Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome 365 vanced so inexorably in Greek and Roman amorous literature.'55 We must withhold judgment on the age of the generic pueri of Juvenal 11 and Martial 11.63. They may be either adolescents or fully grown slaves. Even allowing for the obvious hyperbole of the satiric literature cited above, how could the solicitation of well-endowed, fully grown males take place openly in public or quasi-public spaces-especially given the inevitable suspicion that the solicitor sought to assume a passive role? We might well dismiss the entire phenomenon as a mere convention of satiric literature, and yet the same image seems to have struck a chord in readers of other genres. Of Hostius Quadra, Seneca says disapprovingly, "Indeed in every bathhouse he engaged in recruitment and selected grown men [viri] of obvious size" ("in omnibus quidem balneis agebat ille dilectum et aperta mensura legebat viros"; QNat. 1.16.3). Hostius enjoyed every conceivable act, both active and passive, with these men and with women (1.16.3-9). Dio Cassius reports that a certain Aurelius Zoticus, "greatly surpassing everyone in the size of his private parts" ("io0Xi 8? S1 nacvta;, t, t6v ai8oftv gEyey0et 'incpatiuto; 80.2), became a favorite of the emperor Elagabalus when he came before him in the bath (80.4-5). The theme also appears in the biography of Elagabalus in the Historia Augusta, which reports how the debauched emperor constructed a public bath in the palace and opened up another bath to the public "that by this he would have a broad choice of well-endowed men. And assurance was diligently made that the whole city and the docks were thoroughly scoured for onobeli [men "hung like donkeys"]. This is what they called those who seemed particularly virile."' 56 The fact that this episode appears just after Elagabalus's connection with the Galli is an interesting, perhaps even suspicious, parallel to the scene in Lucian's Asinus and Apuleius's Metamorphoses where the priests enlist Lucius the ass as their sex-slave (Met. 8.26). Of course none of these accounts has any genuine claim to authenticity. Their importance lies in the consis- '5- See Williams (n. 2 above), pp. 120-3 1; Richlin, The Garden of Priapus; and Herbert Moller, "The Accelerated Development of Youth: Beard Growth as a Biological Marker," Comparative Studies in Society and History 29 (1987): 748-62. Boswell (n. 2 above), pp. 74-75, tries to argue ex silentio that this formal terminus broke down in the early Empire. Martial is more savage to adult pathics than Boswell acknowledges, and Juvenal's Virro is quite forcefully condemned by Naevolus. Virro also appears in a negative light in Juv. 5. The term iuvenis, used of Ascyltos in Petronius and the young rustic in Apuleius, generally refers to a man who is between the age of the onset of beard growth and forty-five. Moller argues that young men from antiquity through the Renaissance acquired beards at a considerably later age than modern Western males-generally between age twenty and twenty-two. 116"Ut ex eo condiciones bene vastorum hominum colligeret. idque diligenter curatum est, ut ex tota penitus urbe atque ex nauticis onobeli quaererentur. sic eos apellabant qui viriliores videbantur" (S.H.A. Heliogab. 8.7). 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
366 RABUN TAYLOR tency of the reported behavioral pattern in the context of the bathhouse, a pattern that is well enough formulated to suggest a grounding in reality. As a sort of corrective to this phenomenon of openly pathic behavior, many of the same literary sources harp on a tendency to keep such preferences and activities secret. This clash of overt and covert activity, of selfexpression and social repression, reflects the complexities of real life that some men pursued their passions openly, while others tried to do so in secret. Naevolus's speech in Juvenal 9.93-123 deals with the necessity of keeping quiet-and the inevitability of rumor. We have also seen the theme of silence in Petronius 21. Many of Martial's sexual epigrams are funny precisely because of the notion that effeminates and pathics hide their behavior under the guise of social decorum. Apuleius's effeminate priests-who are castrated, so it is supposed, to preserve chastitysuffer great shame and derision when they are caught in flagrante delicto (8.29-30). Respectable men of the aristocracy apparently went to some lengths to avoid the stigma of disrepute in the baths (Cic. Off 1.129), so a convenient front for them was the patronage system. The men who practiced pathic behavior more openly may have frequented bathhouses that were notorious for such activity.'57 The very presence of this notoriety, and the frequency with which Roman authors express their displeasure at dandification and bathhouse cruising, indicates that a significant number of men, both within Rome and without, engaged in this behavior.'58 A particularly mysterious bathhouse character is the draucus, often described by scholars as an athlete but also as a popular sex partner for men. The word draucus appears for certain only five times in all of extant canonical Latin literature, and only in Martial.'59 It is not likely that so rare a word had more than one meaning. In English translations, the words "athlete," "sodomite," "pansy-boy," "eunuch," and "stud" have all been used. But it seems clear that drauci are a well-defined type call- '57 See Mart. 3.20.15-16: 'Does he bathe in the thermae of Titus or Agrippa, or in the bath of shameless Tigillinus?" ("Titine thermis an lavatur Agrippac / an inpudici balnco Tigillini?"). When a man is inpudicus, it usually mcans that hc cngages in passivc sex acts (Williams, pp. 206-80). Sec also Mart. 7.34.9-10: "I prcfer Ncro's thermac to the baths of a pathic" ("Neronianas / thermas praefero balncis cinaedi"). In both cases, the large public baths are considered 'safer" than the privatc oncs. '5 Glcason (n. 12 abovc) suggests that opcn effcminacy was designed "to translate the ideal of beardless ephebic beauty, via depilation and ingratiating mannerisms, into adult life." But this idcal could not be handlcd in literaturc "unless it first be sterilizcd by the brinc of invectivc" (pp. 405-6). '59A. E. Housman correctly emends with dracti in Mart. 11.8.1 ("Draucus and Martial 1 1.8.1," Classical Review 44 [ 1930]: 114-16). 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
Page 1 and 2: Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient R
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
Page 39 and 40: 356 RABUN TAYLOR both the active an
Page 41 and 42: 358 RABUN TAYLOR lectual patronage
Page 43 and 44: 360 RABUN TAYLOR of these prostitut
Page 45 and 46: 362 RABUN TAYLOR behind when they e
Page 47: 364 RABUN TAYLOR four bathhouses."
Page 51 and 52: 368 RABUN TAYLOR dresses the part o
Page 53 and 54: 370 RABUN TAYLOR men solicited in b

Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?