Venus.

The testimonies of historians who wrote about prostitution gave Chateaubriand an occasion to write an eloquent chapter on the manners of ancient peoples. He showed us the Romans in all their depravity: Impios infamia turpississima, as the Latin writer energetically puts it. He further adds: “There were entire cities devoted entirely to prostitution. The inscriptions made on the doors of the houses of debauchery, and the many obscene images and figurines found in Pompeii, make one think that Pompeii was such a city. In this Sodom there were, of course, philosophers who thought about the nature of the deity and about man. But their writings suffered more from the ashes of Vesuvius than the copper engravings of Portici. The censor Cato praised young men who indulged in the vices sung by poets. During the feast in the halls there were always cleaned beds, on which the unfortunate children awaited the end of the feast and the dishonor that followed it. Transeo puerorum infelicium greges quos post transacta convivia aliae cu biculi contimeliae exspectant."

The 4th-century historian Ammien-Marcellinus, having drawn a true picture of Roman manners, shows to what extent they have reached the level of shamelessness. Speaking of the descendants of the most famous and illustrious families, he writes:

“Reclining on high chariots, they sweat under the weight of clothes, which, however, are so light that they raise the fringe and open a tunic on which figures of all kinds of animals are embroidered. Aliens! Go to them; they will shower you with questions and caresses. They go around the streets, accompanied by slaves and jesters... These idle families are preceded by smoke-soaked cooks, followed by slaves and hangers-on; the procession is brought up to the rear by hideous eunuchs, old and young, with pale and purple faces.

When a slave is sent to inquire about someone's health, he has no right to enter a dwelling without washing himself from head to toe. At night, the only refuge for the mob are taverns or canvases stretched over the places of spectacles: the mob spend their time gambling in dice or wildly amused by making deafening noises with their noses.

The rich go to the bath, covered with silk and accompanied by fifty slaves. As soon as they enter the ablution room, they shout: “Where are my servants?” If by chance there is some old woman here who once sold her body, they run to her and stick with their dirty caresses. Here are the people whose ancestors censured a senator who kissed his wife in the presence of his daughter!

Going to summer residence or hunting, or moving in hot weather from Puteoli to Cayetta to their decorated huts, they arrange their travels in the same way as Caesar and Alexander once furnished them. A fly landing on the fringes of their gilded fan, or a ray of sunlight penetrating through a hole in their umbrella, can drive them to despair. Cincinatus would cease to be considered a poor man if, leaving the dictatorship, he began to cultivate his fields, as vast as the spaces occupied only by the palace of his descendants.

All the people are no better than senators; he doesn't wear sandals on his feet and likes big names; people get drunk, play cards and plunge into debauchery: the circus is their home, their temple and forum. The old men swear by their wrinkles and gray hairs that the republic will perish if such and such a rider does not come first, deftly taking the obstacle. Attracted by the smell of food, these rulers of the world rush into the dining room of their masters, after the women, screaming like hungry peacocks.

The scholastic Socrates (teacher of eloquence), quoted by Chateaubriand, says that the promiscuity of the Roman police is indescribable. This is evidenced by an event that happened in the reign of Theodosius: the emperors erected huge buildings in which there were mills that ground flour and ovens in which they baked bread intended for distribution to the people. And so many taverns opened near these buildings; public women lured passers-by here; as soon as they crossed the threshold, these victims fell through the hatch into the dungeons. They were doomed to the end of their days to remain in these dungeons and turn millstones; the relatives of these unfortunates could never find out where they had disappeared. One of the soldiers of Theodosius, who fell into this trap, rushed at his jailers with a dagger, killed them and escaped from this captivity. Theodosius ordered that the buildings in which these dens were hidden be razed to the ground; he also destroyed the brothels reserved for married women.

“Gluttony and debauchery reign everywhere,” he says, “legitimate wives are forced to be among concubines, masters use their power to force their slaves to satisfy their desires. Infamy reigns in these places where girls can no longer remain pure. Everywhere in the cities there are many brothels of debauchery, frequented equally by both society women and women of easy virtue. They look upon this debauchery as one of the privileges of their origin, and equally boast of their nobility and the obscenity of their behavior. Slave girls are sold in masses as a sacrifice to debauchery. The laws of slavery promote this vile trade, which is carried on almost openly in the markets.

The prostitution of hetairas and courtesans brought demoralization to the family. Noble courtesans attracted fathers of families, and legitimate wives often had to sacrifice honor to compete with their rivals in achieving short-term favor of their husbands. They consider it a special happiness to take away from their rivals at least a particle of that incense and those caresses with which their husbands shower their mistresses; to this end, matrons, like meretrices, appear on the sacred roads. The matrons dream of having the same litter, reclining on the same rich cushions, and being surrounded by the same brilliant staff of servants as the courtesans. They adopt their fashions, imitate their extravagant costumes, and, most importantly, they also want to acquire lovers from whatever stratum of society, whatever profession: patrician or plebeian, poet or peasant, free or slave - it doesn't matter. In short, hetaerae and courtesans create matron prostitution. Valkner says the following about this: “The servants who accompanied the miserable stretcher, on which they reclined in the most obscene poses, retired as soon as effeminate youths, effeminati, approached the stretcher. The fingers of these young men are completely studded with rings, the togas are gracefully draped, their hair is combed and perfumed, and their face is dotted with small black flies, the very ones with which our ladies try to give their faces piquancy. Here, one could sometimes meet men proud of their strength, who tried to emphasize their athletic physique with a suit. Their quick and warlike gait was in complete contrast to the prim air, slow, measured steps, with which these youths, showing off with their carefully curled hair and painted cheeks, cast voluptuous glances around themselves. These two types of walkers most often belonged to either gladiators or slaves. Women of noble birth sometimes chose their lovers precisely from these lower classes of society, when, as their young and beautiful rivals, they refused men of their own circle, yielding exclusively to the nobility from the senators.

Indeed, noble Roman women chose their lovers most often from mulberries, gladiators and comedians. In his 6th satire, Juvenal described the history of this shameful prostitution, which, however, we have already mentioned in our work "Medicine and manners of ancient Rome." Roman women are not spared even by the evil epigrams of ancient poets. Petronius depicts them in the same way: they are looking for an object for their love exclusively among the scum of society, since their passions flare up only at the sight of slaves or servants in selected dresses. Others are crazy about the gladiator, the dusty mule-driver, or the grimacing jester on the stage. “My mistress,” says Petronius, “is one of those women. In the Senate, she completely indifferently passes by the first fourteen rows of benches on which the horsemen sit, and rises to the very top rows of the amphitheater in order to find among the mob an object to satisfy her passion.

When Asiatic manners spread especially strongly among Roman society, Roman women began to be guided by the principle of Aristipus: Vivamus, dum licet esse, bene. The only purpose of their life was pleasure, festivities, circus games, food and debauchery. The commessationes (feasts) so beloved by them lasted from evening until dawn and were real orgies under the auspices of Priapus, Comus, Isis, Venus, Volupius and Lubentia and ending in drunkenness and debauchery to the point of complete exhaustion. The day they devoted to sleep and shameless amusements in public baths.

The most accurate picture of the vices and depravity of the Roman people is given by satirical poets and especially Petronius' Satyricon. Here we find also the rivalry of two men in love with the same giton; here is the public rape committed by this miserable giton on the young Pannihis, who, despite her seven years, was already initiated into the secrets of prostitution; here are the repulsive scenes between the old sorceress and the disillusioned, impotent youth; here is the feast of the old lecher Trimalchio with all the refinement of wealth and vanity, with purely animal gluttony and unbridled luxury. In the interval between one dish and another, the acrobats act out their vile pantomimes, the jesters perform some sharp, spicy dialogue; Indian almei, completely naked under their transparent cloaks, perform their voluptuous dances, jesters lewdly grimace, and feasters freeze in erotic embraces. To complete the picture, Petronius does not forget to describe to us the mistress of the house, Fortunata, the lawful wife of Amphitryon; this matron indulges in debauchery with Scintilla, the wife of Gabinn, the guest of Trimalchio. It starts before dessert, when the wine couples have already banished the last remnant of shame in front of the guests.

“The master gives a sign, and all the slaves call Fortunata three or four times. Finally, she appears. Her dress is cinched by a pale green sash; under the dress, her cherry-colored tunic, her garters with gold holes and shoes with gold embroidery are visible. She lies down on the same bed that Scintilla occupied, and the latter expresses her pleasure on this occasion. She hugs her, enters into the most intimate relationship with her, and after a while gives Scintilla her bracelets ... Then, very intoxicated, both lovers begin to laugh at something and throw themselves on each other's necks. When, thus, they lie closely pressed against each other, Gabinn grabs Fortunata by the legs and turns her upside down on the bed. "Oh! she cries, seeing that her skirts rise above her knees; then, she quickly recovers, again throws herself into Scintilla's arms, hides her face under her red veil, and this flushed face gives Fortunata an even more shameless look.

What else, however, can you think of to adequately end this Bacchic night? Surrender to the last caresses in front of the figure of Priapus made of dough and, rising on the bed, shout: “May the sky protect the emperor - the father of the fatherland! Consurreximus altius, et Augusto, patriae, feliciter! diximus."

But that is not all. The mistresses were about to leave when Gabinn began to praise one of his slaves, a castrato who, despite his squint, has the gaze of Venus ... Scintilla interrupts him and makes a scene of jealousy, accusing him of making his lover out of an insignificant slave. In turn, Trimalchio covers one of the slaves with kisses. Then Fortunata, offended by the violation of her marital rights, showers her husband with curses, shouts at him at the top of his voice and calls him vile, disgusting because he indulges in such shameful debauchery. At the end of all the curses, she calls him a dog. Out of patience, Trimalchio throws a cup at Fortunata's head; she screams...

Here we can, it seems, stop, since this picture is quite enough for our readers to form a clear idea of ​​the manners of the Roman aristocracy. True, the Satyricon of Petronius is only a novel, not a historical document, and its characters are fictitious; but this novel reveals the author's close acquaintance with Roman manners. In the symbolic scenes, so talented and boldly written by him, we are quite right to see a picture of the scandalous nights at the court of Nero. And the brilliant satire hit the target so well that the Roman Sardanapalus immediately signed the death sentence to its author. And how much does the description of Roman society in the Satires of Petronius differ from the descriptions made by Roman historians? Eucolpus and Ascyltus are among the many lechers described by Martial. The subject of Quartilla's description is none other than the courtesan Subura, and Eucolp belongs to the type of those conceited poets with whom Rome was filled. Chrylis, Circe and Filumen - all these are really existing, not fictional types. Finally, Trimalchio gives us a vivid description of the insolence, baseness of feelings and ridiculous vanity of the upstart, the precocious millionaire who wants to surprise the world with the pomp of bad taste and noisy generosity, which only excites the hatred of his friends and guests. In a word, all these heroes are not invented, all these provisions are taken from reality, all these are pictures from nature.

The wild, unbridled, daily and hourly depravity of the aristocracy of Ancient Rome, shown in the movie "Caligula" is just an extremely puritanical fantasy on this topic. The reason, apparently, is that, although the film was financed by Penthouse magazine, it was filmed for a film festival, back in the sane seventies of the last century.

According to the ancient Roman writer Suetonius, Caligula indulged in boundless debauchery from early childhood and had no sexual taboos. It was used as a child by both men and women who had great power. At his own request, he cohabited for a long time with all his sisters without exception. Having played enough, he passed them on to his lovers for further use.

The loving emperor had numerous homosexual relationships, and Mark Lepidus and the jester Mnester passionately, passionately and, apparently, repeatedly loved. The representative of the highest Roman aristocracy, Valerius Catullus, complained that Caligula repeatedly raped him. Interestingly, Catullus was most outraged by the pain in his sides that appeared after that.

He did not disdain women either, preferring married ones. At the feasts of the wives of invited men, he ordered to be shown naked in front of him and looked at him, as if buying a slave. Then he left with the chosen one and returned, not even trying to hide what they were doing. Husbands could only talk about new philosophical theories.

Most of the famous Roman figures differed little from Caligula. Julius Caesar engaged in unbridled debauchery with the wives of his friends and associates. Among his mistresses were the Moorish queen Evnoe and the Egyptian Cleopatra. All this did not prevent him from prostituting with men. King Nicomedes was the first to corrupt him. This information was brought to us by Cicero. Moreover, everyone knew this, and from the Senate tribune Caesar was repeatedly accused of behaving like a prostitute and called him a woman. The stern warrior and ruler of the world only waved it off, declaring: "The Amazons reigned in most of Asia."

Octavius ​​achieved rights to the throne of Rome by cohabiting with his uncle, raped his wives in front of their husbands, and gave himself for 300,000 sesterces to the rich Tirtius. So the innocent passion for burning the hair on one's legs in order to make them “tender and silky” perhaps only adorns the “bright image” of this ruler.

Tiberius started a special institution "for voluptuous affairs" and indulged in this very occupation all day long, preferring young children of both sexes. Dozens of children, called by him "my little fish", had to delight the old impotent and his guests during ablutions in the pools and bathing in the baths.

When Domitian's son was born, he replied to congratulations: "Only a monster can be born from me and Agripa." His son Nero fully justified his father's assumptions. This emperor raped Vestal nuns and then executed them for adultery. He castrated men and officially married them, accompanying each such action with a magnificent ceremony. In general, as they say, "came off to the fullest."

The weak-minded Claudius stood out as a “bright spot” against this picturesque background. Of whom Suetonius reported with praise that although he cohabited exclusively with muleteers of the most vile rabble, he never did so with jesters.

Not far behind men and ancient Roman women. "Innocent girls" and respectable matrons willingly indulged in debauchery among themselves, with brothers, fathers and slaves. When refined pleasures bored them, they "went among the people" and gave themselves to the scum of society right on the streets and squares. The name of the third wife of Claudius, Messalina, became a household name.

She, under the name of Litsiska, owned a brothel and herself served clients, earning money "for old age." “She gave caresses to those who came in and asked for a fee for this; Lying on her back, she was often beaten by men; Only when the pimp let his girls go, she left, ”wrote Juvenal in his Satyrs. Went down in history and her dispute with the prostitute Scylla. The subject was the number of customers they could serve overnight. Scylla, with her miserable result of 25 men, lost to Messalina, with her "commendable" fifty.

The people of Rome did not yield to their rulers. The Roman mob lived right on the streets, among rotting dumps, where it was customary to throw out the bodies of dead slaves. Here they are day and night and "be fruitful and multiply", and also satisfy the sexual needs of their rulers. It is not surprising that when the barbarians came close to Rome, there was no one to defend the city.

Further we see the same cult of prostitution in Sicily. Here, in the temple of the Venus of Ericea, slave girls were gathered, who, as before in Corinth and in Asia, prostituted partly in order to enrich the temples, partly in order to redeem their own freedom. The cult of Venus of Eryceus flourished, but during the reign of Tiberius, this temple was neglected and ruined. Then, by order of the emperor, it was restored, and the slave girls performed the duties of the priestesses of Venus.

Another cult flourished in Etruria, similar to the cult of the Indian Lingam and the Asiatic Phallus. Their goals were identical - they deprived girls of innocence before marriage - and therefore it also refers to sacred prostitution. This Etruscan deity, which we know not only from its images on ancient historical monuments, but also from the writings of Arnob and St. Augustine, was called Mutun and Mutuna, since it was a deity of both male and female gender. The temples of this deity were small buildings located in the groves, in which there was a figure of a seated god.

When the cult of sacred prostitution spread in Rome and southern Italy, Priapus and Mutun were revered as deities that give fertility to a woman and strength to her spouse, averting spells against the well-being of the marriage union and the pregnancy of women. All these good qualities attributed to them served as the basis for the establishment of a special custom of religious prostitution; the custom of this was that a young bride was brought to the idol of Priapus and seated on the figure of the deity.

“Saint Augustine says that it was the custom of the Roman matrons to seat the young newlywed on the monstrously huge penis of Priapus, and this custom was considered quite decent and pious.

Sed quid hoc dicam, cum ibi sit et Priapus nimius masculus, super cujus immanissimum et turpissimum fascinum, sedere nova nupta jubeatur, more honestissimo et religiosissimo matronarum.

Lactans, in turn, says, “Should I mention Mutunus, on whose penis the young newlywed was seated according to custom. - by this she, as it were, sacrificed her innocence to him first. Et Mulunus in cujus sinu pudendo nubentes proesident; utuillarum puditiam prio deus delibasse videatur".

All these customs were apparently brought from India and western Asia, where sacred prostitution first originated.

Childless women resorted to the mercy of this deity, which was supposed to destroy the spell that prevented childbearing; on the same occasion, Arnold says, addressing his compatriots: Do you also, with the greatest readiness, bring your women under the protection of Mutun? And, in order to break the imaginary spell that does not exist, do you not make them wrap their legs around the terrible huge Phallus of this idol? Etiame Mutunus, cujus immanibus pudendis horrentique fascino, vestras inequitare matronas, et auspicabil ducitis et optatis.

While the lower classes professed the cult of Priapus with ardor and deep superstition, the high society looked with disdain on this senseless worship of an Asiatic idol. The first legislators realized the full benefit of this cult, which greatly contributed to the increase in population. But deep down they did not attach any importance to him; so Horace, in a letter to a friend, says that from a fig tree he has just cut down, he will make a bench or Priapus, ad libitum. On the statues that were erected in the temples in honor of Priapus, he was depicted as a hairy man with goat legs and horns, he held a rod in his hands; an obligatory accessory of the figure was a huge penis, over which solemn oaths were sometimes pronounced.

In the era of the initial development of Latin civilization, Roman matrons and young girls paid special honors to him and even forgot Venus for him. They brought him numerous gifts and performed sacrifices in honor of him not only in public temples, but also at their home altars.

They had a noticeable weakness for this strange deity, while maintaining the full extent of their feminine chastity. He was for them the personification of procreation, he was the emblem of fertility, like the Lingam in India and Osiris among the Egyptians. They decorated his image with leaves, crowned him with garlands of flowers and fruits. And the daughter of Augustus, as you know, every morning put on him as many wreaths as she had to bring sacrifices to him at night. On certain certain days, married women lit festive fires in front of the statues and danced at the pedestals to the sound of a flute. After sunset or in the morning before sunrise, they came, chastely wrapped in a veil, asking the god Lampsak to patronize their love and expel shameful barrenness from their womb. And his nakedness did not bother them at all.

The cult of Priapus, so peculiarly understood and put into practice, could still retain, at least externally, its religious significance; the error was that during ceremonies, the chastity of which was of a rather dubious nature, honest women and young girls appeared next to women of depraved behavior. These priapic festivities should therefore be considered as one of the elements of the future corruption of the morality of Roman women.

As the personification of marriage and fertility, Priapus, depicted as a penis, figured as the dominant principle in various circumstances of everyday life. Bread, glasses, all necessary cutlery and toiletries, jewels, lamps and torches - on all these objects we find his image; it was made from precious metals, from horn, ivory, bronze, clay. Like the Phallus and the Lingam, it also served as an amulet for women and children.

In a word, it could be found everywhere (the numerous drawings found in the ruins of Pompeii testify to this) and, thanks to this popularity, it even loses its obscene character to a great extent; as we see it, for example, in Turkey and in some Algerian cities, where he is known under the name Carageuss. The peasants of Pullia still call him "Il membro santo".

The men, on the other hand, preserved the traditions of the inhabitants of Lampsak; they saw in him a deity guarding the genital member, a god curing contagious and secret diseases. The poem "Priapei" tells of one unfortunate man who fell ill with a severe lesion of the genital organ. Fearing to undergo an operation and ashamed to tell the cause of his illness, he appeals to Priapus and is healed without the help of a doctor.

This poem is truly a document for the history of venereal diseases.

The theogony of the ancient peoples was perfectly adapted to all their own passions. So the Romans, like the Greeks, had their own goddess of love, who patronized their pleasures; women asked her to teach them the art of pleasing and captivating, and for that they brought her myrtle and burned incense.

There were in Rome, following the example of Athens, two Venuses: one virtuous Venus, which patronized chaste, pure love, but had few admirers, the other - Venus of courtesans, which was very successful. Her cult, however, was not particularly tempting and did not attract, therefore, priestesses into the ranks of her fanatics, who would agree to prostitute in her interests. Some priests tried to transfer to Rome the sacred traditions of the Corinthian temples, but this attempt was almost always unsuccessful, due to their inherent skepticism.

It is known that in Rome there were a lot of temples dedicated to Venus; we will mention the main ones, Venus-victrix, Venus-genitrix, Venus-erycine, Venus volupia, Venus-salacia, Venus-myrtea, Venus-lubentia, etc. But in none of them was sacred prostitution cultivated. Courtesans did not sell themselves in temples in the name of the interests of the goddess and the priests, although sometimes they gave themselves to these latter in order to obtain the patronage of Venus in love affairs; the matter did not go further than this. Temples of the goddess served mainly as a rendezvous point for lovers and an exchange for commercial love transactions. They were overflowing with all sorts of offerings, mirrors and other toilet articles, lamps and especially priaps brought by a vow. Pigeons, goats and goats were sacrificed on altars. All the chief festivities in honor of the goddess took place in the spring, and consisted of dances, feasts, and orgies, such as those which take place with us during the carnival. All of them took place at night, outside the temples; all these amusement places bore the common name of "Vigils of Venus". Thus, the whole of April was dedicated to the goddess of love, who was honored by young men and courtesans, who introduced an element of more or less unbridledness and obscenity into these festivities, depending on the upbringing and habits of the participants in these spring entertainments. In this area, the saying is truly true: Nihil novi sub sole.

Festivities of religious prostitution

We know what the natives of Rome were like: it was a bunch of thieves, vagabonds and women of the same moral level as they are. Prior to the establishment of the institution of marriage by the first legislator, they had no moral rules and sexual relations, according to Titus Livius, were on the same level as in the animal world. But we meet public women in Rome already in the prehistoric era. Prostitutes from the banks of the Tiber were called she-wolves, Lupa, just as in the suburbs of Athens they called Lukaina the unfortunate dicteriads. Romulus' nurse, Assa Laurentia, was one of these she-wolves; it was one of the then popular prostitutes. Her dwelling was called Lupanar, yet the festivities that were held in honor of her after death were called Lupercales; the senate canceled them in view of the outrages that took place on them.

And despite this, it can still be argued that it was the era of the first kings that the flowering period of ancient Rome began: representatives of the authorities, with their impeccable honesty, set examples of virtue.

Sabatier says that “the censors had broad powers in their hands to correct unforeseen laws of abuse, to reorganize public and domestic life; unbridledness was kept in check by the respect that citizens had for honesty and moral principles.

In this era there were no wars in remote territories, there was neither riches nor Asia, the teachings of Epicurus, which Fabricius found desirable only for the enemies of his homeland - in a word, nothing had yet corrupted the Romans.

Later, luxury, effeminacy, love of money and pleasures penetrated all classes of society and corrupted it. The vices which began to show themselves in the troubled time of the horrors of civil wars, began to flourish especially in the calm atmosphere and comforts of the world. Increased adultery, the dissolute lifestyle of bachelors, unbridled debauchery - all this went hand in hand with victories and spoils of war and spread the vices of the whole world.

Having accepted the courtesan's gold, the city, in gratitude, establishes a festival in her honor.

These were the so-called Florales which took place in circuses led by prostitutes and aediles.

These shameless festivities, which Juvenal calls pana et ci cences in his immortal poems, appeared already in the sixth century from the founding of Rome. Are these the same Games of Flora that were brought from the Sabines in honor of Flora, the goddess of gardens? Be that as it may, these festivities were of a very obscene character; Lactans describes them in the following words:

“The courtesans came out of their houses in a whole procession, preceded by trumpeters, dressed in loose clothes on their naked bodies, adorned with all their jewels; they gathered in the circus, where they were surrounded on all sides by crowded people; here they threw off their clothes and showed themselves completely naked, readily showing off whatever the spectators wanted, and this whole shameless exhibition was accompanied by the most obscene body movements. They ran, danced, wrestled, jumped like athletes or jesters; each time a new voluptuous couple evoked shouts and applause from the lips of a raging people.

“And suddenly a crowd of naked men rushed into the arena at the sound of trumpets; right there, publicly, with new enthusiastic cries of the crowd, a terrifying orgy of debauchery took place. One day Cato, himself a stern Cato, appeared at the circus at the moment when the aediles were preparing to give the signal for the start of the games; the presence of the great citizen put an end to the orgy. The courtesans remained dressed, the trumpets were silent, the people were waiting. Cato was given to understand that he was the only obstacle to the beginning of the games; he got up from his seat and, covering his hollow face, left the circus. The people began to applaud, the courtesans took off their clothes, the trumpets sounded and the spectacle began. The same public prostitution in honor of the goddess, who was essentially only a deified prostitute, we see in the scenes of erotic frenzy played out around the statue of Moloch and during the festivities in honor of Isis, which the Romans did not fail to borrow from the Egyptians.

These festivities, known as Isiac, are described by Apuleius in his Golden Ass. They sometimes took place in the streets and on public roads, where men and women initiated into the sacraments flocked from all parts of the city; they were all dressed in transparent white robes and walked brandishing their metal sisters.

This whole procession went to the temple of the goddess after the priests of Isis, who played the most vile, disgusting role in this cult of prostitution; they carried in their hands a phallus made of gold, "the revered image of a goddess worthy of respect," says Apuleius. As soon as the crowd entered the interior of the temple, the initiation into the mysteries of Isis began, that is, the scenes of monstrous sensual orgies, analogous to the Floralia, of which we have just spoken.

The same priests of Isis, beggars and panders, disgusting with their immorality, played a leading role in other prostitution festivals in honor of Bacchus, known as Bacchanalia or Dionyssiac, since Bacchus was considered one of the incarnations of Osiris. For the celebration of Dionysiac, mostly more secluded places were chosen, since solitude inspired the Bacchantes and the sounds of voices were heard more clearly. Evohe! Evohe! - such was the cry of the admirers of Bacchus; with this cry, according to legend, Jupiter once kindled courage in the soul of his son Bacchus, when he struggled with the obstacles erected by the jealous Juno.

The statue of the god was usually painted with cinnabar. The hierophant, that is, the priest who was obliged to lead the ceremony, portrayed the creator, Demiourgos "a. The torchbearers were called Lampadophores, and their head, Daduche, depicted the sun.

The main ceremony consisted of a procession during which vessels filled with wine and adorned with vines were carried. Then came young women with baskets filled with fruits and flowers; they were the Cenephors. They were followed by women playing flutes and cymbals, then women and men disguised and disguised as satyrs, pans, fauns, silenes, nymphs, bacchantes, all crowned with violets and ivy leaves, with disheveled heads; their clothes were adapted to leave naked everything that needed to be hidden; they all sang phallica, obscene songs in honor of Bacchus.

This noisy crowd was followed by Phallophores and Ityphalles; the first, without any shame, flaunted to the whole crowd attached male genitals, fastened to the hips with belts; the second wore the same, but in a much larger size, mounted on the end of a long pole. Finally, the procession was brought to a close by fourteen priestesses, to whom the archon, or chief organizer of the festivities, entrusted all sorts of preparations.

“Arriving at the appointed place, whether in a quiet forest or in a deep valley surrounded by rocks, all this mass of depraved and fanatical people pulled out of a special box, which the Latins called area ineffabilis, an image of Bacchus; it was placed on Herm and a pig was sacrificed to him. This was followed by a copious meal of fruit and wine. Little by little, under the influence of an abundance of wine libations, intensified cries, immoderate delights, intercourse between the two sexes, sensual excitement appeared, and madness seized the priests of this vile deity. Each of those present acted in public as if he were alone in the whole world, the most shameful acts of debauchery were committed in front of several hundred spectators. Naked women ran back and forth, arousing the men with body movements and shameless proposals. The men in these moments did not care what their wives, sisters and daughters were doing in these meetings; dishonor did not touch them, since it was mutual - in a word, there is not a single type of debauchery that would not be cultivated here with a new refinement.

When the night, which covered all these abominations with its darkness, hastened to leave, giving way to the clear rays of the East, the deity was again hidden in the arca intefabilis. The men, satiated with drunk wine and aroused by sensual pleasures, staggered back to their dwellings, followed by women and children ... they were all relaxed, dishonored!

All these infamies sometimes reached such monstrous proportions that the Senate often banned them, but could not completely eliminate them. Emperor Diocletian has the honor of their complete destruction.

But courtesans played a role not only in the sphere of religious festivities; according to Titus Livius, they also performed on the stage with the Romans. They figured in a performance depicting the abduction of the Sabine women, and engaged in prostitution as soon as the performance ended; some ancient writers do not even make any distinction between theaters and brothels. Tertullian even says that the herald, proclaiming aloud a detailed description of the charms of these heroines of prostitution, indicated their place of residence and the price that paid for their caresses. There were so many of them that, not fitting in the internal halls of the theater, they took places on the stage and on the proscenium in order to be more visible to the audience. Pompey, after the opening of the theater he built, saw that the theater was a haven for debauchery and turned it into a temple dedicated to Venus, hoping by this religious act to deflect the reproaches of the censors. (Sabatier). The courtesans participating in the pantomimes were shown naked on the stage; they carried out all the acts of prostitution before the eyes of the audience, and later, in the era of Heliogabalus, all this took on quite real forms. So says Lampseed. Such were the pleasures of Rome, the conqueror of the world!

In Titus Livy we also find a description of the outrageous atrocities that took place during these nocturnal religious meetings, the so-called bacchanalia. He describes the ceremony of initiation into the mysteries of Bacchus. This custom was introduced by the priestess Paculla Minia, who dedicated her two sons to the deity. Since then, young men in their twentieth year were subject to initiation.

“The initiated young man was led by the priests into the dungeon, where he was completely left to their bestial coarse passions. Terrible howls and sounds of cymbals and drums drowned out the screams that sometimes escaped from the victim of violence.

Too much food and a lot of wine drunk at the table caused other excesses, committed under the auspices of the darkness of the night. There was a complete mixture of ages and sexes.

Each satisfied his passion as he pleased; there was no mention of modesty; the temple of the deity was desecrated by all manifestations of voluptuousness, up to the most unnatural. (Plura vivorum inter sese, quam feminarum esse stupra)." If sometimes the newly initiated youths, ashamed of all this, resisted the depraved priests, and sometimes, in those cases when they carelessly did what was required of them, they were sacrificed: fearing their indiscretion, they were deprived of their lives. They were tightly tied to special machines, which picked them up and then plunged them into deep pits. The priests, in order to explain the disappearance of the young man, said that the angry god himself was the culprit of the kidnapping.

Dances, jumps, cries of men and women - all this was explained by divine inspiration, but in fact it was caused by abundant wine vapors, constituted the main point of the whole ceremony and served as a transition to new forms of debauchery. Sometimes women with disheveled hair, holding flaming torches in their hands, immersed these latter in the waters of the Tiber, where they nevertheless did not go out. This imaginary miracle, says Titus Livius, was due to the fact that the combustible substance of the torch consisted of sulfur and lime. Among the participants in these nightly meetings one could meet people of various classes, down to Romans and Romans of high society, and their number was enormous. It was no longer a society, not a circle of people - the whole people took part in horrific debauchery; they even plotted against the existing state system. This last circumstance forced the consul Postumius to engage in a closer acquaintance with this society, which he announced to the senate. This consideration prompted the senate to cancel these meetings in 624, which dealt a significant blow to the cult of Bacchus.

Having canceled the Bacchanalia for some time, the Romans still retained the cult of the “good goddess”. True, men were no longer allowed during the sacraments, but debauchery was preserved in full measure. In his sixth satire, Juvenal gives a description, the analysis of which is given by us in our other work.

The "liberales" belonged to the category of the same festivities; took place in March, in honor of Pater liber (pseudonym of Bacchus). Phallus also played a prominent part in the festivities of the Liberales. Among the Romans, as we know, this symbol of male power was called Mutun. “It was an obscene image,” says St. Augustine, who was worshiped not in secret, but quite openly; during the Liberales, he was solemnly transported in a chariot to the outskirts of the city.

In Livinium, the honoring of the god Liber "a lasted a whole month, during which, according to Varro, people indulged in pleasures and depravity. Voluptuous songs, indecent speeches corresponded to actions in the best possible way. The magnificent chariot, in which the huge Phallus was placed, slowly moved towards Here she stopped and one of the Roman matrons, mater familias, laid a wreath on this indecent image.

Such were the festivities and ceremonies of sacred prostitution in Italy...

legal prostitution

In Rome, as in Athens, there were two vast classes of prostitutes: prostitutes who practiced their trade in brothels, in lupanaria, and free courtesans, whose number was very large; many married women secretly entered the ranks of these latter, some with the permission of their husbands, others without their permission.

True, there were moments when the Roman youth, under the name arnica, wanted to raise the most prominent of their courtesans to the heights of Athenian and Corinthian hetaerae. Nevertheless, in Rome there were never women equal to the getters of Greece, who combined high intellectual culture with beauty. The Romans were too sensual in their passions, and too proud of their political power, to make courtesans their collaborators; moreover, these latter did not shine with either intelligence or education. Their sensual natures recognized in a woman only a comrade in orgies, in the rude satisfaction of their animal instincts. They were satisfied with kept women and called them delicatae or pretiosae if they knew only rich people, dressed well and were surrounded by a certain luxury.

For the common people, there was a category of public women of the lowest rank, which were called prostibulae and were subdivided into putae, alicariae, casoritoe, capae, diabolae, forariae, blitidae, nostuvigilae, prosedae, perigrinae, quadrantariae, vagae, scrota, scrantiae, depending on whether whether they visited bakeries, pubs, public squares, crossroads, cemeteries, or the surrounding woods. Further, among them there were more or less young Italians and foreigners who waited for clients at home, invited them from windows or on a street corner, charged a more or less high price for themselves, sought acquaintance with free citizens, slaves or freedmen. All these names are valuable insofar as they acquaint us with the spread of public prostitution in all parts of the city, under various conditions; further we see that there were no restrictive conditions in this direction, except for registration and payment of a fee, meretricium ...

However, dancers and flutists were singled out in a separate category; they resembled the famous Greek auletris. The Roman police allowed them to practice their craft, without extending the power of licentia sturpi to them. Almost all of them came from the East, from Greece, Egypt, or Asia, and very soon gained great fame in Rome for their great experience in the secrets of voluptuousness. They sold themselves for a high price and increased the income received from their musical art by income from prostitution. They appeared only with rich people towards the end of feasts, in the midst of orgies. Among the foreign dancers, the greatest success fell to the share of Spanish girls from Cadiz. Martial and Juvenal say that with their art they were able to arouse voluptuous desires in all spectators.

Among them were saltalrices, fidicinae, tubicinoe, that is, dancers who then played the flute and the lyre. It is impossible to imagine to what extent the bodily movements to which they resorted, depicting with mimicry, to the sounds of instruments, the various phases of love were shameless; they resembled the Auletrids of Athens and Corinth, with the only difference that the Roman dancers did not have the charm of the famous courtesans of Greece.

True, for a long time some of them had the honor of being loved by the great Latin poets, such as Horace, Ovid, Catullus, Propertius, Tibull. At the table of Cythera, Cicero and some other prominent citizens were frequent guests, but in general these women never played a prominent role in public affairs.

Courtesans of high rank, bonae meretrices, set the tone, were trendsetters, attracted representatives of the aristocracy, ruined the old and indulged in debauchery with the young, thus paralyzing physical and moral strength, but this is all their significance is exhausted.

The luxury that surrounded them was as dazzling as the splendor of the Athenian hetaerae. In all its bold pomp, it unfolded on the sacred road.

There, in the evenings, one could meet them in flashy outfits covered with jewels; they competed with each other in coquettishness, and, lounging with voluptuous bliss, strolled to and fro in a litter carried by a whole troop of strong Negroes. They played with their fans with marvelous grace, or held a metal mirror in their hands, which convinced them of the grace of their coiffure and reflected the reflection of a golden diadem on their blond hair. Some of them walked on horseback, deftly driving horses or mules covered with luxurious blankets. Others went on foot, but always accompanied by a few slaves who walked in front or behind to carry out their love errands.

Despite their wealth, the law did not oblige them to observe the rate fixed for prostitutes, and therefore did not subject them to licentia stupri: the law, as everywhere and always, was written only for the poor. And nowadays, high-flying horizontal planes are not registered with the police prefecture.

The Roman Bonae meretrices were excellent at conveying their intentions to the men they met on their walks. With a play of eyes, almost imperceptible movements of hands and fingers, eloquent facial expressions of lips - they were able to express as much, if not more, as a long speech.

However, such a love pantomime was not an exclusive feature of prostitutes; of course, they were distinguished by great art, but all lovers spoke this language, no matter what class of society they belonged to.

For prostitution of the common people, special corners were set aside in Rome, which were known to the police and sanctioned by its authorities, and, in addition, brothels. Each of these institutions also had corresponding residents; the registered lived in lupanaria, the free lived in hotels, wine shops, bakeries and barbers. In similar rendezvous houses, married women and young girls arranged their love meetings.

Brothels were located mainly in such remote areas from the center, such as, for example, in the Subura quarter near the Delian bridge near the barracks, in the Esquiline quarter and around the big circus. Some of them were located in the city center near the Temple of Peace: of course, these were the most aristocratic houses that were better kept than others.

Folk lupanaria, which Tertullian called consistories of public debauchery, were a whole series of dark cells filled with completely naked people of both sexes. The prostitution tax was levied in advance. Each such cell had an entrance and exit door to two streets.

The whole furnishing of such a cell was limited to a reed mat or a bad bed, a pulvinar, a dirty, patched bedspread, a cento, then a lamp filled with foul-smelling oil, which soaked the clothes with the smell of its smoke, and in this way one could easily recognize those who had visited these houses of debauchery. .

Roughly made pictures of obscene content hung on the walls. Attached to the door of the lupanarium was a sign in the form of a priapus, which eloquently testified to the purpose of this house; at night it was replaced by a lantern, which was given the same shape. Finally, a label was hung over each cell with the inscription nuda when there was no one in the cell, or occupata when it was occupied; the fee for the caresses of its inhabitant was immediately indicated, which made bargaining superfluous. In aristocratic lupaparia, cells did not go out into the street, but into the courtyard or patio, in the middle of which there was a fountain with a pool.

Pictures of obscene content were replaced here with scenes from mythology painted on the steppes, in which gods and goddesses made sacrifices of love. The atmosphere was very comfortable, and amateurs could always find here a whole staff ready to serve them.

Ancillae ornatrices - the so-called servants, whose duties were to take care of the girls' toilet; they had to dress and undress them, dress them up, blush, whiten, etc. Aquarioli brought refreshing drinks and wine to visitors; bacario brought the water necessary for all kinds of hygienic washings, which were resorted to by a man and a woman before and after coitus "a; villicus - a confidant of Leno or Lena (pimp, pimp); the owner of the house of brothel (leno or lena), who was given the amount, Admissarii were women and men whose duty was to call customers on the streets and bring them to the lupanar, so they were also called differently, adductores or conductores.

The number of lupanarii was very significant, and yet the mass of women engaged in secret prostitution. This type of prostitution developed primarily in military camps, despite the strict military discipline of the ancients, which did not allow women to follow the army. Valery Maxim, noting this fact, adds that this phenomenon assumed such vast proportions that the young Scipio, taking command of the African army during the third Punic War and eager to transform it as soon as possible, ordered the expulsion of two thousand public women (Sabatier ).

Women engaged in secret prostitution, that is, not included in the lists of aediles, were awarded a monetary penalty, and those caught a second time were expelled from the city; they got rid of punishment if there was a guarantor in the person of leno, who legitimized their position by accepting them among their boarders. Nevertheless, in Rome there were a great many wandering prostitutes, erratica scrota, whose home was the street, public roads, steps of monuments, benches in markets, grave monuments, vaults of aqueducts, the foot of the statue of Venus or Priapus.

Diligent, and sometimes financially interested, aediles could not successfully fight secret prostitution; scandalous scenes, large and small crimes occurred constantly. However, all of them responded only to the interests of the fiscal, but were by no means considered an encroachment on public morality.

Almost every night, preceded by lictors, the aediles made their rounds and sometimes condescended to pursue the she-wolves, who in dirty dens tried to earn their livelihood. But they were very willing to make police raids on some prostitution shelters. Sometimes they even managed without prior notice to the lictors and demanded caresses from some courtesans, believing that such a demand was the prerogative of their power. Under such circumstances, Gostilius Mancinus was wounded by a stone thrown by the courtesan Mamilia, to whom he wanted to break in by force under the pretext of inspecting her room.

Prostitution was not limited to debauchery among women in Rome; for the same purpose, innocent girls were recruited, who immediately fell into the path of vice; these victims satisfied the crude lust of the amatores.

“When the unfortunate young creature, says Pierre Dufour, sacrificed himself for the first time to depravity, a real triumph took place in the lupanaria. A lantern was hung at the door, which illuminated the entrance to the brothel brighter than usual. The whole façade of this terrible brothel was adorned with laurel wreaths; laurels for several days offended public decency with their appearance; sometimes, after a crime, the hero of this vile act, dearly paid for by him, left the room, also crowned with laurels.

This unclean thief of virginity imagined himself a brilliant winner and glorified his victory by playing musicians who also belonged to the staff of the brothel. This custom, allowed by the aediles, was a blood offense for philistine mores, since young newlyweds, especially from among the common people, kept the same custom. , and also decorated the doors of their homes with laurel branches on the day after the wedding. Ornontur posts et grandi janua laura. Tertullian, speaking of the newlywed, condemns her "for daring to leave this door, decorated with garlands and lanterns, as if from a new den of public debauchery." The following dialogue in Symphosian is very characteristic of the history of Roman manners.

“Have pity on my innocence,” said the poor slave bought for the lupanar, do not give my body to shame, do not dishonor my name with a shameful label! - "Let the maid equip her," said leno, and let them write the following on the label: "Whoever deprives Tarzia of innocence, pours half a pound of silver, then it will belong to everyone who pays one gold coin."

It must be assumed that virgins were paid very dearly, since Latin writers testify to a very modest reward in general in lupanaria. Thus, Juvenal, speaking of Messalina, demanding a reward for her caresses, writes: "Aera poposcit", that is, she demands several copper coins. Petronius says the same through Ascyltus when he comes to the lupanar accompanied by a "venerable old man": lam pro cella meretrix assem exegerat. Even the girls' overseer got one ace per room.

However, this trade in virginity was sometimes a mere speculation on the part of pimps. Imaginary virgins came across much more often than real ones. Lucilius, in one of his satires, gives the young novice the following practical advice: "Take the girls without any guarantees."

Partners in prostitution in Rome

Along with the official pimps, the doctors were also assistants to high-flying courtesans and matrons, to whom they, in their love affairs, gave advice and help. All these women who provided medical assistance in love affairs were known by various names, medicae, obstetrices, sagae. The most self-serving accomplices of prostitution were mostly the sagae. Everyone knows that the French sage femme originates from there, a name that Stern strongly recommends not to be confused with femme sage (intelligent woman).

In one of the epigrams mentioned in La Medicine et les Moeurs de la Rome antique d "apres les poets latins", Martial speaks of these medicae who treated a hysterical woman, the beautiful Leda, who was married to a frail old man. When a doctor appeared, these women immediately removed, says the poet Protinus accedunt medici medicaeque recedunt.

Obstetrices were, properly speaking, midwives; adstetrices were their assistants. Sagae, along with medicae and obstetrices, were present at childbirth and treated for female diseases. However, all these were generally women of low morals, they were mainly engaged in smuggling, arranging abortions and pandering. Enchantresses, sorceresses, sorceresses, perfumers, hairdressers, etc. came out of their midst. All these occupations were stamped with superstition, the calculation was on the coquettishness of women, their depravity and gullibility. They somehow combined a procuress, a midwife and a saleswoman of outfits. With their assistance, illegitimate children disappeared without a trace; with the help of sacrifices, they prepared a successful pregnancy and a successful birth.

During the work, they called on Diana three times or more as needed.

They had the duty to bathe the newborn baby and follow the woman in labor for 5 days. They were called upon when the newborn fell ill, and the whole treatment in this case consisted in the fact that the body of the child was covered with amulets and Juno, Lucina, Diana, and even Castor and Pollux were called to help.

In Pliny we find a description of the treatment of certain diseases with fresh or dried menstrual blood. In the treatment of intermittent fever and rabies, virus lunare was used by rubbing or simply applying to the skin, and for this purpose a sachet or silver medallion served. This blood, according to the Roman midwives, had another property: during the period of menstruation, a woman destroyed all caterpillars and insects in the fields if she walked around them one or more times. On the other hand, under the influence of this blood, plants became barren, fruits fell from trees, bees were expelled, the razor blade was dulled, etc. The private life of these women passed according to their ignorance, they had a weakness for wine, as we see, for example, in Andrienne , the charming comedy of Terence, where the saga Lesbia, designed to help the young Glycerius, is portrayed as a drinking companion of old slave women. This same Lesbia, but reported by the same author, ordered her patient to take a bath immediately after giving birth and ordered her to eat four egg yolks.

In Rome, as in Athens, midwives not only monopolized miscarriage and infanticide - crimes almost permitted by law and public morality - but also the concealment and abandonment of newborns.

They carried the newborn, whom the mother wanted to get rid of, to the banks of the Velabra, to the foot of the Aventine Hill.

Others came to the same terrible place, who needed these children, doomed to death, to receive some kind of inheritance.

Juvenal, in his excellent satire on women, rightly remarks: “I am talking about the murder of children and the deceit of those women who, mocking the vows and joy of their husbands, bring them heirs from the banks of the vile Velabr, whose fathers they consider themselves to be.”

These malevolent creatures did not stop at any crime to satisfy their greed; they sold liquids to excite sexual feelings and to suppress it, and the composition of the liquids, according to Horace, sometimes included the blood of the baby they had killed. Canidium medicines, Salpe recipes, Hippomin, Eryngion Sappho - these are the means by which their therapy and pharmacology were exhausted.

It would be useless to look for new material from other authors and deal with this subject in more detail; the function of physicians in Rome is now clear to us.

They were mainly engaged in the production of miscarriages and were accomplices in prostitution.

In the spirit of Roman law, the expulsion of the fetus was punished very severely, but this law was not actually applied and the authorities did not prevent doctors from practicing their profitable craft. The text of the law read literally as follows:

“Whoever takes a fruitful drug, even without criminal intent, is exiled to the mines if he is poor. The rich are exiled to the island and part of their property is confiscated. If the result of the drunk medicine is the death of the mother or child, then the guilty person is punished with the death penalty.

Qui abortitionis poculum dant, et si dolo non faciant, humiliores ad metallum, honestiores iu insurlam, amissa parte honorum, relegantur. Quod si poculo mulier aut homo perierit, summo supplicio afficiuntur.

Nevertheless, the etching of the fruit became common in Roman customs and was carried out openly.

Juvenal, in a satire directed against hypocrites, displays Domitian, who writes laws against adultery, while his niece Julia is famous for her abortions. Quum tot abortivis foecundam Iulia vulvani. She drew from her fertile womb still trembling remnants, which, by their resemblance to her uncle, testified against him. Solveret, et patruo similes effunderet offas.

So, we see that Julia resorted to abortion in order to destroy the evidence of her connection with her uncle Domitian. And most often women resorted to miscarriages precisely for similar reasons.

Corinna, beloved of Ovid, did the same in order to destroy the evidence of her connection with the poet. “Corine, like many friends with a woman, saw that the tranquility of her life would be disturbed by the birth of a witness to her misconduct and, like many others, she tried to destroy this child who threatened her peace and beauty.” (Ovid, Amores). Dum ladefacat onus gravidi temeraria ventris, in dubio vita lassa Corinna jacet.

Ovid, who was not an accomplice in this crime, was outraged by the act of his mistress, but then asked the gods to grant her forgiveness; at the same time, he sent curses to the woman who first set an example of such an atrocity. “For this fight against nature, she deserves to die,” he says: she wanted to avoid the appearance of a few wrinkles on her stomach.

Ut careat rugarum crimine venter: "And she risked going to her grave."

“Why would a woman introduce a deadly weapon into her womb, why give poison to a child who has not yet lived?”

Vestra quid effoditis subiectis viscera telis et nondum natis dira venena datis. He ends his eloquent elegy with the following words:

“She dies, having killed her child, and when she is laid on her death bed with her hair flying, everyone around her says:“ This is fair, this is reasonable, she fully deserved it!

Saere, suos utero quae negat, ipsa perit. Ipsa perit, ferturque toro resoluta capillos: et clamant, merito! qui nodumque vident.

In Ovid's Heroides, we find a letter from Canazei to her brother Macareus, from whom she became pregnant: “The first premonition of my pregnancy appeared in my nurse; she said to me: daughter of Eol, you love! I blushed and lowered my eyes in shame.

This mute language, this confession, was expressive enough.

“A heavy burden was already rounding my incestuous womb, and all the members of my diseased body were exhausted under the weight of a secret burden.

Jamque tumescebant vitiati pondera ventris, aegraque furtivum membra gravabat onus.

How many herbs and medicines my nurse brought me, forced me to take them with a bold hand.

Quas mihi non herbas, quae medicamina nutrix aitulit, audei supposuitque manu.

To rid my womb - we hid this from you - from ever-growing heaviness! But the child is tenacious, he resisted all the tricks of art and was already beyond the power of his secret enemy.

So we see that most often the expulsion of the fetus was caused by fetal means, these means were not always effective, and the child remained unharmed in the mother's womb. Then one had to resort to piercing the egg with a deadly iron rod, as they did with that young girl who "died ruining her child."

However, Roman women resorted to miscarriages not only to destroy the fruit of an illegal relationship. Sometimes, and according to Ovid - even for the most part, this was done in order to avoid disfigurement of the figure, scars on the stomach, which deprived the lover of some illusion ... those very scars that an honest woman should honor as noble scars of motherhood.

So, the desire to escape from all the troubles of pregnancy, from birth pains, maternal cares, to preserve all its charm in order to please lovers - such was the morality of the Roman matron in an era of decline. Aulu-Gelle, full of just indignation, addresses her with the following words:

“Do you really think that nature gave women breasts as beautiful eminences that adorn a woman, and not so that she could feed her children? So, obviously, most of our charmers, prodigiosae mulieres, believe; they try to dry up and deplete those sacred springs from which the human race draws its life, and run the risk of spoiling the milk or losing it altogether, as if it spoils these attributes of beauty. The same madness drives them to remove the fetus by various harmful drugs, and all this is done so that the smooth surface of their abdomen is not covered with folds and does not sink under the weight of the burden and labor pains.

We have already mentioned that the sagae, in addition to pandering and etching the fetus, were also engaged in the supply of cosmetics, perfumes and medicines that cause sexual arousal. To prepare them, they used all sorts of aromatic substances from Asia and Africa, which had a stimulating effect on the genitals. It is in this excessive use of drugs that one must see the cause of the exorbitant lust and sexual excesses that were inherent in the Romans. It is evident that all classes of prostitution in one way or another constituted the clientele of the sagae, who, whether they were perfumers or sorceresses, midwives or pimps, were still in general old courtesans who had grown old in the field of prostitution.

In Rome, the use of perfume was very common: everyone was strangled - men, women, children, public women and pederasts; therefore the trade of the sagae, as well as of barbers, zealous accomplices of pederasty, was very profitable. At sunrise and sunset, before the start of the feast, after bathing, the Romans rubbed the whole body with fragrant oils; clothes and hair were impregnated with fragrant essences, aromatic powder was burned in the rooms, it was also used in food, in drinks, in water intended for washing and for furniture, they sprinkled blankets on the beds. Due to the strong smell of incense, the entire nervous system was in a state of continuous excitement and irritation. Needless to say, the main consumers were revelers and courtesans, who used them in large quantities. “All these perfumes, says Dufour, came to the aid of voluptuousness, especially before the beginning of the palaestra of Venus, paloestra Venerea, as the ancients said. The whole body of both lovers was rubbed with alcoholic incense, and beforehand it was washed with fragrant water; incense was smoked in the room, as before a sacrifice; the bed was decorated with garlands of flowers and strewn with rose petals, all the furniture was showered with a rain of people and kinamon. The aromatic waters often changed during the long hours of love, in an atmosphere more fragrant than on Olympus itself.

All kinds of devices for debauchery, all objects that provided prostitution with the means to artificially arouse sensuality - all this served as the subject of a secret trade in sagae. We will not describe all these instruments of debauchery and corruption, which were used by the cult of unnatural love.

All these monstrous refinements of the degenerate offspring of the first Romans are stigmatized by the words of the Apostle Paul: “God himself, he says, gave them up as a sacrifice to shameful passions, because women replaced the natural way of intercourse with a man by another that is contrary to nature; likewise, men, having abandoned the natural way of intercourse with a woman, were inflamed with vicious passion for each other; now they receive recompense for their transgressions.”

This retribution, as we will see later, was expressed in various diseases of the genital organs: the outflow of fluid, ulcers and condylomas of the anus. And how could it be otherwise in the presence of vile methods of onanism and sodomy, when women needed artificial phalluses, since natural sexual relations no longer satisfied their jaded sensuality? Men resorted to irritating suppositories, to unnatural means to arouse sexual feelings; especially they were misused by lechers, relaxed by all sorts of sophisticated methods of prostitution. They called all these devices by the common name "Fascina. " We find this expression in Petronius in the description of the sacraments "which restore the nerves to their power. These sacraments are as follows:" Simulque profert Aenothea scorteum fascinum, quod ut oleo et minuto pipere atque urticae trito circumdedit semine, paulatim coepit inserere ano meo... Viridis urticae fascem comprehendit, omniaque infra urabilicum coepit lenta manu coedere ". In translation, this means:" At these words, Enofei brings a leather phallus, sprinkles his pepper and crushed nettle seed, dissolved in oil, and introduces it to me gradually into the anus. Then, taking a bunch of fresh nettles in his hand, he whips them on the lower abdomen. Enofea, as the reader understands, was an old sorceress, a priestess who, like all sagae in Rome, was engaged in the therapy of sexual impotence.

Among the accomplices of prostitution, one should also mention servants in public baths, since, of course, lupanariums and other places of legal prostitution did not exhaust all the debauchery of Rome. Among them were the terms, of which Petronius rightly remarks:

Balnea, vina, Venus, corrumpunt corpora sana; et vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus. Baths, wine, love, destroy bodily health and at the same time all the beauty of life in baths, wine and love.

Around mid-afternoon, the ringing of a bell announced the opening of these institutions. Some of them were intended for the aristocracy, others - for the mob. The entrance fee to these latter was very low, in some of them the entrance was even free of charge, since they were arranged and maintained at the expense of rich people, as a means for electoral agitation. In general terms, the baths were arranged in such a way that twilight reigned in the halls, and each floor had its own section. But later the lighting was increased, and the baths were made common. This confusion led, of course, to the greatest corruption of morals. The baths had pools that could hold up to 1,000 people. Men, women and children splashed naked in the water. These vast water lupanaria represented a vast field of action for the development of prostitution. And she flourished with the most frank cynicism before the eyes of the aediles. They not only made appointments with each other, not only played scenes of debauchery quite publicly, but here they committed the most monstrous vile things.

Roman Lesbians offered their vicious caresses and taught their art to slaves and children. These latter were known under the name fellatores, the women were called fellatrices. And all these disgusting passions played out in broad daylight. Read Juvenal, the satirical verses of Martial, the comedies of Plautus and Terentius. The matrons were given to professional masseurs: Unctor sciebat dominam suam hujus modi titillatione et contretatione gaudere. Juvenal speaks of the same thing in one of his famous poems. Thus, the baths were a place of public prostitution, debauchery and all kinds of excesses, since they often ate, drank, played, indulged in shameful voluptuousness, despite the decrees of some emperors, for example, Marcus Aurelius, Alexander Severus, despite the protests of honest citizens, foresaw the misfortunes that threatened the country.

Further, prostitution found shelter in taverns, hotels and taverns. In the tavern or popina, in a dark vaulted room on the ground floor, among the barrels and amorphs, one could see men and girls sitting at the tables. Here they drank, ate, played and indulged in all kinds of debauchery. In hotels, cauponae, there were rooms that were rented out to visitors. As for the diversoria, they were nothing more than furnished inns where they spent their nights.

The aediles were required to oversee these establishments and brothels where mostly criminals and unregistered prostitutes who wanted to get rid of the tax on prostitution were hiding. The hotel owners were responsible for all the crimes they committed; the aedile imposed numerous fines, which were paid on the spot; otherwise, the culprit coram populo was punished with a certain number of blows of the rod.

The basement floors of the bakeries, where the mills for grinding grain were located, also served as a haven for wandering prostitutes and their companions. The aediles gathered a good harvest here and did not interfere with the vile bargaining that went on here day and night.

Finally, speaking of places where prostitution flourished, we should mention the dark corners that were under the stairs of the circus, between the columns and cavae, where gladiators and animals were imprisoned. During the days of public games, all the courtesans of the lowest rank indulged in debauchery in the damp dungeons of the arena. While inside the building, they made signs to the spectators and left with them through the vomitaria.

This went on throughout the performance; they scurried back and forth, accompanied by heralds who were their pimps, up the stairs of the cunei, into the proecinctiones, the circular corridors located between the podium, where the emperor, vestals, senators, and horsemen sat, and the stone stairs, the popularia, reserved for the people. The aediles allowed these shameful orgies, which, in essence, offended public morality very little; from the owners of hotels, keepers of furnished rooms, bakers, heralds and pimps, they demanded only the exact payment of the tax, meretricium.

Regulation of prostitution in Rome

The institution of marriage, introduced in the interests of the state, by the strict laws of Romulus and his successors, created that severity of women's mores, which later constituted the main feature of Rome. The laws of Romulus (four in number) were necessary to curb the stormy passions of the semi-savage people of that time, necessary in order to lay a solid foundation for the nascent state. However, the marriage decrees inscribed on copper tablets in the Capitol applied only to Roman citizens, while freedmen and plebeians continued to freely indulge in concubinage and prostitution. This freedom was a major political mistake, and it was bound to create that hotbed of depravity which later, during the Empire, after the great wars with the Asiatic peoples, spread to all classes of society and gradually led to the decline of Rome.

Marriage in ancient Rome, depending on the terms of the marriage contract, gave those entering into it more or less significant civil rights and advantages. The marriage ceremony in the form of sacrificing panis farreus, that is, the very bread that the spouses ate during the wedding ceremony, was considered the most decent; this form of marriage presented the woman with more rights and signs of respect than others. Another form, usucapio, enjoyed less honor and was even called a semi-marriage; this latter was the result of a simple cohabitation for one year, provided that during that time there was no break of more than three days in a row. The licentiousness of morals contributed to the fact that usucapio became the most common form. They did not see anything shameful in concubinage: it was, as it were, the third form of marriage, and even the law calls it a permissible custom.

However, the legitimacy of this third marriage union was based solely on the goodwill of the persons entering into it. The strength of such a marriage was determined only by the personal desire of its members, ex sola animi destinatione, in the words of the legislator. He received the name of cohabitation, not enjoying the protection of the law, injustae nuptiae. A concubine was not considered a wife; she only replaced the latter, differing from her in clothing. Her children were not members of her husband's family; communication with fellow citizens was allowed by law; they had no inheritance rights.

They began to look at concubines especially contemptuously from the time when the law allowed to take concubines only from among slaves, women of low birth, or, finally, noble women, but who had descended to prostitution or another craft, just as low and contemptible. Concubines were almost indistinguishable from prostitutes. General depravity did not outrage morals, but, on the contrary, became an integral part of them.

It is known from the writings of Roman historians what an aversion to adultery the Romans of the republican period had, and what terrible punishments were subjected to women guilty of this crime. They were publicly put in a shameful vice, harnessed like animals to the executioner's chariot, and, finally, betrayed to public reproach.

While the Roman matron, mater familias, enjoyed universal respect and litter, while the Vestal Virgins constantly maintained the sacred fire of chastity on the altars, many women and girls of the people indulged in the worst kind of slavery: prostitution.

Here are his words:

A woman publicly engages in prostitution not only when she sells her body in places of debauchery, but also when she does not protect her honor in drinking houses and other places that she visits.

By public debauchery is meant the behavior of a woman who gives herself indiscriminately to any man. This concept, however, does not embrace married women who are guilty of adultery, nor deceived virgins.

The concept of public debauchery does not apply to women who give themselves for money to one or two persons.

Octavian rightly classifies among women engaged in public debauchery those who do it not for money.

Public women were not included in the qualifications (lists of the population); they were registered in special lists compiled by the aediles; the latter gave them permission to engage in debauchery, called licentia sturpi - that is, something similar to modern cartes de perfectures (tickets).

For a long time these permits were issued only to women of plebeian origin; but in the era of the empire, when depravity reached its highest limit, and the patricians achieved their entry into the lists.

The concept of a prostitute was associated with shame, which in turn entailed civil death in a legal sense. The same thing awaited (and, moreover, quite deservedly) the persons engaged in pandering, lenocinium. An indelible stamp of shame fell on all agents of prostitution: public women and their keepers, pimps and pimps (leno and lena), taverns, hoteliers, bakers, perfumers and other merchants, united by the common name meretrices (fornicators) - that is, on all those who speculated in the shameful trade in the human body. The exclusively intermediary nature of these activities, as the law stated, did not save them from shame. All these meretrices, although disenfranchised, were nevertheless obliged to pay a certain tax in favor of the city, which was contrary to the spirit of the law. This tax is called vectigal or meretricium.

Caligula had the idea to tax public depravity, without giving it away, as was the case in Greece. Alexander Sever, who did not like this kind of taxation, nevertheless retained it under the name of a tax on the maintenance of public buildings. Theodosius and Valentinian completely destroyed it, but their successors restored this tax, not seeing anything shameful in it. Finally, Anastasius abolished it forever.

There was further a law on prostitution, which forbade citizens to marry slaves set free by lenons (intermediaries); the same law forbade public women to marry and senators to marry the daughters of lenons.

Prostitutes were required by police regulations to wear a special dress. Instead of a bashful table - the clothes of a Roman matron that reached to the heels, prostitutes had to have a short tunic and a toga with a slit in front; this clothing approved the nickname togatae for them. At one time they borrowed from Asiatic courtesans their dress of transparent silk, sericae vestes, through which the whole body was visible. In the era of the empire, the matrons also adopted this fashion and, in turn, assumed that shameful appearance that Seneca so resented. “For a lot of money,” he says, “we ordered this matter from the most distant countries, and all this only so that our wives had nothing to hide from their lovers.”

Prostitutes were not allowed to wear white ribbons (vittae tenes) with which young girls and decent women supported their hair. They had to wear a blond wig or dye their hair yellow and wear a hood (pelliolum) when outside. For circus, theater and social gatherings, a special hairstyle was supposed, namely: a miter, a nimbo or a tiara, - if desired - with floral, sometimes gold ornaments or precious stones. The miter was less pointed than that of our prelates and, just like the latter, was decorated with two pendants that hung down on the cheeks ... Finally, they were shod in sandals, while the matrons wore half boots.

By decree of Domitian, they were forbidden to walk the streets on a stretcher. The fact is that this kind of transportation, originally reserved for pregnant matrons, soon became something like a portable alcove for wealthy courtesans; this alcove was carried by eight slaves. Walking in this way, the women let their casual lovers into their alcove, and, drawing the curtains, gave themselves to them; when on public walks the courtesans were alone, in patente sella, they took a horizontal position, spread out on pillows, trying to attract the eyes of men and arouse desires in them. After the death of Domitian, they began to use the litter again, and married women followed suit; the latter circumstance forced Seneca to say: "Then the Roman matrons reclined in their carriages, as if wishing to sell themselves at a public auction."

Prostitution for men

The debauchery of the Caesars

We have successively reviewed all types of female prostitution in Rome: hospitality, religious and legal prostitution; the latter was the occupation of public women, all categories of she-wolves, rich courtesans and matrons. Now we have to get acquainted with the prostitution of men.

It was as widespread as female prostitution, and not only among the plebs, freedmen and slaves, but also in the highest circles: among emperors, senators, horsemen, etc. The vice and depravity of these persons will forever remain the subject of amazement of civilized peoples. . Here are some facts.

Julius Caesar. - He seduced Postumia, the wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, the wife of Aula Gabinius, Tertulla, the wife of Mark Crassus, Marcia, the wife of Gnaeus Pompey, Servilia and her daughter Tertia. But all this did not satisfy him, and in addition to numerous love affairs with Roman matrons, in addition to an affair with the Moorish queen Evnoe and Cleopatra, he prostituted with men; the king of Bithynia, Nicomedes, was the first to seduce him with rumore prostratae regi pudicitiae. Cicero confirms this fact in his letters; Dolabella blamed Caesar for this from the Senate tribune, calling him the royal concubine. Kurian came up with the names "Nycomed's brothel" and "Bithynian prostitute" at his expense. When one day Caesar had the imprudence to say something in favor of Nisa, the daughter of his lover, Cicero interrupted him with a tone of disgust: “I ask you to leave this conversation; everyone knows perfectly well what you received from Nicomedes and what you gave him in return.

Octavius, speaking of Caesar, called him a queen, and Pompey called him a king. When, after the victory over the Gauls, Caesar on a triumphal chariot rose to the Capitol, the soldiers surrounding him sang: “Caesar conquered the Gauls, and Nicomedes conquered Caesar. Today Caesar is celebrating his victory over the Gauls, but Nicomedes is not celebrating his victory over Caesar.” One day he negotiated to the extent that he could walk over the heads of his fellow citizens; to this he was objected that it is difficult for a woman to do this. Caesar could only object that Semiramis reigned in Assyria and that the Amazons reigned in most of Asia. Such was Caesar according to the description of Suetonius; he was "the husband of all women and the wife of all men."

Octavius. - "More than one shameful deed tarnished his name already in his youth," says Suetonius about him. Mark Antony blamed him for the fact that "he achieved his adoption by his uncle at the cost of his own dishonor." Mark Antony's brother Lucius says that Octavius, "giving the flower of his innocence to Caesar, then sold it a second time in Spain to a certain Tyrtius for 300,000 sesterces"; Lucius also says that "Octavius ​​was in the habit of burning the hair of his legs in order to make the new hair softer." Sextus Pompey called him effeminate, and we know what this word meant in Rome.

Once the people enthusiastically applied to him a verse that was spoken on the stage of the theater and referred to a certain priest of Cybella who played the harp; this verse means:

"You see, the concubine reigns over the world."

However, Octavius ​​was not only a sodomist: he, like his uncle, had some kind of frenzied passion for married women and girls, ad vitiandas virgines promtior. Here is what Suetonius says about this: “Friends of Octavius ​​constantly looked for married women and young girls for him, whom he ordered to be exposed naked in front of him and in this form considered them as slaves sold in the markets in Torania.” According to Dufour, these unfortunate victims of imperial voluptuousness, before being chosen and approved, had to fulfill a series of Octavius' whims; the latter looked with curiosity at the most intimate details of their beauty. In this sense, the commentators interpreted the words "conditiones quaesitas", which the historian covered, so to speak, with a transparent veil.

Here is another episode described by Suetonius and Mark Antony and revealing the immorality and despotic nature of Octavius: “During one feast, Octavius ​​invited the wife of one of his associates from the dining room to the next room, despite the fact that her husband was among those invited. The guests had had time to drink many glasses of wine to the glory of Caesar before she returned, accompanied by Octavius; while her ears burned and her hair was in disarray. Only the husband seemed not to notice anything.” In the next chapter, Suetonius continues: “One mysterious feast, which was called the “feast of the twelve deities,” aroused many rumors; the guests at this feast were in the clothes of gods and goddesses, and Octavius ​​himself portrayed Apollo. Anthony, in his letters, where he cruelly attacks the emperor, was not afraid to name everyone who was present at this feast. An anonymous author dedicated the following poem to the same feast:

When, in the midst of outrageous swearing and shouting,
Who defiled the great and sacred image of Apollo,
Caesar and his friends with a blasphemous game
Depicted the joys and sins of the gods;
All gods, patrons of Rome and Italy,
Turned away their eyes from this vile picture of people;
And the great Jupiter descended in anger
From the throne on which Romulus has sat since the time.

Tiberius- Of his depraved lifestyle, Suetonius says: “He created a new institution, which could be called the “Department of Voluptuous Affairs”. At its head he placed the Roman horseman Casonius Priscus. novum officium instituit, a voluptatibus, praeposito equito romano tito caesonio prisco.

“In Capri, where he loved to retire, there were several places designed to satisfy his depraved desires: here young girls and boys portrayed disgusting passions, which he called Spintria; they formed a triple chain with each other and, embracing in this way, copulated before his eyes; this spectacle was intended to warm up the old man's fading passions. Certain rooms in his palace were decorated with drawings of the most lascivious nature; next to them lay the book of Elephantis; thus everything in this room taught and gave examples of pleasures, ne cui in opera edenda exemplar impretatae schemae decsset.

“But in his shamelessness he went even further, so far that it is as difficult to believe this as to write about it. He is said to have taught small children, whom he called his little fishes, to play between his legs when he bathed in the bath, to bite and suck on him; this kind of pleasure was most suited to his age and inclinations.

“There is also a legend that during one sacrifice he was suddenly seduced by the beauty of a young man smoking incense; he looked forward to the end of the ceremony, and as soon as it ended, he raped this young man, as well as his brother, who played the flute; then he ordered their legs to be broken because they complained about the dishonor inflicted on them. He ordered to kill Mallonia, who publicly called him a disgusting old man, odscenitatae oris hirsuto atque olido seni clare exprobata.

He dressed up the Spore in the clothes of the queen and accompanied him on a stretcher; thus they visited the assemblies and markets in Greece, and also the various quarters of Rome; during these walks, from time to time, Nero kissed Spora, identidem exosculans. There is no doubt that he wanted to make his own mother his mistress, but this was prevented by the enemies of Agrippina for fear that this power-hungry and cruel woman would not use this new kind of love for evil. He took as his concubine a courtesan very much like Agrippina; they even assure that every time he rode on a stretcher with his mother, traces of wet dreams, libidinatum incesta ac maculis vestis proditum offirmant, were noticed on his clothes.

He debauched to such an extent that he did not have a single undefiled part of his body. Suam quidem pudicitiam usque adeo prostituit, ut contaminatis pene amnibus membris. He invented a new game, which consisted in the following: dressed in an animal skin, he threw himself from a box at men and women tied to racks and representing the prey of his passions; having satisfied the latter, he himself became the prey of his freedman Doryphoros, whom he had married in his time, as Spore. Conficeretur a Doryphoro liberto; cui etiam, sicut ipsi Sporus, ita ipse denupsit. Courageous with the aforementioned Doryphorus, Nero screamed, wanting to portray the suffering of girls when they are deprived of their innocence. Voces quoque et ejulatis vim patentium virginum imitatus. Persons who knew Nero told me, adds Suetonius, that he was convinced that not a single person in any part of his body can be innocent and that most people can only hide their vices; therefore he forgave everything to those who confessed their sins. There was absolutely nothing that could protect against his lustful persecution; he raped the young Aula Plavtius before sending him to execution. He was one of the most active instigators of debauchery in Rome, in particular, the debauchery of Roman matrons. He despised all cults except the cult of Isis, the Syrian goddess.

History pronounced a just verdict on the emperor Nero Claudius Ahenobarbus!

Galba- One of his vices was pederasty; at the same time, he preferred not tender young men, but men of mature age. libidinis in mares pronior, et cos nonnisi priaduros, exoletosque. (Suetonius).

When Itzel, one of his former lovers, arrived in Spain to inform him of the death of Nero, Galba began to hug him in the most violent manner in front of everyone, kissed him, ordered him to cut his hair and restored him to his former duties.

Otto, Vitellius- after Otto, who publicly performed the mysteries of Isis throughout his short reign, Vitellius became Roman emperor. He spent his childhood and early youth in Capri, serving the whims of Tiberius, which was the first reason for the exaltation of his father: from that time he received the nickname spintria, which remained with him later; this nickname was invented by Tiberius to designate one of the most monstrous types of debauchery.

His reign was the reign of jesters, grooms, and in particular one freedman Asiatic. The latter, from an early age, was connected with Vitellius by bonds of mutual pederasty. Hunc adolescnulem mutua libidine constupratum. Once Asiatik felt disgust for Vitellius and left him. Subsequently, Vitellius again found him in Puzolla and ordered him to be shackled; but then released him and renewed his connection with him. Having become emperor, he once publicly placed a golden ring in front of the Asian at the table - a sign of equestrian dignity.

Commodus- He was as depraved and criminal as Caligula and Nero. The historian Lamprid writes that he was "shameless, angry, cruel, voluptuous, and defiled even his mouth." Turpis, improbus, crudelis, libidinosus, ore quoque pollutus, constupratus fuit. He built a house of debauchery from his palace and attracted there the most beautiful and young women, who became, as it were, slaves of a brothel and served him as a means to satisfy the dirtiest lusts. Popinas et ganeas in palatinis semper aedibus fecit; mulierculas formae scitioris, ut prostibula mancipia lupanarium pudicitiae contraxit. He lived with jesters and public women; he visited the houses of debauchery, and there, dressed in a eunuch costume, carried water and soft drinks from room to room.

Beside him, in the chariot in which he first entered Rome, sat his lover, the repulsive Anter, whom he showered with the most filthy caresses. With this Anter, Commodus used to spend part of the night in the dens of Rome, from which he always came out drunk.

In his palace he kept several hundred women, among whom were matrons and prostitutes; he also had many concubines from the most diverse walks of life; they were all designed to satisfy his dirty passions. Every day men and women were invited as guests to his table and to his imperial orgies. Then he ordered his concubines to indulge in a disgusting form of debauchery - safism; then he arranged for himself a dwelling for the general copulation of representatives of both sexes. Ipsas concubinas suas sub oculis suis stuprari jibebat; nec irruentium in se iuvenum caredat infamia, omni parte corporis atque ore in sexum utrumque pollutus. He defiled everyone who was with him, and he himself was defiled by everyone, omne genus hominum infamavit quod erat secum et ad omnibus est infamatus. He was especially fond of debauchery with one freedman, who received the name Onon "but due to some physical features that made him look like a donkey.

Before he began to debauchery with his despicable favorites, he raped his sisters and relatives and regretted that he could not do the same with his mother.

According to Herodian, Commodus was not able to lead such a depraved life for a long time; he acquired an illness, expressed in large tumors in the groin and numerous red spots on the face and eyes; a case of syphilis due to sexual excesses and unnatural habits.

Heliogabalus- It was the embodiment of vices and unnatural madness. He dressed in women's clothes, hung himself with jewels and believed his glory in the fact that he gave himself decisively to everyone who came to him. He was a worthy son of the courtesan Semiamira and Caracalla. He forced to search throughout the Empire for such men in whom outstanding physical qualities would be combined with the voluptuousness of a courtesan. At circus games, he chose the largest gladiators to make them accomplices of his infamy. There, in the circus, he once drew attention to several grooms, whom he forced to take part in his dirty feasts; for one of these grooms, Hierocles, he had such a passion that he publicly gave him the most disgusting caresses. Hieroclem vero sic amavit ut eidem oscularetur inguina.

In order to be able to choose lovers who were attractive to him, ut ex eo conditiones bene vastatorum hominum colligeret, he set up public baths in his palace, where he bathed with the entire population of Rome. For the same purpose, he daily visited all the brothels, the Tiber embankments and lanes.

He elevated people with huge genitals to the highest ranks. Commendabos sidi pudibilium enormitate membrorum.

One day he met a gigantic, athletic slave. He drew him along, despite the fact that the slave was still covered with road dust, and immediately installed him in his bedroom.

The next day he solemnly celebrated the wedding. Here is what the historian Cassius says about this: “Heliogabal forced his husband to mistreat him, scold him and beat him with such force that marks of the received blows often remained on his face. Heliogabal's love for this slave was not a weak and temporary passion; on the contrary, he had such a strong and constant passion for him that instead of being angry with him for beatings and rudeness, he caressed him even more tenderly. He wanted to proclaim him Caesar, but his mother and grandfather opposed this dissolute and crazy intention.

But this slave was not the only one whom the emperor singled out from the total number of his lovers. He had a rival in the person of the cook Aurelius Zotica, to whom Heliogabal gave a high court rank only because he was praised in absentia for his physical virtues. “When Aurelius first appeared in the palace,” Cassius writes, “Heliogabal rushed to meet him with his face reddened with excitement; Aurelius, welcoming, according to custom, called him emperor and lord; then Heliogabal turned his head towards him, threw him a voluptuous look, and with the tenderness characteristic of women, said: “Do not call me master, because I am a woman!” He took him to the bathhouse with him, and there he became convinced that the stories of his amazing physical virtues were not exaggerated; in the evening he dined in his arms as his "mistress".

Much more could be said about this vicious high priest of the Sun, about his intercourse with the priests of Cybele (goddess of the earth) and with representatives of male and female prostitution. But what has been said is more than enough, and with this we end the history of the debauchery of the Caesars and other tyrants of ancient Rome; let the reader imagine for himself how low a people must have fallen with such rulers.

From the picture of the infamies of the Roman emperors, some conclusions can be drawn, namely: it can be said with confidence that the manners of sovereigns had a strong influence on the manners of the peoples subject to them, the depravity of the aristocracy had a disastrous effect on the lower social strata, and court prostitution by its example undoubtedly infected all strata of society.

The scholar Barthélemy expresses this thought in his "Introduction to a Tour of Greece": "The lower the people at the head of the state fall, the deeper the influence exerted by their fall. The corruption of the lower strata is easily eliminated, and is increased only by ignorance, because corruption is not transmitted from one class of society to another; but when it penetrates into the sphere of the bearers of power, it rushes down from there, and in this case its action is much stronger than the action of laws; we can safely say that the morals of the whole people depend solely on the morals of its rulers.

For this very reason, in all epochs and among all nationalities, autocracy has been the cause of greatness and glory, but it also set an example of moral licentiousness and contributed to the development of prostitution. But it could not be otherwise, when a person brought up in flattery was given the power of a ruler, which allowed him, at his own whim, to distribute favors, wealth and give preference, when prominent courtesans were brought near the throne and the alcove of the rulers, who were an obedient instrument in the hands of an ambitious court nobility. .

But scholars have not always held these dangerous and cruel satyrs responsible for what they did. To some extent, their psychology is indeed morbid, and these people themselves are subject to forensic medicine. Like many other rulers and nobles, such as Marshal Gilles de Retz or the famous Marquis de Sade, they were subject to a cruel form of painful sexual perversion, the main features of which Ball considers: insatiable sexual passion in the form of cruelty, indifference, with which the guilty do not even try hide or deny their vileness, and damage to parts of the nerve centers almost constantly found during autopsies.

A shepherd named Andre Pichel was brought to trial for raping, killing and cutting to pieces several little girls. He himself told the court about his act and added that he often felt the desire to tear off a piece of human flesh and eat it. One wine grower, aged 24, suddenly left his parents on the pretext of looking for a job. After wandering for eight days in the forest, he met a little girl whom he raped and then killed; not satisfied with the terrible mutilation of her sexual organs, he tore her breast and ate her heart. Esquirol, who performed the autopsy on this man, noted an increase in the pia mater to the medulla and signs of something like inflammation of the brain. In other cases of this kind, typical meningitis was also observed.

And indeed, how else, besides impulsive madness and perversion of the sexual instinct, can one explain the cruelty of these people, who in various historical epochs, as it were, combined the sexual perversity of entire peoples? The cruelties of Gilles de Laval de Retz are a striking example of this priapist mania that prevailed in the fifteenth century. This powerful feudal lord, returning after the French campaign to his castle in Brittany, within a few years, sacrificed more than eight hundred children to his unnatural passions! For these crimes, he was brought to the ecclesiastical court of Brittany. He confessed his sins and wrote a letter to Charles VII telling his story.

This letter is a true clinical observation and therefore deserves to be quoted here:

“I don’t know,” he writes, “but it seems to me that only my own imagination made me act in this way, in order to experience pleasure and voluptuousness; and indeed I experienced pleasure, no doubt sent to me by the devil. Eight years ago I had this diabolical idea...

By chance, in the library of the palace, I found a Latin book describing the life and customs of the Roman Caesars; this book belonged to the pen of the historian and scientist Suetonius. It was adorned with many well-executed designs depicting the sins of these pagan emperors. I read in it that Tiberius, Caracalla and other Caesars played with children and that they took pleasure in torturing them. After reading all this, I wished to imitate these Caesars, and that same evening I began to do this, following the drawings that were in the book.

He admits that he exterminated children, "inflamed with a thirst for pleasure"; children were killed by his servants, their throats were cut with knives or daggers and their heads were separated from their bodies, or their heads were smashed with blows of sticks and other objects; more than once he tore off or had their limbs torn out to find their entrails, or tied them to an iron hook to strangle them and make them die a slow death; when they were thus languishing in their death throes, he raped them, and often after their death he enjoyed looking at the beautiful heads of these children. Then he continues:

“The remains of the bodies were burned in my room, with the exception of a few of the most beautiful heads, which I kept as relics. I cannot say exactly how many children were killed in this way, but I think that at least 120 a year. Often I reproach myself and regret that six years ago I left your service, revered sir, because, remaining in the service, I would not have committed so many atrocities; but I must confess that I was compelled to retire to my dominions, in consequence of a strange, frenzied passion and lust which I felt for your Dauphin; a passion that once almost made me kill him, as I subsequently killed small children, instigated by the devil. I conjure you, my formidable lord, not to let your obedient chamberlain and marshal of France die, who wants to save his life by atonement for his sins, contrary to the rule of Karma.

Despite this letter, he was convicted and burned in 1440 in Nantes. It is possible that at this time they would not have dared to execute such a monster, recognizing him as insane. Forensic medicine and psychiatry, over time, more and more often takes under its protection people who are depraved and perverted, considering them to be subject to their competence.

Unfortunately, crowned madmen are not subject to trial.

legal pederasty

The Etruscans, Samnites, and also the inhabitants of Magna Graecia were the first to know the vice of pederasty and passed it on to the Romans. No wonder that after the shameful orgies of the emperors, men and children from the lower classes indulged in prostitution and passively submitted to the gross passions of the depraved. Soon, in the houses of debauchery, the same number of rooms were given to both girls and boys.

The law allowed both the corrupt love of courtesans, and pederasty and other unnatural relationships. By law, the tax was levied on both female and male prostitution. But there was only one restriction, according to which everyone had to spare the freeborn people, these same freeborns had every right to rape slaves, men and boys who did not belong to citizens. This restriction was prescribed by the law of Scantinius, the reason for the publication of which was an attempt to rape the son of a patrician, Metellus.

The law thus gave complete freedom to the citizens to encroach on the unfortunate helots of Roman civilization, and in many aristocratic families the sons received a young slave concubine with whom they satisfied their nascent passions. The Epithalama of Julia and Mallius, written by Catullus, gives a wonderful picture of the shamelessness and moral licentiousness with which the patrician families treated the conquered peoples, the freedmen, and generally all the unfortunate who were below them. In Latin, the expression pueri meritorii appeared, which served as the name of children destined for male prostitution, reaching a certain age, they received the name pathici, ephebi, gemelli. Accustomed from childhood to this sad trade for which they seemed to have been born, they curled their long hair, devegetated their faces, sprayed them with perfume and gave their manners femininity. From among them were recruited jesters, dancers and mimes, who were called cinoedi and for the most part were subjected to castration, carried out either by barbers, tonsores, or eunuch merchants - mangones. This operation was often done in childhood: ab udere raptus puer, says Claudius; Martial expresses the same thing in his verses:

Rapitur castrandus ab ipso
Ubere: suscipiunt matris post viscera poenoe.

But sometimes castration was carried out in adulthood, ut mentulasiones essent, to give the Romans, in the words of St. Jerome, securas libidinationes (safe debauchery).

Juvenal talks about this often in his satire of women. In another of his satires, he notes that the cruel power of the tyrant never manifested itself on ugly children: among the patrician youths whom Nero pursued with lust, there was not a single lame, hunchbacked, or scrofulous.

Nullus ephebum
Deformem soeva castravit, in arce tyrannus,
Nec proetextatum rapuit Nero loripedem, nec
Strumosum atque utero pariter gibboque tumentem.

But the eunuchs of this kind served not only women, they also attracted the husbands of homosexuals, poedicones, about whom there was a proverb:

Inter faeminas viri et inter viros faeminae.

“Finally,” says Dufour, “in order to understand well the habit of the Romans for these horrors, one must remember that they wanted to experience with men all the pleasures that women could deliver, and besides, other, special pleasures, such as this sex, by the law of nature destined for the service of love, could not give them. Every citizen, regardless of the nobility of his character or high social status, kept in his house in front of his parents, wife and children a harem of young slaves. Rome was filled with pederasts, who were sold in the same way as public women, with houses intended for this kind of prostitution, and pimps who were engaged in the fact that, with great profit for themselves, they supplied crowds of slaves and freedmen for vile purposes.

In one of the chapters of the Satyricon, the Latin writer gives us a striking picture of manners, which is an extremely interesting document for the history of prostitution. Askilt, speaking of the venerable old man whom he met at night, wandering around Rome, says:

“Having barely approached me, this man, holding his wallet in his hand, offered me to sell him my dishonor at the price of gold; the old lecher was already drawing me to him with his depraved hand, and in spite of the strength of my resistance ... do you understand me, my friend Eucolpus? During Askilt's story, the old man he spoke about appears, accompanied by a rather beautiful woman. Seeing Askilt, he says to him: - “In this room, pleasure awaits us; there will be a struggle, you will see how pleasant it is; The choice of role is up to you." The young woman also urged him to go with them. We all let ourselves be persuaded, and following our guides, we passed through a series of halls in which the most lascivious scenes of voluptuousness were played out.

People fought and fought with such fury that they seemed to be intoxicated by the satyricon. When we appeared, they intensified their voluptuous movements in order to arouse in us the desire to imitate them.

Suddenly, one of them, having raised his clothes to the waist, rushes at Askilt and throwing him onto the next bed, tries to rape him. I rush to the aid of the unfortunate man, and by joint efforts we manage to repulse this brutal attack.

Askilt runs to the door and hides, and I alone begin to fight these unbridled lechers; but the preponderance of strength and courage is on my side, and, having repelled a new attack, I remain safe and sound.

Such is the picture of the debauchery of Roman morals, drawn by Nero's favorite - Petronius - Arbiter elegantiarum, that is, who was in charge of Nero's entertainment. If the frivolous but still truthful author of the Satyricon, the voluptuous courtier who was the god of a corrupt court, could give us a similar picture of the erotic frenzy of his fellow citizens, then it can be said with certainty that Juvenal (contrary to the assertions of some moralists) did not overstep the bounds of truth in his immortal satires. .

Far from wanting to justify the institution of legalized prostitution, we have the right to ask ourselves, how far would these people of the time of the Empires go to satisfy their cynical passions, if there were no prostitution?

But these passions were satisfied not only by the cinaedes and pathici; the most refined depravity served to satisfy the lust of men and women.

Even more than the Greeks, the Romans inherited the vices of Phenicia and Lesbos - irrumare, fellare ucunnilingere. It is necessary to read the epigrams of Martial and Catullus, the life of Caesar and especially of Tiberius, in order to get a complete historical coverage of this issue, which confirms to us the engravings, paintings and sculptures that have survived from the Latin civilization, as living monuments of the prostitution of the Roman Empire.

To the descriptions given by us in the work "Medicine and manners of ancient Rome, according to Latin poets", we can add nothing more.

We also note, however, that these vices were brought to Greece by the Phoenicians, and they moved to Italy from Syria, as the poet Ozon says in one of his epigrams.

Morality in Roman society

The testimonies of historians who wrote about prostitution gave Chateaubriand an occasion to write an eloquent chapter on the manners of ancient peoples. He showed us the Romans in all their depravity: Impios infamia turpississima, as the Latin writer energetically puts it. He further adds: “There were entire cities devoted entirely to prostitution. The inscriptions made on the doors of the houses of debauchery, and the many obscene images and figurines found in Pompeii, make one think that Pompeii was such a city. In this Sodom there were, of course, philosophers who thought about the nature of the deity and about man. But their writings suffered more from the ashes of Vesuvius than the copper engravings of Portici. The censor Cato praised young men who indulged in the vices sung by poets. During the feast in the halls there were always cleaned beds, on which the unfortunate children awaited the end of the feast and the dishonor that followed it. Transeo puerorum infelicium greges quos post transacta convivia aliae cu biculi contimeliae exspectant."

The 4th-century historian Ammien-Marcellinus, having drawn a true picture of Roman manners, shows to what extent they have reached the level of shamelessness. Speaking of the descendants of the most famous and illustrious families, he writes:

“Reclining on high chariots, they sweat under the weight of clothes, which, however, are so light that they raise the fringe and open a tunic on which figures of all kinds of animals are embroidered. Aliens! Go to them; they will shower you with questions and caresses. They go around the streets, accompanied by slaves and jesters... These idle families are preceded by smoke-soaked cooks, followed by slaves and hangers-on; the procession is brought up to the rear by hideous eunuchs, old and young, with pale and purple faces.

When a slave is sent to inquire about someone's health, he has no right to enter a dwelling without washing himself from head to toe. At night, the only refuge for the mob are taverns or canvases stretched over the places of spectacles: the mob spend their time gambling in dice or wildly amused by making deafening noises with their noses.

The rich go to the bath, covered with silk and accompanied by fifty slaves. As soon as they enter the ablution room, they shout: “Where are my servants?” If by chance there is some old woman here who once sold her body, they run to her and stick with their dirty caresses. Here are the people whose ancestors censured a senator who kissed his wife in the presence of his daughter!

Going to summer residence or hunting, or moving in hot weather from Puteoli to Cayetta to their decorated huts, they arrange their travels in the same way as Caesar and Alexander once furnished them. A fly landing on the fringes of their gilded fan, or a ray of sunlight penetrating through a hole in their umbrella, can drive them to despair. Cincinatus would cease to be considered a poor man if, leaving the dictatorship, he began to cultivate his fields, as vast as the spaces occupied only by the palace of his descendants.

All the people are no better than senators; he doesn't wear sandals on his feet and likes big names; people get drunk, play cards and plunge into debauchery: the circus is their home, their temple and forum. The old men swear by their wrinkles and gray hairs that the republic will perish if such and such a rider does not come first, deftly taking the obstacle. Attracted by the smell of food, these rulers of the world rush into the dining room of their masters, after the women, screaming like hungry peacocks.

The scholastic Socrates (teacher of eloquence), quoted by Chateaubriand, says that the promiscuity of the Roman police is indescribable. This is evidenced by an event that happened in the reign of Theodosius: the emperors erected huge buildings in which there were mills that ground flour and ovens in which they baked bread intended for distribution to the people. And so many taverns opened near these buildings; public women lured passers-by here; as soon as they crossed the threshold, these victims fell through the hatch into the dungeons. They were doomed to the end of their days to remain in these dungeons and turn millstones; the relatives of these unfortunates could never find out where they had disappeared. One of the soldiers of Theodosius, who fell into this trap, rushed at his jailers with a dagger, killed them and escaped from this captivity. Theodosius ordered that the buildings in which these dens were hidden be razed to the ground; he also destroyed the brothels reserved for married women.

“Gluttony and debauchery reign everywhere,” he says, “legitimate wives are forced to be among concubines, masters use their power to force their slaves to satisfy their desires. Infamy reigns in these places where girls can no longer remain pure. Everywhere in the cities there are many brothels of debauchery, frequented equally by both society women and women of easy virtue. They look upon this debauchery as one of the privileges of their origin, and equally boast of their nobility and the obscenity of their behavior. Slave girls are sold in masses as a sacrifice to debauchery. The laws of slavery promote this vile trade, which is carried on almost openly in the markets.

The prostitution of hetairas and courtesans brought demoralization to the family. Noble courtesans attracted fathers of families, and legitimate wives often had to sacrifice honor to compete with their rivals in achieving short-term favor of their husbands. They consider it a special happiness to take away from their rivals at least a particle of that incense and those caresses with which their husbands shower their mistresses; to this end, matrons, like meretrices, appear on the sacred roads. The matrons dream of having the same litter, reclining on the same rich cushions, and being surrounded by the same brilliant staff of servants as the courtesans. They adopt their fashions, imitate their extravagant costumes, and, most importantly, they also want to acquire lovers from whatever stratum of society, whatever profession: patrician or plebeian, poet or peasant, free or slave - it doesn't matter. In short, hetaerae and courtesans create matron prostitution. Valkner says the following about this: “The servants who accompanied the miserable stretcher, on which they reclined in the most obscene poses, retired as soon as effeminate youths, effeminati, approached the stretcher. The fingers of these young men are completely studded with rings, the togas are gracefully draped, their hair is combed and perfumed, and their face is dotted with small black flies, the very ones with which our ladies try to give their faces piquancy. Here, one could sometimes meet men proud of their strength, who tried to emphasize their athletic physique with a suit. Their quick and warlike gait was in complete contrast to the prim air, slow, measured steps, with which these youths, showing off with their carefully curled hair and painted cheeks, cast voluptuous glances around themselves. These two types of walkers most often belonged to either gladiators or slaves. Women of noble birth sometimes chose their lovers precisely from these lower classes of society, when, as their young and beautiful rivals, they refused men of their own circle, yielding exclusively to the nobility from the senators.

Indeed, noble Roman women chose their lovers most often from mulberries, gladiators and comedians. In his 6th satire, Juvenal described the history of this shameful prostitution, which, however, we have already mentioned in our work "Medicine and manners of ancient Rome." Roman women are not spared even by the evil epigrams of ancient poets. Petronius depicts them in the same way: they are looking for an object for their love exclusively among the scum of society, since their passions flare up only at the sight of slaves or servants in selected dresses. Others are crazy about the gladiator, the dusty mule-driver, or the grimacing jester on the stage. “My mistress,” says Petronius, “is one of those women. In the Senate, she completely indifferently passes by the first fourteen rows of benches on which the horsemen sit, and rises to the very top rows of the amphitheater in order to find among the mob an object to satisfy her passion.

When Asiatic manners spread especially strongly among Roman society, Roman women began to be guided by the principle of Aristipus: Vivamus, dum licet esse, bene. The only purpose of their life was pleasure, festivities, circus games, food and debauchery. The commessationes (feasts) so beloved by them lasted from evening until dawn and were real orgies under the auspices of Priapus, Comus, Isis, Venus, Volupius and Lubentia and ending in drunkenness and debauchery to the point of complete exhaustion. The day they devoted to sleep and shameless amusements in public baths.

The most accurate picture of the vices and depravity of the Roman people is given by satirical poets and especially Petronius' Satyricon. Here we find also the rivalry of two men in love with the same giton; here is the public rape committed by this miserable giton on the young Pannihis, who, despite her seven years, was already initiated into the secrets of prostitution; here are the repulsive scenes between the old sorceress and the disillusioned, impotent youth; here is the feast of the old lecher Trimalchio with all the refinement of wealth and vanity, with purely animal gluttony and unbridled luxury. In the interval between one dish and another, the acrobats act out their vile pantomimes, the jesters perform some sharp, spicy dialogue; Indian almei, completely naked under their transparent cloaks, perform their voluptuous dances, jesters lewdly grimace, and feasters freeze in erotic embraces. To complete the picture, Petronius does not forget to describe to us the mistress of the house, Fortunata, the lawful wife of Amphitryon; this matron indulges in debauchery with Scintilla, the wife of Gabinn, the guest of Trimalchio. It starts before dessert, when the wine couples have already banished the last remnant of shame in front of the guests.

“The master gives a sign, and all the slaves call Fortunata three or four times. Finally, she appears. Her dress is cinched by a pale green sash; under the dress, her cherry-colored tunic, her garters with gold holes and shoes with gold embroidery are visible. She lies down on the same bed that Scintilla occupied, and the latter expresses her pleasure on this occasion. She hugs her, enters into the most intimate relationship with her, and after a while gives Scintilla her bracelets ... Then, very intoxicated, both lovers begin to laugh at something and throw themselves on each other's necks. When, thus, they lie closely pressed against each other, Gabinn grabs Fortunata by the legs and turns her upside down on the bed. "Oh! she cries, seeing that her skirts rise above her knees; then, she quickly recovers, again throws herself into Scintilla's arms, hides her face under her red veil, and this flushed face gives Fortunata an even more shameless look.

What else, however, can you think of to adequately end this Bacchic night? Surrender to the last caresses in front of the figure of Priapus made of dough and, rising on the bed, shout: “May the sky protect the emperor - the father of the fatherland! Consurreximus altius, et Augusto, patriae, feliciter! diximus."

But that is not all. The mistresses were about to leave when Gabinn began to praise one of his slaves, a castrato who, despite his squint, has the gaze of Venus ... Scintilla interrupts him and makes a scene of jealousy, accusing him of making his lover out of an insignificant slave. In turn, Trimalchio covers one of the slaves with kisses. Then Fortunata, offended by the violation of her marital rights, showers her husband with curses, shouts at him at the top of his voice and calls him vile, disgusting because he indulges in such shameful debauchery. At the end of all the curses, she calls him a dog. Out of patience, Trimalchio throws a cup at Fortunata's head; she screams...

Here we can, it seems, stop, since this picture is quite enough for our readers to form a clear idea of ​​the manners of the Roman aristocracy. True, the Satyricon of Petronius is only a novel, not a historical document, and its characters are fictitious; but this novel reveals the author's close acquaintance with Roman manners. In the symbolic scenes, so talented and boldly written by him, we are quite right to see a picture of the scandalous nights at the court of Nero. And the brilliant satire hit the target so well that the Roman Sardanapalus immediately signed the death sentence to its author. And how much does the description of Roman society in the Satires of Petronius differ from the descriptions made by Roman historians? Eucolpus and Ascyltus are among the many lechers described by Martial. The subject of Quartilla's description is none other than the courtesan Subura, and Eucolp belongs to the type of those conceited poets with whom Rome was filled. Chrylis, Circe and Filumen - all these are really existing, not fictional types. Finally, Trimalchio gives us a vivid description of the insolence, baseness of feelings and ridiculous vanity of the upstart, the precocious millionaire who wants to surprise the world with the pomp of bad taste and noisy generosity, which only excites the hatred of his friends and guests. In a word, all these heroes are not invented, all these provisions are taken from reality, all these are pictures from nature.

As for the other orgy scenes that took place at the festivities of Trimalchio, we read approximately the same in a more abbreviated presentation, in Juvenal, Suetonius, Tacitus and many other Latin authors who had the courage to expose all the atrocities that took place in the houses of the patricians and at court of the Caesars.

Cicero in one of his speeches outlined all this with the following, almost equivalent words: Libidines, amores, adulteria, convivia, commessationes.

Notes:

The Brock Museum has a lot of anatomical preparations related to this; to name a few of them: two female tibiae with typical syphilitic exostoses (according to Broca, Tzarro, Lancero, etc.) They were obtained during excavations in Solutre, belong to a female skeleton and were found among a worn stone belonging to the Stone Age, as is shown by those found here costal bones and honed pieces of flint. Syphilitic exostoses on a fragment of the frontal bone from the barrow at Melassi; many exostoses on the inner margin of the tibiae and on the lower artic. peronae-tibialis, a children's skull with teeth bearing traces of childhood syphilis in the form of horizontal furrows; the right half of the occipital bone with perforations formed by syphilitic craniotabec; child's occipital bone from Bouillasac with numerous traces of bone syphilis, etc.

Archive of Virchow's Pathology. March 1883, p. 448.

Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions and Arts, vol. 31, p. 136. 17

A precious document relating to the cult of the Lingam was delivered to me by Burti, who worked extensively on the history of India. This is an Indian miniature with a painted picture of the Lingam. It was intended to serve as the title decoration for some mystical novel and depicts a garden with a mass of game, a red beast and a bird. A noble man bent down and pursues a snake stretching its neck. On the terrace, in front of the white chapel, musicians play. The door there is open and under the shooters of the vault is a huge Lingam of ebony, decorated with red lotus flowers, which supports a wreath of white flowers. He lies on what looks like an altar, made of two cubes of white stone, decorated with drawings and gold. He is guarded by a seated black naked figure with what looks like a tiara on his head; at her feet the snake naja coils. Around the chapel, the solid roof of which ends with a gilded trident, there is a balustrade painted with red paint; Several steps lead up to the balustrade.

Reynal, Histoire philosophique de Deux-indis.

An example of how religious prostitution gradually turned into legal (public) prostitution.

History of prostitution. Dufour.

Phallus taken separately was called Mutuna, but together with Hermes or terms it was called Priapus.

civil. Dei, lib.6, cap.9.

De falsa religione lib.1.

Lib.4. page 131.

Cur pictum memori sit in tabella

Membrum quaeritis unde procreamur?

Cum penis mihi forte loesus essei,

Chirurgique manum miser timerem

Dui me legitimis, nimisque magnis

Ut phoebo puta, filioque Phoeoi

Curatam dare mentulam verebar,

Huic dixi: fer opem, priape, parti,

Cupis tu, pater, ipse par videris:

Qua salva sine sectione facta,

Ponetur, tibi picta, quam levaris,

Parque, consimilisque, concolorque.

Promisit forte: mentulam movit

Pro nutu deus et rogata fecit.

Priaperesa n 37.

Flora, cum magnas opes ex arte meretricia guaesivisset, populum scripsit haeredlem, certamque pecuniam reliquit, cujus ex annuo foenere suus natalis dies celebraretur editione ludorum, quos appellant Floralia. Celebrautur cum omni iascivia. Nam praeter verborum licentiam, puibus obscoenitas omnis effunditur, exuuntur etiam vestibus populo flagitante meretrices quae tune mimarum funguntur officio et in conspectu populi, usque ad satietatem impudicorum hominum cum pudeudis motibus detinentur.

Fluid oozing from the genitals of a mare after mating.

Eryngion campestre - a plant from the umbrella family, known in the common people under the name of the left eryngium or thistle, the form of its root, according to Pliny (book 20). resembles the sexual parts of a man and a woman. (Do not confuse this Sappho with Sappho of Mytilene).

I. Epistle to the Romans.

PETRONIUS. Satyricon. Ch. CXXXVIII.

Sabatier, Legislation romaine. Terasson, Histoire de la jurisprudence romaine.

The wives of senators and equestrians succeeded in getting them registered as meretrices in the lists of the aediles; this relieved them of the shame of the family and severe punishments, and at the same time allowed them to lead the dissolute life they liked. Here is what Tacitus, Annals, lib.II, Cap.XXXV, says about this: “This year the senate took decisive measures against the debauchery of women. Prostitution was forbidden to women who had a grandfather, father or husband from the estate of horsemen; This measure was due to the fact that Vestilia, belonging to the praetor family, signed up with the aediles in the lists of public women. (Tam Vestilia praetoria familia genita, licentiam sturpi apud aediles vulgaverat); our ancestors had a custom according to which a woman was considered sufficiently punished by the mere fact that her shame was announced to everyone. (More inter veteres recepto, qui satis poenarum adversum impudicas in ipsa professione flagitii credebant).

De ritu nupliarum, Lib.XXII, tit.2

The prostitute order of Domitian, like the orders of Augustus and Tiberius, were nothing but acts of hypocrisy. These crowned monsters, upon assuming the throne, tried to assume an outwardly virtuous appearance, and seemed to be exclusively occupied with observing the purity of morals. At the same time, they themselves were an example of the dirtiest manifestations of sensuality ... On this occasion, Sabatier says: “What effect can laws have on improving morals when these morals are clearly offended by those who create laws?

Suetonius, sar.4. Twelve Caesars.

Suetonius. Life of the Twelve Caesars. Chapter 1 XVIII next.

Ch. XLIII, XLIV, XLV.

Alois of antiquity. Only quotations from Martial and in the Priapeia have survived from it.

Obscene satires of a lascivious nature, performed in Atella.

Suetonius, Life of Nero, ch. XXVIII.

Anarcharsis, p.272.

Such inclinations can lead to cannibalism and anthropophagy. A German author cites the case of a man whose half breast was eaten by a passionate woman.

Dupuis. Medicine and manners of Ancient Rome according to Latin poets.

A Roman named Papirius was condemned for committing an act of pederasty on the free-born (ingenu) Publicius; Publius was condemned in much the same way for a similar deed committed by him on another ingenu. Morgus, a military tribune, was condemned for not sparing a legion officer. Centurion Cornelius was carried through the ranks for raping a citizen of his circle.

Petronius, Satyricon, ch. VIII.

Syria was a constant hotbed of leprosy and lues venera. (Ozone. Epigram 128).

Chateaubriand. Historical sketches.

Philo, de proemis et poenis.

Senec. epist. 95.

Ammien Marcelin (Perum gestarum libri).

The Slavery Act, by giving individuals the opportunity to satisfy their various desires without leaving their homes, was the cause that brought about prostitution, because the licentiousness of the servants penetrated and infected society. (Sabatier).

Satyricon. Ch. LXVII