Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

370 RABUN TAYLOR
men solicited in baths (Ascyltos excepted), there is little question that
their "hosts" are either homosexual or bisexual in inclination. The evidence
from other cultures featuring similar behavior, such as the central
Philippines, where heterosexual teenage "callboys" often sell sex-active
or passive-to homosexually inclined men,'67 suggests that the younger
partners are not exhibiting any sexual preference by this activity, but are
simply employing themselves in a tenuous but traditional fashion before
they move on to the stage of "responsible" married adulthood.
Patronage goes hand in hand with homosexuality in cultures around
the world: in the modern West, where homosexual activity is generally
condemned, young men seek older, more established partners for protection;
for example, the evidence of the 1730 trials in Amsterdam in
reaction to the emerging subculture "suggests that some sodomites who
were good-looking but not very well-to-do sought the protection of
rich, sometimes elderly men." 168 In more tolerant cultures, a boy's sexual
apprenticeship with an older man is often an accepted or even required
mode of entry into adulthood. But in the Roman world, as we have seen,
some sexual proteges do not exclusively or even primarily play the passivc
role. Thus Cicero can claim that Catiline "loved some [of his followers]
in the vilest way, and serviced the love of others in a shocking fashion." 169
Likewise, his favorites learned "to love and be loved" (Cat. 2.23)-a
not-so-oblique allegation of reciprocal sex between the man and his beholden
boyfriends.
CONCLUSION
Reciprocal homosexual behavior among males was a common feature of
the fully developed Roman subculture. But it may have taken until the
time of Petronius or Martial for this simple reality to make its way into
the public consciousness and, thereby, into the common vocabulary. It is
impossible to know for certain when these semantic changes took place,
especially with respect to vulgar terms such as pedico, which come down
'67"It is the heterosexual male willing to enter into a relationship with a bayot [pathic
male] who is likely to capture the bayot's heart, either for a few months or for a fleeting
sexual relationship. Sexual relations between the callboy and the bayot are not characterized
by the rigid activo-pasivo relations which tend to be found between homosexual and heterosexual
in Latin America. While bayot report that callboys prefer the active role, they do
not rigidly insist upon it, and the nature of the sexual contact largely depends upon the
financial arrangement worked out by the partners" (Whitam and Mathy [n. 24 above],
p. 150).
'"Van dcr Meer (n. 64 above), p. 288.
'69"Qui alios ipse amabat turpissime, aliorum amori flagitiosissime serviebat" (Cat.
2.8). See Williams (n. 2 above), pp. 269-70.
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