Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome 337 male prostitutes. The criterion for being taxed was one's status as a pathicus, that is, a pathic prostitute.55 Although Caligula imposed a tax on prostitutes, scholars have been reluctant to conclude that males were included in this law. However, a passage in Justin Martyr (Apologia 1 1.27) implies that at least in the late Empire such a tax was being levied.56 The evidence concerning the Galli suggests that an assessment on male prostitutes was in place earlier, perhaps before Caligula's decree. Within a society that condemns the pathic, the cults just described have their attractions as an environment where men can exercise their minority sexual preference-if not with outright approval, at least with less ostracism than in the lonelier and more dangerous context of society at large. That they sacrifice their genitals is remarkable evidence of the lengths to which some homosexually oriented men will go to seek acceptance of and outlet for their sexuality. Homosexually active hijras and their ancient counterparts exemplify the "natural" pathic. Physiologically, they have real sexual desires and derive genuine pleasure from their sexual activities despite their emasculation. But the satisfactions achieved in joining the cult encompass much more than pure sexual need; they establish a personal social identity that legitimates the initiate's lifestyle. In the case of the ancient cults, we can only glimpse this sense of belonging through the sneers of a few Greek and Roman authors. That the authorities considered the cult dangerously seductive to Romans is likely: Dionysius of Halicarnassus reports that "by senatorial decree and consent, there are no native Roman Galli clad in pied mantles piping and parading through the city or going into a Phrygian frenzy for the goddess." 57 At the end of the Republic and the outset of the Principate, foreign cults were subject to mistrust, surveillance, and governmental control-partly, perhaps, for the reasons Dionysius gives: Roman decorum and aversion to "empty" ritual (ti34ov), but also undoubtedly through fear of the allure of the religious subculture. Hanging like a pall over all these cults was the specter of the events of 186 B.C.E., when the consuls of Rome brutally crushed the Italian cult of Bacchus for its alleged promotion of debauchery and unnatural acts. 15Werner A. Krenkel, "Pueri meritorii,' Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Wilhelm-Pieck- Universitat (Rostock) 28 (1979): 179-89, at 187. Also in Dynes and Donaldson, eds. (n. 15 above), pp. 269-79. 56Thomas A. J. McGinn, "The Taxation of Roman Prostitutes," Helios 16 (1989): 79- 110, at 86-87. 57" Pwgaiov 6E xxv acryevCov oL)t gqTpayvpt6ov ns oVTE Kcata-u6j.tvO; nopEOTcwt Sta Tfq n6sxoy, itoioiAiv ive8&uK&; nToXiv oite 6pytauiet tiv O-6v TOI; Opvyiot; 6pytaaso;t iccazr v6pov Kai '1tlcrga I3ouXig" (2.19.5). This content downloaded from 71.172.231.156 on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:27:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
338 RABUN TAYLOR AN URBAN SUBCULTURE A second, and much larger, Roman subculture consisted of a minority of men in Rome who sought pathic or reciprocal homosexual relationships and were thus, like the Galli, labeled cinacdi, "effeminates," or molles viri, "soft men." This subculture, which apparently revolved around certain bathhouses, brothels, and private homes, was similar to the "Molly-house" network that emerged in London in the early eighteenth century. There is evidence that such an institution existed in Rome, and perhaps in other cities of the Roman Empire as well.58 Makeup, depilation, perfume, elaborately coiffed hair, and bright clothing were the sartorial labels of pathic males.59 Juvenal's second satire rails at the dissipated lifestyles of foppish men, from philosophers to emperors. Martial's quip that Maternus's habits are "bright green" (galbinos, 1.96.9) is good evidence that in the minds of many Romans, clothing makes the man. When a young man who is overly fastidious in hair and clothing comes to Epictetus, he is subjected to a storm of indignation against sexual deviance (Arrian Epict. Diss. 3.1-2). Such is the standard Stoic fare in Roman literature from the second century B.C.E. up until late antiquity-a distorting mirror, but the only one we have. Surely such observations are not entirely fabrications from the "outside." Subcultures of male homosexuality (modern-day Barcelona's, e.g.) have a way of claiming transvestism for their own, even though they also encompass a population of overtly masculine homosexual men as well as 58 MacMullen (n. 15 above), p. 498, wrongly claims that homosexual behavior in Grcco- Roman socicty was confined to the rich and their minions; for Grecc, sec Halperin (n. 6 abovc), pp. 88-112. Petronius, Apuleius, and more fragmentary sources display a broad social base in Roman society. There is little doubt that a homosexual clique existed among the upper class; but as historians of the early modern period have argued, upper-class or court networks and cross-class subcultures can exist scparately and simultancously (Trumbach, "London's Sodomites" [n. 22 above], esp. p. 23; M. Rcy, "Police ct sodomic a Paris au XVIIIc si&clc: Du p&che au desordre," Revue d'histoirc moderne et contcmporaine 29 [1982]: 113-24). Martial 9.59 even implies that there werc two classcs of malc prostitutes in Romc: onc for the ordinary citizen and another, much more discrect, for the wealthy and discriminating. 59 Lucilius cnumcratcs effcminate characteristics as follows: "I'm scraped, underplucked, scaled, pumiced, adorned, polished, and painted" ("rador subvellor desquamor pumicor ornor expolior pingor" [in E. H. Warmington, cd., Rcmains of Old Latin, Loeb Classical Library [1938], 3: 90, lines 296-97). Sce Richlin, "Not beforc Homosexuality" (n. 3 abovc), pp. 542-43; Valerie A. Tracy, "Roman Dandics and Transvestites," Classical Views/Echos du monde classique 20 (1976): 60-63; Emicl Eyben, Dc jonge Romcin vo4gens de Ictcraire bronnen dcr periode ca. 200 v. Chr tot ca. 500 n. C/r. (Brusscls, 1977), pp. 180-92; and Krenkel, p. 186. For Cicero's insults, sec Richlin, The Gardcn of Priapus (n. 2 above), p. 98; Lilja (n. 2 above), pp. 88-94; and, esp., Gonfroy, "Homosexualitc et ideologic csclavagiste chez Ciceron" (n. 15 above). This content downloaded from 71.172.231.156 on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:27:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Page 3 and 4: 320 RABUN TAYLOR invoked a savage m
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Page 13 and 14: 330 RABUN TAYLOR arouse] me, if you
Page 15 and 16: 332 RABUN TAYLOR ously he had broug
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Page 23 and 24: 340 RABUN TAYLOR Thus Seneca says t
Page 25 and 26: 342 RABUN TAYLOR corresponding lack
Page 27 and 28: 344 RABUN TAYLOR by freeborn males
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Page 35 and 36: 352 RABUN TAYLOR dia with "shameful
Page 37 and 38: 354 RABUN TAYLOR But another cinacd
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Page 41 and 42: 358 RABUN TAYLOR lectual patronage
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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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