15. Real Men and Mincing Queans Homosexuality in Ancient Rome

U3A Course SBS 19/2006“A World History of Homosexuality”; Presenter: Bob HaySummary Session 15:15. Real Men and Mincing QueansHomosexuality in Ancient RomeThe Romans were the principle heirs to Ancient Greece and along with other forms ofhomosexuality, widely enjoyed pederasty, although they did not elevate it to a formalstatus within their political, military and religious life. To the Romans, sex was sexand it began “with desire and ended with gratification”. The Ancient Romans believedsex was the gift of Venus and Cupid which was to be enjoyed and celebrated asthoroughly as possible. However, that did not mean they had no rules even though, iftheir art is to be believed, they often observed them in the breach.Rule 1: There is no sanction or shame in an adult man inserting his penis into anyorifice of another person provided he or she is an inferior. Hence, women, boys,foreigners and slaves were to be enjoyed. However, a fellow Roman citizen was outof bounds. This would have constituted stuprum which condemns the sexual violationof status. Probably the basic, if heterosexual, reason for this rule was that it protectedthe elite institutions — bastard children threatened dynastic property, for example.Rule II: A real man (vir) never allows another male to penetrate him, either anally ororally. A man who liked to be penetrated was branded cinaedi or pathici and wasoutlawed to the extent he could not vote or represent himself in a court of law. Toperform fellatio was to pollute the mouth, the organ with which a man spoke publiclyand also greeted others (by kissing). To force a man to fellate another was a terriblepunishment. To accuse another man of either of these was a horrible slander — butnonetheless used frequently by a politicians against their opponents and by satiristssuch as Juvenal.Rule III: Do not ape the characteristics of women — that is, do not paint the face,pluck eyebrows, cross-dress or in other ways behave effeminately. Some evensuggested it was mollis (soft) or tener (delicate) to shave the beard or buttocks!Sex with Prostitutes and SlavesSex with slaves was commonplace and many men kept a male slave called a“concubinus” for that purpose. Male prostitution also was commonplace and taxed.Augustus even granted them a special holiday — on April 25 th .Same-sex UnionsThere is some evidence of “marriages” between men but these were of a limited type.Men in such relationships called each other “frater”.Even if the Romans enjoyed a healthily uninhibited sex life, there was a darker side totheir popular theatre — especially Juvenal’s satires — in which the caricatures ofcinaedi came to be taken as universal truths about the "nature" of homosexual desire.1

Hadrian and Antinoüs, Beloved and GodIt was during Hadrian’s visit to Claudiopolis in the Roman Province of Bythinia thatAntinoüs crossed the peripetic Emperor’s path. At that time, the lad was 12, probablyborn on 27th November in 111AD. It is doubtful if Hadrian actually saw him: mostprobably he was recruited for the Emperor’s service and taken to Rome where he wastrained in the imperial pedagogium.Hadrian returned to Rome, to his villa at Tibur, in September 125 but three years later— in 128 — he once more travelled to Greece, this time with Antinuoüs by his side ashis favourite. In Athens they both took part in the Eleusian Mysteries whichcelebrated death and re-birth. In 129 they left Athens and sailed to Asia Minor whereAntinoüs returned for the first time to his home-town. From there they journeyedthrough Syria, Cappadocia and Armenia and the land we now call Jordan. Then in thesummer of 130 AD, they entered Judea where Hadrian had plans to re-build Jerusalemand call it Aelia Capitolina, but his plans for a new Roman temple dedicated to Jupiterand his ban on circumcision led to a revolt. Hadrian never really understood what hecalled the Jewish “stubbornness” in matters of religion so they left for Egypt. There,the Nile had not flooded adequately for two years and to make matters worse,Alexandria gave Hadrian a poor welcome. The imperial party left for Libya on a lionhunt during which Hadrian saved Antinüous’ life.Back in Egypt, the party travelled down the Nile sightseeing. Although there was littlewater, the Nile was technically in flood and it was sacrilege for Pharaoh to sail uponit at that time. Further, failure of the flood for two or more years signified the godswere unhappy with the pharaoh who, in the remote past, had been obliged to drownhimself in the river as human sacrifice. At Hermopolis Magna, Hadrian stopped tohave discussions with the priests of Thoth. It was also here that a 15-year-old girl,Isidora, had drowned in the Nile a year or two earlier but had attained eternal lifebecause such was the gift of the Nile for those who perished in its waters. On theopposite bank of the Nile was a small settlement called Hir-wer. It was here, in thelast week in October 130, that the body of Antinoüs was discovered, drowned likeIsadora and the ancient pharoahs, in the swirling waters of the Nile.There have been countless conspiracy theories but the mostprobably cause of Antinoüs’ death was that he sacrificedhimself hoping to prolong the ailing Emperor’s life and togain immortality so they could be together in an after-life.Devastated by his loss, Hadrian deified Antinoüs and built acity, Antinopolis at Hir-wer. The city’s importance declinedin the 7th Century after the Arab conquest but the ruinsremained almost intact until Muhammad Ali used its stonesto build a sugar refinery. Ironically, the worship of theDivine Antinoüs — the last pagan god of Ancient Rome —was progressively conflated with Christianity. There is evenan image of Antinoüs in the guise of Dionysis, grapes (but no fig leaf) in one hand,and a cross in the other! Antinopolis even had several Christian martyrs.2