Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome 361
prostitution into permanent or semipermanent concubinage. Or some
may simply have earned a fixed stipend for their favors, a portion of
which went into their peculia (slaves' private property) and a portion
to their masters. One scholar's characterization of exoleti as "mercenary
catamites," then, would be at least partly justified. Fourth-century-B.C.E.
Athens had a similar class of slaves (v8paito8a ta0o0oopoivta) who
lived apart from their masters and sent a portion of their wages to
them. 144
Not unexpectedly, exoleti could also be of freed status. Plautus's mention
of pueri exoleti "who themselves sell themselves" ("qui ipsi sese venditant";
Curc. 482) implies that these one-time slaves are now going it
alone as freelancers. Cicero even suggests that some freeborn men to
their lasting shame chose the same career. After assuming the toga virilis,
Cicero claims, Mark Antony was a prostitute until Curio extracted him
"from that meretricious business" ("a meretricio quaestu") and established
him "in steadfast matrimony" ("in matrimonio stabili"-that is,
concubinage) with himself. The rules had changed, yet Antony continued
to be paid for his services: "At the urging of lust and by need for
compensation" ("hortante libidine, cogente mercede") he made nighttime
visits to Curio in spite of the vehement disapproval of the latter's
father (Cic. Phil. 2.44-45). The importance of Cicero's claims lies not
in their historicity (the accusations are preposterous), but in the dichotomy
they draw between prostitution and sexual patronage, as if one
choice were forthright in its immorality, the other dark and insidious.
Susan Treggiari has found a similar conceptual compartmentalization of
Roman women's sexual roles.'45
Why is Latin literature so rife with references to "overage" male partners,
if not to reflect grudgingly that many men preferred enduring relations
with other adult men? The patrons of exoleti clearly were not
motivated by pedophilia, the dominant aesthetic of Roman literature,
otherwise they would jettison their loves for younger blood. While one
cannot suggest that the relation between a free man and his exoletus was
equal, the sheer numbers of this type of relationship suggest the widespread
existence of longtime reciprocal relationships between men who
were bound to each other not by social structures, bodily lust, or financial
contract but by enduring affection. Like Manlius Torquatus in Catullus
61, most young free men could readily leave their young men
144
Bailey (n. 88 above), p. 66; Christopher Carey, "A Note on Torture in Athenian Homicide
Cases," Historia 37 (1988): 241-45. See also Xen. Ath. 1.11; Aeschin. In Tim.
1.97; Theophr. Char. 30.15.
145 Susan Treggiari, "Concubinae," Papers of the British School at Rome, n.s. 36 (1981):
59-81.
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