The sexual politics, policies, preferences, peculiarities and predilections of Ancient Romans are laid bare (as it were) in this wildly amusing and informative guide to the red light districts of the antiquities (as it were).
It’s nearly impossible to do a serious review of this book, because well, you know…but the thing is it is at its base a credible work of scholarship and research, informative, educational, edifying, all that. And Romans certainly left a lot to work with, from their bawdy poetry to their bodacious graffiti to their bold personal accounts. It’s all about as wild and naughty and male centric as you’d expect from the people who had something like 120 words in their language for a penis. Which was also their preferred and most auspicious graffiti tag. The Ancient Roman society was strictly patriarchal as were its recorders, so what’s been passed down through generations is a culture where men ruled and women were bought, sold and traded for political power, dowries, etc. Men essentially made all the decisions and went to all the wars. Which may have had some fairness since love had none. But at least divorces were easily obtained. The average marriage age started at 12. The number of kids to have for a woman to prove oneself as a valid member of society and get some government perks was three, despite the high mortality rates for children and risks for mothers. The women had virtually no rights. Although the society had a large slave base, so the women were never quite at the bottom of the social ranks. The boys officially became men at 15. And then they partied. A lot. That is, of course, an oversimplification, but it isn’t inaccurate. Then again there was also eunuchs and slaves and freedmen/women and all sorts of class rules governing those divisions. And then there was the man/boy love, enough of it to put the Greeks to shame. The ever so popular preference for men to lay with boys, ideally much younger ones, in a sort of pervert/pedagogue position. There was a ton of rules for these relationships, but essentially so long as the man was the top, it was fair play and challenged his manliness not at all. In fact, the Romans barely differentiated sex by gender, opting for the sex acts themselves. To which they ascribed various degrees of shame according to their concepts of things like virtus (what a man ought to be like), etc. It is quite telling that the lesbian relationships in the book cover all of maybe three pages, while the male homosexual ones go on, and on and on like a creepy energizer bunny. Apparently, those were their pagan ways and until the ascent of Christianity shamed them into recognizing it as sin, they were all about it. But whoever they did it with and however much they bragged/b*itched about it in their poetry, the ancient romans got around. And this book will help you get your mind around how they did it. It’s a very well rounded and concise account that covers great many areas and uncovers just as many and does it all hilariously. In fact, this is exactly how I like my nonfiction and who wouldn’t want to be taught and amused at the same time, occasionally to the laugh out loud levels. I absolutely loved the tone the author chose for this book, in a way it perfectly matched its contents. There’s plenty of photos too, for those who can’t quite make it to the museum to check out the stunningly racy art the Romans left behind, behinds and all. A bunch of perverts…just like the rest of us. All in all, a great read. I enjoyed it very much. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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