Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

356 RABUN TAYLOR
both the active and the passive role.'24 Of equal interest is the apparent
existence of such an assumption in the Hellenistic east, long before it
took hold in Rome.
The term p(a)edico ("to bugger," but used only in vulgar contexts)
appears to undergo a change closely related to the broadening of cinaedus.
Derived from Greek 1Eait8tx0, nattctKa,'25 the verb-and the agent
nouns derived from it, pedico and pedicator-may have entered the Latin
language with the importation of Greek customs into Rome in the second
century B.C.E. All of its extant incidences from the Republic and the
early Empire, from Pomponius of Bononia through Catullus and the
Priapea, denote the active role in anal sex. The word's frequent appearance
in Pompeian graffiti attests to its popularity in the common vernacular.
126
But it appears to acquire some flexibility in Martial. Though this poet
frequently uses the verb and noun in their traditional sexually penetrative
sense, in 12.85 a certain Fabullus imputes to a pedico the suspicion of
fellatio, which is invariably considered a pathic activity in Roman literature,
by the smell of his breath: "You say the mouth of a pedico smells"
("pediconibus os olere dicis"; Mart. 12.85.1 ).127 Then there are two epigrams
that directly associate the word pedicare with passive behavior:
"You ask why your ass is so wasted? You can pedicate with your ass, Sabellus"
(3.98); "For many days now, Lupus, Charisianus has said he can't
pedicate. When his buddies asked the reason just now, he said he had
loose bowels" (11.88).128 In his commentary on 11.88, N. M. Kay suggests
that Martial is using the term pedicarc ironically: Charisianus
124 Plutarch uses the saying "fore or aft" figuratively to distinguish between open manipulation
and secret subversion of a man's health (Mor. 126a-b) and spirit (Mor. 705e-f); i.c.,
one can be knowingly incited to 'active" debauchery (not necessarily sexual) or unknowingly
seduced by eastern luxuries into "passive" laxity.
125A. Ernout and A. Meillet, Dictionnaire ctymologique de la langue latine (Paris, 1932),
s.v. paedico. See also M. Negri, "Paedicare o pedicare," Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo di
Scienze e Lettere, classe di kttere, scienze morali, e storiche 112 (1978): 220-24.
'26Two of the better examples are: 'ACCENSVM QVI PEDICAT VIUT MENTVLAM" ("He who
cornholes a squire [accensum = "burning one"] sets firc to his dick"; CIL IV 1882);
"[amat qui scrib]ET PEDIC[a]TUR QVI LEG[et Qui] oBscvLT[a]T PRVIUT [pathicus cst qui
pr]AETE[ri]TSCRIBIT PEDICATORSEPTV[mIIVS" ("He who shall write is the bugger; he who
shall read it gets buggered; he who kisses [?] itches; he who passes by is a pathic. Scptimius
the bugger writes this"; CIL IV 4008).
27 For a different reading, see Williams, pp. 314-15.
"2"Sit culus tibi quam macer, requiris? / pedicare potes, Sabelle, culo"; "Multis iam,
Lupe, posse se diebus / pedicare negat Charisianus. / causam cum modo quarercnt sodales, /
ventrem dixit habere se solutum." This latter epigram has a simple medical cxplanation:
taking the passive role in anal sex tends to relax the bowels. Charisianus, who is already
suffering from diarrhea, does not wish to compound his problem by playing the pathic with
his "buddies."
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