Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome 357 claims that he is only taking the active role, but in secret his so-called pedicating is quite the opposite.'29 Perhaps the same sort of sarcasm is at work in 3.98 as well. But it does not conform well with 12.85. .1, which is almost sententious in ascribing to the pedico a pathic vice. Unless the fellow had a pungent whiff of the pathic about him, calling him a pedico simply would not meet the standards of Roman invective. Most likely, Martial is astutely acknowledging a generalizing trend in everyday usage of the verb and its nominalization, which at times he follows and at other times ridicules. "Well, Sabellus," 3.98 might be saying, "I see the rules have changed, and now the poked means the same as the poker. I guess that means you're poking with your backside:' Since the new, broader meaning of the verb blurred the line between active and passive partner, it had to be intransitive and absolute, like Martial's usage of futuo in 11.7.13 ("whenever it pleases you [a woman] to go fuck").130 Neither of the two instances of the verb cited above has a direct object, and it may be that they are meant to have this absolute sense. BATHHOUSE LIAISONS, PROSTITUTION, AND PATRONAGE The literary sources of the Empire consistently indicate that public baths were foci for the establishment of male sexual liaisons.'3' They are not forthright, however, about the nature of these contacts. Are the bathers looking for boys, or for grown men? Do they seek active, passive, or mutual intercourse? Are they simply johns, or is there a more complex relationship between solicitor and solicited? There is no reason to conclude that fee-based prostitution is the standard structure of these relationships. The pattern of behavior, where it can be determined at all, seems rather to be one of patronage. However, as Krenkel notes, the line between sexual patronage and prostitution can be very thin.'32 The difficulty of assessing such situations is well illustrated by Achilles Tatius, who in his novel Leucippe and Cleitophon sets Greek and Roman values at odds in his portrayal of Thersander. An opponent suggests that Thersander's insatiable quest as a teenager for intel- I" Kay (n. 38 above), p. 249. 130"Quotiens placet ire fututum." CIL IV has several instances of the preposition cum with the verb futuo-a sure sign that the verb had acquired an intransitive meaning by the early Empire. The House of Jupiter and Ganymede in Ostia Antica includes a graffito employing the verb with ad + accusative (see Clarke, The Houses of Roman Italy [n. 20 above], p. 324). For evidence of the agent noun fututrix, see Adams (n. 104 above), p. 122. '31And, less frequently, male-female contacts; see, e.g., Ov. Ars Am. 3.639-40; Juv. 6.418-23. '32Krenkel(n. 55 above), p. 181. 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
358 RABUN TAYLOR lectual patronage and his fondness for developing his body in the palaestrae of baths were a thin facade for willful prostitution.'33 "By this," his accuser sneers, "he thought he was training his mind. But it was just a mask for his wickedness" (8.9.3). While allowing for the obvious malice of the rhetoric, we have a glimpse at an institution, part patronage and part prostitution, that was probably quite common in the late imperial Greek east, while perhaps no less so in imperial Rome. There is no question that male prostitution existed in Rome in a number of forms. The most common Latin term for a prostitute is the neuter noun scortum, which may refer either to males or females. The reader frequently has no way of determining the gender of a scortum, but in a number of passages the person thus defined is unequivocally male.'34 With the exception of its ambiguous gender value, the term seems to correspond more or less to the Elizabethan or Jacobean usage of "whore"; that is, it can be pointedly pejorative, but also virtually neutral in some informal contexts. Another common word designating a male prostitute is ex(s)oktus ("outgrown [male]"). This obviously has a more specific meaning than scortum, but usage is often imprecise. Curtius Rufus even uses the two terms interchangeably of the same man (6.7.33). Pseudo-Quintilian is equally random in his use of the two terms: "So is it thus ... that your scorta earn their military pay, and that you bring exoleti under our banners?" ("Itane tandem . . . scorta tua stipendium merentur, et sub signis exoletos trahis?" DeclamationesMaiores 3.12). Boswell's contention that exoleti are male prostitutes who play the active role exclusively for clients of both sexes cannot be supported.'35 The term simply does not admit of such precision. Only two things are constant: they are always slaves, 133 "Hc looked pompous and feigncd moderation, prctending to love learning, ever submitting and in cvery way prostrating himself to [= lying beneath] those who consorted with him for this purposc. Leaving his father's housc, and renting for himself a paltry holein-the-wall [= a tight crack], he made that his homc base, forever quoting Homer, wclcoming and bcfriending everyonc who servcd his desires" ("aievo6-ta U6pacm cam ao*pohvqv1V rnE?Cpiva?o, xatB6iaq npoOotoGp?tvo; epav mai Tt; Ei; -wa' v aU tj Xpgivot; xdv-ra 1flOKcT0v xai 6xoca acktv6LEwvo; a?i. icarakXuv yap dv na-rpcav oixtav, 6Xiyov em)- Tcj ploua pEvo; aTWVWneIOv, ?1XeV ev &Taia o;Kici"a, 6otIpi;Wv pv ta NoW, cdvto; 6? oir, Xp-aitou; np6; a&ep iOe?e npommatpt dro 8x6pevo;"; 8.9.2-3). '34Cic. Cat. 2.24, Dom. 49, Phil. 2.44, and Sest. 39.6; Curtius Rufus History ofAlexander 6.7.33, 6.10.16, 10.1.26-42; Livy 39.42.8-12; Pctron. 9.7, 119.1.25; Plaut. Capt. 72-73; Pscudo-Quintilian Declamationcs Maiores 3.3, 3.12. 13sBoswell (n. 2 above), p. 79. Perhaps he has in mind the rich manfs wine servcr dcscribed by Scneca who, "drcsscd likc a woman, fights advancing age" ("in mulicbrem modum ornatus cum actatc luctatur"), and "plays the man in the bedchamber, but the boy in the dining room" ("in cubiculo vir, in convivio puer cst"; Ep. 47.7). Whilc his sexual task is apparently to take the active role, he can hardly be termcd a prostitutc. 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
Page 5 and 6: 322 RABUN TAYLOR tion, between inte
Page 7 and 8: 324 RABUN TAYLOR A FEW REMARKS ABOU
Page 9 and 10: 326 RABUN TAYLOR context of the ant
Page 11 and 12: 328 RABUN TAYLOR pius as active, Gi
Page 13 and 14: 330 RABUN TAYLOR arouse] me, if you
Page 15 and 16: 332 RABUN TAYLOR ously he had broug
Page 17 and 18: 334 RABUN TAYLOR In his description
Page 19 and 20: 336 RABUN TAYLOR cult may also have
Page 21 and 22: 338 RABUN TAYLOR AN URBAN SUBCULTUR
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
Page 29 and 30: 346 RABUN TAYLOR are effeminati; he
Page 31 and 32: 348 RABUN TAYLOR Empire, "those who
Page 33 and 34: 350 RABUN TAYLOR or, more likely, t
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 43 and 44: 360 RABUN TAYLOR of these prostitut
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Page 47 and 48: 364 RABUN TAYLOR four bathhouses."
Page 49 and 50: 366 RABUN TAYLOR tency of the repor
Page 51 and 52: 368 RABUN TAYLOR dresses the part o
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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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