Clipped photo of an actual ancient Roman silver dinner cup depicting in elegantly realistic relief a well built man lifting a boy lover up and having anal sex with him in the air. The cup shows all genitalia and the whole act, but because the internet is a prude, I have cut the image off just above that part.My talk for PolyColumbus last month has now made it to YouTube! It is age restricted due to its sexual content. A transcript is underway. I will add a link for that to this post (and announce it in comments, so if you want, subscribe to comments below to be alerted when that happens). But you can read the bullets or a full transcript, and for those who want to study further, I have provided my bibliography. Note also that this event was co-sponsored by the Humanist Community of Central Ohio and PolyColumbus, and a talk on this subject might never have happened but for them.

The full title of the talk is “Sex and Sexism in Ancient Rome: Crossroads of Sexual Freedom & State Oppression,” and the official talk description is:

Richard Carrier, Ph.D. (ancient history, Columbia University) will discuss several aspects of open sexuality and the policing of sexuality in Ancient Rome, and their connection to the stark sexism and mild homophobia of this pre-Christian time. Sexism and homophobia in this era were less products of religion and more products of secular attitudes. Even in the face of state and social attempts to oppress sexual expression, the universality of fascinating human sexual choices still shined through.

Carrier will illustrate these points with intriguing and (at times) ribald stories about demonesses in the Talmud, priestesses with strap-ons, bisexual MMFs, and how many men the law said you had to sleep with to be legally qualified as a whore (with the attendant consequences). Yet many things, such as consensual, public, gender-equal non-monogamy, remained taboo. “When in Rome…” the saying goes, but what were the common features of what (or who) you could do while in Ancient Rome, without risking severe sanction?

Note: This talk will include explicit discussions of human sexuality and sexual thoughts and practices, given from a sex-positive, consent-focused, GLBT-inclusive perspective. Given the nature of the talk, we respectfully ask that you leave the kids at home.

Screen cap from a fancy sixties movie about ancient Rome showing the male lead seducing the sexy female lead with a silver cup of wine in her hand, on a plush couch, in front of dancing girls who dance and watch. Scene shot is from the movie Demetrius and the Gladiators.The backstory is that PolyColumbus asked me to give a talk about polyamory in ancient Rome, and I said at first I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a thing back then, but I’d research the hell out of it for them. I knew a lot about ancient sexuality and marriage. I knew the Hollywood myth of ancient Rome as all orgies and free love was bollocks, that in fact it was a far more prudish and sexist time than now. But to deliver the truth in depth, I applied my Ph.D. research skills and learned a great deal more. And what I convey about my findings in this talk, summarizing and drawing on the published research of numerous ancient sexuality experts, is both illuminating and disturbing. It definitely puts our present time in perspective.

-:-

P.S. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to get into the sexuality festivals, like Lupercalia, in which naked boys run through town and spank young women with leather straps who want to be blessed with fertility, or the naked prostitute wrestling that attended Floralia, or the annual ‘days of the whore’, when in connection with Vinalia, a wine celebration, was also a day for honoring female hookers, followed by the Robigalia, a grain celebration, also linked to a day for honoring male hookers. And I only get to the demonesses in the Talmud in Q&A. Which was not recorded. Sorry.

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