Produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
entire meal of them. D.W.]
THE SATYRICON OF
PETRONIUS ARBITER
Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh,
in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena,
and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.
NOTES
PROSTITUTION.
There are two basic instincts in the character of the normal individual;
the will to live, and the will to propagate the species. It is from the
interplay of these instincts that prostitution took origin, and it is for
this reason that this profession is the oldest in human experience, the
first offspring, as it were, of savagery and of civilization. When Fate
turns the leaves of the book of universal history, she enters, upon the
page devoted thereto, the record of the birth of each nation in its
chronological order, and under this record appears the scarlet entry to
confront the future historian and arrest his unwilling attention; the
only entry which time and even oblivion can never efface.
If, prior to the time of Augustus Caesar, the Romans had laws designed to
control the social evil, we have no knowledge of them, but there is
nevertheless no lack of evidence to prove that it was only too well known
among them long before that happy age (Livy i, 4; ii, 18); and the
peculiar story of the Bacchanalian cult which was brought to Rome by
foreigners about the second century B.C. (Livy xxxix, 9-17), and the
comedies of Plautus and Terence, in which the pandar and the harlot are
familiar characters. Cicero, Pro Coelio, chap. xx, says: "If there is
anyone who holds the opinion that young men should be interdicted from
intrigues with the women of the town, he is indeed austere! That,
ethically, he is in the right, I cannot deny: but nevertheless, he is at
loggerheads not only with the licence of the present age, but even with
the habits of our ancestors and what they permitted themselves. For when
was this NOT done? When was it rebuked? When found fault with?" The
Floralia, first introduced about 238 B.C., had a powerful influence in
giving impetus to the spread of prostitution. The account of the origin
of this festival, given by Lactantius, while no credence is to be placed
in it, is very interesting. "When Flora, through the practice of
prostitution, had come into great wealth, she made the people her heir,
and bequeathed a certain fund, the income of which was to be used to
celebrate her birthday by the exhibition of the games they call the
Floralia" (Instit. Divin. xx, 6). In chapter x of the same book, he
describes the manner in which they were celebrated: "They were solemnized
with every form of licentiousness. For in addition to the freedom of
speech that pours forth every obscenity, the prostitutes, at the
importunities of the rabble, strip off their clothing and act as mimes in
full view of the crowd, and this they continue until full satiety comes
to the shameless lookers-on, holding their attention with their wriggling
buttocks." Cato, the censor, objected to the latter part of this
spectacle, but, with all his influence, he was never able to abolish it;
the best be could do was to have the spectacle put off until he had left
the theatre. Within 40 years after the introduction of this festival,
P. Scipio Africanus, in his speech in defense of Tib. Asellus, said: "If
you elect to defend your profligacy, well and good. But as a matter of
fact, you have lavished, on one harlot, more money than the total value,
as declared by you to the Census Commissioners, of all the plenishing of
your Sabine farm; if you deny my assertion I ask who dare wager 1,000
sesterces on its untruth? You have squandered more than a third of the
property you inherited from your father and dissipated it in debauchery"
(Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, vii, 11). It was about this time that
the Oppian law came up for repeal. The stipulations of this law were as
follows: No woman should have in her dress above half an ounce of gold,
nor wear a garment of different colors, nor ride in a carriage in the
city or in any town, or within a mile of it, unless upon occasion of a
public sacrifice. This sumptuary law was passed during the public
distress consequent upon Hannibal's invasion of Italy. It was repealed
eighteen years afterward, upon petition of the Roman ladies, though
strenuously opposed by Cato (Livy 34, 1; Tacitus, Annales, 3, 33). The
increase of wealth among the Romans, the spoils wrung from their victims
as a portion of the price of defeat, the contact of the legions with the
softer, more civilized, more sensuous races of Greece and Asia Minor,
laid the foundations upon which the social evil was to rise above the
city of the seven hills, and finally crush her. In the character of the
Roman there was but little of tenderness. The well-being of the state
caused him his keenest anxiety. One of the laws of the twelve tables,
the "Coelebes Prohibito," compelled the citizen of manly vigor to satisfy
the promptings of nature in the arms of a lawful wife, and the tax on
bachelors is as ancient as the times of Furius Camillus. "There was an
ancient law among the Romans," says Dion Cassius, lib. xliii, "which
forbade bachelors, after the age of twenty-five, to enjoy equal political
rights with married men. The old Romans had passed this law in hope
that, in this way, the city of Rome, and the Provinces of the Roman
Empire as well, might be insured an abundant population." The increase,
under the Emperors, of the number of laws dealing with sex is an accurate
mirror of conditions as they altered and grew worse. The "Jus Trium
Librorum," under the empire, a privilege enjoyed by those who had three
legitimate children, consisting, as it did, of permission to fill
a public office before the twenty-fifth year of one's age, and in
freedom from personal burdens, must have had its origin in the grave
apprehensions for the future, felt by those in power. The fact that this
right was sometimes conferred upon those who were not legally entitled
to benefit by it, makes no difference in this inference. Scions of
patrician families imbibed their lessons from the skilled voluptuaries
of Greece and the Levant and in their intrigues with the wantons of those
climes, they learned to lavish wealth as a fine art. Upon their return
to Rome they were but ill-pleased with the standard of entertainment
offered by the ruder and less sophisticated native talent; they imported
Greek and Syrian mistresses. 'Wealth increased, its message sped in
every direction, and the corruption of the world was drawn into Italy as
by a load-stone. The Roman matron had learned how to be a mother, the
lesson of love was an unopened book; and, when the foreign hetairai
poured into the city, and the struggle for supremacy began, she soon
became aware of the disadvantage under which she contended. Her natural
haughtiness had caused her to lose valuable time; pride, and finally
desperation drove her to attempt to outdo her foreign rivals; her native
modesty became a thing of the past, her Roman initiative, unadorned by
sophistication, was often but too successful in outdoing the Greek and
Syrian wantons, but without the appearance of refinement which they
always contrived to give to every caress of passion or avarice. They
wooed fortune with an abandon that soon made them the objects of contempt
in the eyes of their lords and masters. "She is chaste whom no man has
solicited," said Ovid (Amor. i, 8, line 43). Martial, writing about
ninety years later says: "Sophronius Rufus, long have I been searching
the city through to find if there is ever a maid to say 'No'; there is
not one." (Ep. iv, 71.) In point of time, a century separates Ovid and
Martial; from a moral standpoint, they are as far apart as the poles.
The revenge, then, taken by Asia, gives a startling insight into the real
meaning of Kipling's poem, "The female of the species is more deadly than
the male." In Livy (xxxiv, 4) we read: (Cato is speaking), "All these
changes, as day by day the fortune of the state is higher and more
prosperous and her empire grows greater, and our conquests extend over
Greece and Asia, lands replete with every allurement of the senses, and
we appropriate treasures that may well be called royal,--all this I dread
the more from my fear that such high fortune may rather master us, than
we master it." Within twelve years of the time when this speech was
delivered, we read in the same author (xxxix, 6), "for the beginnings of
foreign luxury were brought into the city by the Asiatic army"; and
Juvenal (Sat. iii, 6), "Quirites, I cannot bear to see Rome a Greek city,
yet how small a fraction of the whole corruption is found in these dregs
of Achaea? Long since has the Syrian Orontes flowed into the Tiber and
brought along with it the Syrian tongue and manners and cross-stringed
harp and harper and exotic timbrels and girls bidden stand for hire at
the circus." Still, from the facts which have come down to us, we cannot
arrive at any definite date at which houses of ill fame and women of the
town came into vogue at Rome. That they had long been under police
regulation, and compelled to register with the aedile, is evident from a
passage in Tacitus: "for Visitilia, born of a family of praetorian rank,
had publicly notified before the aediles, a permit for fornication,
according to the usage that prevailed among our fathers, who supposed
that sufficient punishment for unchaste women resided in the very nature
of their calling." No penalty attached to illicit intercourse or to
prostitution in general, and the reason appears in the passage from
Tacitus, quoted above. In the case of married women, however, who
contravened the marriage vow there were several penalties. Among them,
one was of exceptional severity, and was not repealed until the time of
Theodosius: "again he repealed another regulation of the following
nature; if any should have been detected in adultery, by this plan she
was not in any way reformed, but rather utterly given over to an increase
of her ill behaviour. They used to shut the woman up in a narrow room,
admitting any that would commit fornication with her, and, at the moment
when they were accomplishing their foul deed, to strike bells, that the
sound might make known to all, the injury she was suffering. The Emperor
hearing this, would suffer it no longer, but ordered the very rooms to be
pulled down" (Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscel. xiii, 2). Rent from a
brothel was a legitimate source of income (Ulpian, Law as to Female
Slaves Making Claim to Heirship). Procuration also, had to be notified
before the aedile, whose special business it was to see that no Roman
matron became a prostitute. These aediles had authority to search every
place which had reason to fear anything, but they themselves dared not
engage in any immorality there; Aulus Gellius, Noct. Attic. iv, 14,
where an action at law is cited, in which the aedile Hostilius had
attempted to force his way into the apartments of Mamilia, a courtesan,
who thereupon, had driven him away with stones. The result of the trial
is as follows: "the tribunes gave as their decision that the aedile had
been lawfully driven from that place, as being one that he ought not to
have visited with his officer." If we compare this passage with Livy,
xl, 35, we find that this took place in the year 180 B C. Caligula
inaugurated a tax upon prostitutes (vectigal ex capturis), as a state
impost: "he levied new and hitherto unheard of taxes; a proportion of the
fees of prostitutes;--so much as each earned with one man. A clause was
also added to the law directing that women who had practiced harlotry and
men who had practiced procuration should be rated publicly; and
furthermore, that marriages should be liable to the rate" (Suetonius,
Calig. xi). Alexander Severus retained this law, but directed that such
revenue be used for the upkeep of the public buildings, that it might not
contaminate the state treasure (Lamprid. Alex. Severus, chap. 24). This
infamous tax was not abolished until the time of Theodosius, but the real
credit is due to a wealthy patrician, Florentius by name, who strongly
censured this practice, to the Emperor, and offered his own property to
make good the deficit which would appear upon its abrogation (Gibbon,
vol. 2, p. 318, note). With the regulations and arrangements of the
brothels, however, we have information which is far more accurate. These
houses (lupanaria, fornices, et cet.) were situated, for the most part,
in the Second District of the City (Adler, Description of the City of
Rome, pp. 144 et seq.), the Coelimontana, particularly in the Suburra
that bordered the town walls, lying in the Carinae,--the valley between
the Coelian and Esquiline Hills. The Great Market (Macellum Magnum) was
in this district, and many cook-shops, stalls, barber shops, et cet. as
well; the office of the public executioner, the barracks for foreign
soldiers quartered at Rome; this district was one of the busiest and most
densely populated in the entire city. Such conditions would naturally be
ideal for the owner of a house of ill fame, or for a pandar. The regular
brothels are described as having been exceedingly dirty, smelling of the
gas generated by the flame of the smoking lamp, and of the other odors
which always haunted these ill ventilated dens. Horace, Sat. i, 2, 30,
"on the other hand, another will have none at all except she be standing
in the evil smelling cell (of the brothel)"; Petronius, chap. xxii, "worn
out by all his troubles, Ascyltos commenced to nod, and the maid, whom he
had slighted, and, of course, insulted, smeared lamp-black all over his
face"; Priapeia, xiii, 9, "whoever likes may enter here, smeared with the
black soot of the brothel"; Seneca, Cont. i, 2, "you reek still of the
soot of the brothel." The more pretentious establishments of the Peace
ward, however, were sumptuously fitted up. Hair dressers were in
attendance to repair the ravages wrought in the toilette, by frequent
amorous conflicts, and aquarioli, or water boys attended at the door with
bidets for ablution. Pimps sought custom for these houses and there was
a good understanding between the parasites and the prostitutes. From the
very nature of their calling, they were the friends and companions of
courtesans. Such characters could not but be mutually necessary to each
other. The harlot solicited the acquaintance of the client or parasite,
that she might the more easily obtain and carry on intrigues with the
rich and dissipated. The parasite was assiduous in his attention to the
courtesan, as procuring through her means, more easy access to his
patrons, and was probably rewarded by them both, for the gratification
which he obtained for the vices of the one and the avarice of the other.
The licensed houses seem to have been of two kinds: those owned and
managed by a pandar, and those in which the latter was merely an agent,
renting rooms and doing everything in his power to supply his renters
with custom. The former were probably the more respectable. In these
pretentious houses, the owner kept a secretary, villicus puellarum, or
superintendent of maids; this official assigned a girl her name, fixed
the price to be demanded for her favors, received the money and provided
clothing and other necessities: "you stood with the harlots, you stood
decked out to please the public, wearing the costume the pimp had
furnished you"; Seneca, Controv. i, 2. Not until this traffic had become
profitable, did procurers and procuresses (for women also carried on this
trade) actually keep girls whom they bought as slaves: "naked she stood
on the shore, at the pleasure of the purchaser; every part of her body
was examined and felt. Would you hear the result of the sale? The
pirate sold; the pandar bought, that he might employ her as a
prostitute"; Seneca, Controv. lib. i, 2. It was also the duty of the
villicus, or cashier, to keep an account of what each girl earned: "give
me the brothel-keeper's accounts, the fee will suit" (Ibid.)
When an applicant registered with the aedile, she gave her correct name,
her age, place of birth, and the pseudonym under which she intended
practicing her calling. (Plautus, Poen.)
If the girl was young and apparently respectable, the official sought to
influence her to change her mind; failing in this, he issued her a
license (licentia stupri), ascertained the price she intended exacting
for her favors, and entered her name in his roll. Once entered there,
the name could never be removed, but must remain for all time an
insurmountable bar to repentance and respectability. Failure to register
was severely punished upon conviction, and this applied not only to the
girl but to the pandar as well. The penalty was scourging, and
frequently fine and exile. Notwithstanding this, however, the number
of clandestine prostitutes at Rome was probably equal to that of the
registered harlots. As the relations of these unregistered women were,
for the most part, with politicians and prominent citizens it was very
difficult to deal with them effectively: they were protected by their
customers, and they set a price upon their favors which was commensurate
with the jeopardy in which they always stood. The cells opened upon a
court or portico in the pretentious establishments, and this court was
used as a sort of reception room where the visitors waited with covered
head, until the artist whose ministrations were particularly desired,
as she would of course be familiar with their preferences in matters of
entertainment, was free to receive them. The houses were easily found by
the stranger, as an appropriate emblem appeared over the door. This
emblem of Priapus was generally a carved figure, in wood or stone, and
was frequently painted to resemble nature more closely. The size ranged
from a few inches in length to about two feet. Numbers of these
beginnings in advertising have been recovered from Pompeii and
Herculaneum, and in one case an entire establishment, even to the
instruments used in gratifying unnatural lusts, was recovered intact.
In praise of our modern standards of morality, it should be said that it
required some study and thought to penetrate the secret of the proper use
of several of these instruments. The collection is still to be seen in
the Secret Museum at Naples. The mural decoration was also in proper
keeping with the object for which the house was maintained, and a few
examples of this decoration have been preserved to modern times; their
luster and infamous appeal undimmed by the passage of centuries.
Over the door of each cell was a tablet (titulus) upon which was the name
of the occupant and her price; the reverse bore the word "occupata" and
when the inmate was engaged the tablet was turned so that this word was
out. This custom is still observed in Spain and Italy. Plautus, Asin.
iv, i, 9, speaks of a less pretentious house when he says: "let her write
on the door that she is 'occupata.'" The cell usually contained a lamp
of bronze or, in the lower dens, of clay, a pallet or cot of some sort,
over which was spread a blanket or patch-work quilt, this latter being
sometimes employed as a curtain, Petronius, chap 7.
The arches under the circus were a favorite location for prostitutes;
ladies of easy virtue were ardent frequenters of the games of the circus
and were always ready at hand to satisfy the inclinations which the
spectacles aroused. These arcade dens were called "fornices," from which
comes our generic fornication. The taverns, inns, lodging houses, cook
shops, bakeries, spelt-mills and like institutions all played a prominent
part in the underworld of Rome. Let us take them in order:
Lupanaria--Wolf Dens, from lupa, a wolf. The derivation, according to
Lactantius, is as follows: "for she (Lupa, i. e., Acca Laurentia) was the
wife of Faustulus, and because of the easy rate at which her person was
held at the disposal of all, was called, among the shepherds, 'Lupa,'
that is, harlot, whence also 'lupanar,' a brothel, is so called." It may
be added, however, that there is some diversity of opinion upon this
matter. It will be discussed more fully under the word "lupa."
Fornix--An arch. The arcades under the theatres.
Pergulae--Balconies, where harlots were shown.
Stabulae--Inns, but frequently houses of prostitution.
Diversorium--A lodging house; house of assignation.
Tugurium--A hut. A very low den.
Turturilla--A dove cote; frequently in male part.
Casuaria--Road houses; almost invariably brothels.
Tabernae--Bakery shops.
The taverns were generally regarded by the magistrates as brothels and
the waitresses were so regarded by the law (Codex Theodos. lx, tit. 7,
ed. Ritter; Ulpian liiii, 23, De Ritu Nupt.). The Barmaid (Copa),
attributed to Virgil, proves that even the proprietress had two strings
to her bow, and Horace, Sat. lib. i, v, 82, in describing his excursion
to Brundisium, narrates his experience, or lack of it, with a waitress in
an inn. This passage, it should be remarked, is the only one in all his
works in which he is absolutely sincere in what he says of women. "Here
like a triple fool I waited till midnight for a lying jade till sleep
overcame me, intent on venery; in that filthy vision the dreams spot my
night clothes and my belly, as I lie upon my back." In the AEserman
inscription (Mommsen, Inscr. Regn. Neap. 5078, which is number 7306 in
Orelli-Henzen) we have another example of the hospitality of these inns,
and a dialogue between the hostess and a transient. The bill for the
services of a girl amounted to 8 asses. This inscription is of great
interest to the antiquary, and to the archoeologist. That bakers were
not slow in organizing the grist mills is shown by a passage from Paulus
Diaconus, xiii, 2: "as time went on, the owners of these turned the
public corn mills into pernicious frauds. For, as the mill stones were
fixed in places under ground, they set up booths on either side of these
chambers and caused harlots to stand for hire in them, so that by these
means they deceived very many,--some that came for bread, others that
hastened thither for the base gratification of their wantonness." From a
passage in Festus, it would seem that this was first put into practice in
Campania:--"harlots were called 'aelicariae', 'spelt-mill girls, in
Campania, being accustomed to ply for gain before the mills of the
spelt-millers." "Common strumpets, bakers' mistresses, refuse the
spelt-mill girls," says Plautus, i, ii, 54.
There are few languages which are richer in pornographic terminology
than the Latin.
Meretrix--Nomus Marcellus has pointed out the difference between this
class of prostitutes and the prostibula. "This is the difference between
a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibula (common strumpet): a meretrix is of
a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices are so named a
merendo (from earning wages) because they plied their calling only by
night; prostibulu because they stand before the stabulum (stall) for gain
both by day and night."
Prostibula--She who stands in front of her cell or stall.
Proseda--She who sits in front of her cell or stall. She who later
became the Empress Theodora belonged to this class, if any credit is to
be given to Procopius.
Nonariae--She that is forbidden to appear before the ninth hour.
Mimae--Mime players. They were almost invariably prostitutes.
Cymbalistriae--Cymbal players. They were almost invariably prostitutes.
Ambubiae--Singing girls. They were almost invariably prostitutes.
Citharistriae--Harpists. They were almost invariably prostitutes.
Scortum--A strumpet. Secrecy is implied, but the word has a broad usage.
Scorta erratica | Clandestine strumpets who were street walkers.
Secuteleia |
Busturiae--Tomb frequenters and hangers-on at funerals.
Copae--Bar maids.
Delicatae--Kept mistresses.
Famosae--Soiled doves from respectable families.
Doris--Harlots of great beauty. They wore no clothing.
Lupae--She wolves. Some authorities affirm that this name was given them
because of a peculiar wolflike cry they uttered, and others assert that
the generic was bestowed upon then because their rapacity rivalled that
of the wolf. Servius, however, in his commentary on Virgil, has assigned
a much more improper and filthy reason for the name; he alludes to the
manner in which the wolf who mothered Rotnulus and Reinus licked their
bodies with her tongue, and this hint is sufficient to confirm him in his
belief that the lupa; were not less skilled in lingual gymnastics. See
Lemaire's Virgil, vol. vi, p. 521; commentary of Servius on AEneid, lib.
viii, 631.
AElicariae--Bakers' girls.
Noctiluae--Night walkers.
Blitidae--A very low class deriving their name from a cheap drink sold in
the dens they frequented.
Forariae--Country girls who frequented the roads.
Gallinae--Thieving prostitutes, because after the manner of hens,
prostitutes take anything and scatter everything.
Diobolares--Two obol girls. So called from their price.
Amasiae, also in the diminutive--Girls devoted to Venus. Their best
expression in modern society would be the "vamps."
Amatrix--Female lover, frequently in male part.
Amica--Female friend, frequently a tribad.
Quadrantariae--The lowest class of all. Their natural charms were no
longer merchantable. She of whom Catullus speaks in connection with the
lofty souled descendants of Remus was of this stripe.
From many passages in the ancient authors it is evident that harlots
stood naked at the doors of their cells: "I saw some men prowling
stealthily between the rows of name-boards and naked prostitutes,"
Petronius, chap. 7. "She entered the brothel, cozy with its
crazy-quilt, and the empty cell--her own. Then, naked she stands, with
gilded nipples, beneath the tablet of the pretended Lysisca," Juvenal,
Sat. vi, 121 et seq. In some cases they had recourse to a gossamer
tissue of silk gauze, as was formerly the custom in Paris, Chicago, and
San Francisco. "The matron has no softer thigh nor has she a more
beautiful leg," says Horace, Sat. I, ii, "though the setting be one of
pearls and emeralds (with all due respect to thy opinion, Cerinthus),
the togaed plebeian's is often the finer, and, in addition, the beauties
of figure are not camouflaged; that which is for sale, if honest, is
shown openly, whereas deformity seeks concealment. It is the custom
among kings that, when buying horses, they inspect them in the open,
lest, as is often the case, a beautiful head is sustained by a tender
hoof and the eager purchaser may be seduced by shapely hocks, a short
head, or an arching neck. Are these experts right in this? Thou canst
appraise a figure with the eyes of Lynceus and discover its beauties;
though blinder than Hypoesea herself thou canst see what deformities
there are. Ah, what a leg! What arms! But how thin her buttocks are,
in very truth what a huge nose she has, she's short-waisted, too, and
her feet are out of proportion! Of the matron, except for the face,
nothing is open to your scrutiny unless she is a Catia who has dispensed
with her clothing so that she may be felt all over thoroughly, the rest
will be hidden. But as for the other, no difficulty there! Through the
Coan silk it is as easy for you to see as if she were naked, whether she
has an unshapely leg, whether her foot is ugly; her waist you can
examine with your eyes. As for the price exacted, it ranged from a
quadrans to a very high figure. In the inscription to which reference
has already been made, the price was eight asses. An episode related in
the life of Apollonius of Tyre furnishes additional information upon
this subject. The lecher who deflowered a harlot was compelled to pay a
much higher price for alleged undamaged goods than was asked of
subsequent purchasers.
"Master," cries the girl, throwing herself at his feet, "pity my
maidenhood, do not prostitute this body under so ugly a name." The
superintendent of maids replies, "Let the maid here present be dressed up
with every care, let a name-ticket be written for her, and the fellow who
deflowers Tarsia shall pay half a libra; afterwards she shall be at the
service of the public for one solidus per head."
The passage in Petronius (chap. viii) and that in Juvenal (Sat. vi, 125)
are not to be taken literally. "Aes" in the latter should be understood
to mean what we would call "the coin," and not necessarily coin of low
denomination.
PAEDERASTIA.
The origin of this vice (all peoples, savage and civilized, have been
infected with it) is lost in the mists which shroud antiquity. The Old
Testament contains many allusions to it, and Sodom was destroyed because
a long-suffering deity could not find ten men in the entire city who were
not addicted to its practice. So saturated was this city of the ancient
world with the vice that the very name of the city or the adjective
denoting citizenship in that city have transmitted the stigma to modern
times. That the fathers of Israel were quick to perceive the tortuous
ramifications of this vice is proved by a passage in Deuteronomy, chap.
22, verse .5: "the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man,
neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are
abominations unto the Lord thy God." Here we have the first regulation
against fetishism and the perverted tendencies of gynandry and androgeny.
Inasmuch as our concern with this subject has to do with the Roman world
alone, a lengthy discussion of the early, manifestations of this vice
would be out of place here; nevertheless, a brief sketch should be given
to serve as a foundation to such discussion and to aid sociologists who
will find themselves more and more concerned with the problem in view of
the conditions in European society, induced by the late war. Their
problem will, however, be more intimately concerned with homosexuality
as it is manifested among women!
From remotest antiquity down to the present time, oriental nations have
been addicted to this practice and it is probably from this source that
the plague spread among the Greeks. I do not assert that they were
ignorant of this form of indulgence prior to their association with the
Persians, for Nature teaches the sage as well as the savage. Meier, the
author of the article "Paederastia" in Ersch and Grueber's encyclopedia
(1837) is of the opinion that the vice had its origin among the
Boeotians, and John Addington Symonds in his essay on Greek Love concurs
in this view. As the two scholars worked upon the same material from
different angles, and as the English writer was unacquainted with the
German savant's monograph until after Burton had written his Terminal
Essay, it follows that the conclusions arrived at by these two scholars
must be worthy of credence. The Greeks contemporary with the Homeric
poems were familiar with paederasty, and there is reason to believe that
it had been known for ages, even then. Greek Literature, from Homer to
the Anthology teems with references to the vice and so common was it
among them that from that fact it derived its generic; "Greek Love." So
malignant is tradition that the Greeks of the present time still suffer
from the stigma, as is well illustrated by the proverb current among
sailors: "Englisha man he catcha da boy, Johnnie da Greek he catcha da
blame." The Romans are supposed to have received their first
introduction to paederasty and homosexuality generally, from the
Etruscans or from the Greek colonists in Italy, but Suidas (Tharnyris)
charges the inhabitants of Italy; with the invention of this vice and it
would appear from Athenaeus (Deiphnos. lib. xiii) that the native peoples
of Italy and the Greek colonists as well were addicted to the most
revolting practices with boys. The case of Laetorius (Valerius Maximus
vi, 1, 11) proves that as early as 320 B. C., the Romans were no
strangers to it and also that it was not common among them, at that time.
As the character of the primitive Roman was essentially different from
that of the contemporary Greek, and as his struggle for existence was
severe in the extreme, there was little moral obliquity during the first
two hundred and fifty years. The "coelibes prohibeto" of the Twelve
Tables was also a powerful influence in preserving chastity. By the time
of Plautus, however, the practice of paederasty was much more general, as
is clearly proved by the many references which are found in his comedies
(Cist. iv, sc. 1, line 5) and passim. By the year 169 B. C., the vice
had so ravaged the populace that the Lex Scantinia was passed to control
it, but legislation has never proved a success in repressing vice and the
effectiveness of this law was no exception to the rule. Conditions grew
steadily worse with the passage of time and the extension of the Roman
power served to inoculate the legionaries with the vices of their
victims. The destruction of Corinth may well have avenged itself in
this manner. The accumulation of wealth and spoils gave the people more
leisure, increased their means of enjoyment, and educated their taste in
luxuries. The influx of slaves and voluptuaries from the Levant aided in
the dissemination of the vices of the orient among the ruder Romans. As
the first taste of blood arouses the tiger, so did the limitless power of
the Republic and Empire react to the insinuating precepts of older and
more corrupt civilizations. The fragments of Lucilius make mention of
the "cinaedi," in the sense that they were dancers, and in the earlier
ages, they were. Cicero, in the second Philippic calls Antonius a
catamite; but in Republican Rome, it is to Catullus that we must turn to
find the most decisive evidence of their almost universal inclination to
sodomy. The first notice of this passage in its proper significance is
found in the Burmann Petronius (ed. 1709): here, in a note on the correct
reading of "intertitulos, nudasque meretrices furtim conspatiantes," the
ancient reading would seem to have been "internuculos nudasque meretrices
furtim conspatiantes" (and I am not at all certain but that it is to be
preferred). Burmann cites the passage from Catullus (Epithalamium of
Manlius and Julia); Burmann sees the force of the passage but does not
grasp its deeper meaning. Marchena seems to have been the first scholar
to read between the lines. See his third note.
A few years later, John Colin Dunlop, the author of a History of Roman
Literature which ought to be better known among the teaching fraternity,
drew attention to the same passage. So striking is his comment that I
will transcribe it in full. "It," the poem, "has also been highly
applauded by the commentators; and more than one critic has declared that
it must have been written by the hands of Venus and the Graces. I wish,
however, they had excepted from their unqualified panegyrics the coarse
imitation of the Fescennine poems, which leaves in our minds a stronger
impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices, than any other
passage in the Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself, elsewhere,
have branded their enemies; and Juvenal in bursts of satiric indignation,
has reproached his countrymen with the most shocking crimes. But here,
in a complimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are
jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgences of his earliest youth"
(vol. i, p. 453, second edition).
This passage clearly points to the fact that it was the common custom
among the young Roman patricians to have a bed-fellow of the same sex.
Cicero, in speaking of the acquittal of Clodius (Letters to Atticus, lib.
i, 18), says, "having bought up and debauched the tribunal"; charges that
the judges were promised the favors of the young gentlemen and ladies of
Rome, in exchange for their services in the matter of Clodius' trial.
Manutius, in a note on this passage says, "bought up, because the judges
took their pay and held Clodius innocent and absolved him: debauched,
because certain women and youths of noble birth were introduced by night
to not a few of them (there were 56 judges) as additional compensation
for their attention to duty" (Variorum Notes to Cicero, vol. ii,
pp. 339-340). In the Priapeia, the wayfarer is warned by Priapus to
refrain from stealing fruit under penalty of being assaulted from the
rear, and the God adds that, should this punishment hold no terrors,
there is still the possibility that his mentule may be used as a club by
the irate landowner. Again, in Catullus, 100, the Roman paederasty
shows itself "Caelius loves Aufilenus and Quintus loves Aufilena
--madly." As we approach the Christian era the picture darkens.
Gibbon (vol. i, p. 313) remarks, in a note, that "of the first fifteen
emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely
correct," but Claudius was a moron.
We come now to the bathing establishments. Their history in every
country is the same, in one respect: the spreading and fostering of
prostitution and paederastia. Cicero (Pro Coelio) accuses Clodia of
having deliberately chosen the site of her gardens with the purpose of
having a look at the young fellows who came to the Tiber to swim.
Catullus (xxxiii) speaks of the cimaedi who haunt the bathing
establishments: Suetonius (Tib. 43 and 44) records the desperate
expedients to which Tiberius had recourse to regain his exhausted
virility: the scene in Petronius (chap. 92). Martial (lib. i, 24)
"You invite no man but your bathing companion, Cotta, only the baths
supply you with a guest. I used to wonder why you never invited me, now
I know that you did not like the look of me naked." Juvenal (ix, 32 et
seq.), "Destiny rules over mankind; the parts concealed by the front of
the tunic are controlled by the Fates; when Virro sees you naked and in
burning and frequent letters presses his ardent suit, with lips foaming
with desire; nothing will serve you so well as the unknown measure of a
long member." Lampridius (Heliogab. v), "At Rome, his principal concern
was to have emissaries everywhere, charged with seeking out men with huge
members; that they might bring them to him so that he could enjoy their
impressive proportions." The quotations given above furnish a sufficient
commentary upon the bathing establishments and the reasons for lighting
them. In happier times, they were badly lighted as the apertures were
narrow and could admit but little light. Seneca (Epist. 86) describes
the bath of Scipio: "In this bath of Scipio there were tiny chinks,
rather than windows, cut through the stone wall so as to admit light
without detriment to the shelter afforded; but men nowadays call them
'baths-for-night-moths.'" Under the empire, however, the bathing
establishments were open to the eye of the passer-by; lighted, as they
were by immense windows. Seneca (Epist. 86), "But nowadays, any which
are disposed in such a way as to let the sunlight enter all day long,
through immense windows; men call baths-for-night-moths; if they are not
sunburned as they wash, if they cannot look out on the fields and sea
from the pavement. Sweet clean baths have been introduced, but the
populace is only the more foul." In former times, youth and age were not
permitted to bathe together (Valer. Max. ii, 7.), women and men used the
same establishments, but at different hours; later, however, promiscuous
bathing was the order of the day and men and women came more and more to
observe that precept, "noscetur e naso quanta sit hasta viro," which Joan
of Naples had always in mind. Long-nosed men were followed into the
baths and were the recipients of admiration wherever they were. As
luxury increased, these establishments were fitted up with cells and
attendants of both sexes, skilled in massage, were always kept upon the
premises, in the double capacity of masseurs and prostitutes (Martial,
iii, 82, 13); (Juvenal, vi, 428), "the artful masseur presses the
clitoris with his fingers and makes the upper part of his mistress thigh
resound under his hands." The aquarioli or water boys also included
pandering in their tour of duty (Juvenal, Sat. vi, 331) "some water
carrier will come, hired for the purpose," and many Roman ladies had
their own slaves accompany them to the baths to assist in the toilette:
(Martial, vii, 3.4) "a slave girt about the loins with a pouch of black
leather stands by you whenever you are washed all over with warn water,"
here, the mistress is taking no chances, her rights are as carefully
guarded as though the slave were infibulated in place of having his
generous virility concealed within a leather pouch. (Claudianus, 18,
106) "he combed his mistress' hair, and often, when she bathed, naked,
he would bring water, to his lady, in a silver ewer." Several of the
emperors attempted to correct these evils by executive order and
legislation, Hadrian (Spartianus, Life of Hadrian, chap. 18) "he assigned
separate baths for the two sexes"; Marcus Aurelius (Capitolinus, Life of
Marcus Antoninus, chap. 23) "he abolished the mixed baths and restrained
the loose habits of the Roman ladies and the young nobles," and Alexander
Severus (Lampridius, Life of Alex. Severus, chap. 24.) "he forbade the
opening of mixed baths at Rome, a practice which, though previously
prohibited, Heliogabalus had allowed to be observed," but,
notwithstanding their absolute authority, their efforts along those lines
met with little better success than have those of more recent times. The
pages of Martial and Juvenal reek with the festering sores of the society
of that period, but Charidemus and Hedylus still dishonor the cities of
the modern world. Tatian, writing in the second century, says (Orat. ad
Graecos): "paederastia is practiced by the barbarians generally, but is
held in pre-eminent esteem by the Romans, who endeavor to get together
troupes of boys, as it were of brood mares," and Justin Martyr (Apologia,
1), has this to say: "first, because we behold nearly all men seducing to
fornication, not merely girls, but males also. And just as our fathers
are spoken of as keeping herds of oxen, or goats, or sheep, or brood
mares, so now they keep boys, solely for the purpose of shameful usage,
treating them as females, or androgynes, and doing unspeakable acts. To
such a pitch of pollution has the multitude throughout the whole people
come!" Another sure indication of the prevalence of the vice of sodomy
is to be found in Juvenal, Sat. ii, 12-13, "but your fundament is smooth
and the swollen haemorrhoids are incised, the surgeon grinning the
while," just as the physician of the nineties grinned when some young
fool came to him with a blennorrhoeal infection! The ancient jest which
accounts for the shaving of the priest's crown is an inferential
substantiation of the fact that the evils of antiquity, like the legal
codes, have descended through the generations; survived the middle ages,
and been transmitted to the modern world. A perusal of the Raggionamente
of Pietro Aretino will confirm this statement, in its first premise, and
the experiences of Sir Richard Burton in the India of Napier, and Harry
Franck's, in Spain, in the present century, and those of any intelligent
observer in the Orient, today, will but bear out this hypothesis. The
native population of Manila contains more than its proportion of
catamites, who seek their sponsors in the Botanical Gardens and on the
Luneta. The native quarters of the Chinese cities have their "houses"
where boys are kept, just as the Egyptian mignons stood for hire in the
lupanaria at Rome. A scene in Sylvia Scarlett could be duplicated in any
large city of Europe or America; there is no necessity of appeal to
Krafft-Ebbing or Havelock Ellis. But there is still another and surer
method of gauging the extent of paederastic perversion at Rome, and that
is the richness of the Latin vocabulary in terms and words bearing upon
this repulsive subject. There are, in the Latin language, no less than
one hundred and fifteen words and expressions in general usage.
But it is in Martial that we are able to sense the abandoned and
cynical attitude of the Roman public toward this vice: the epigram upon
Cantharus, xi, 46, is an excellent example. In commentating upon the
meticulous care with which Cantharus avoided being spied upon by
irreverent witnesses, the poet sarcastically remarks that such
precautions would never enter the head of anyone were it merely a
question of having a boy or a woman, and he mentions them in the order
in which they are set forth here. No one dreads the limelight like the
utter debauchee, as has been remarked by Seneca. We find a parallel in
the old days in Shanghai, before the depredations of the American
hetairai had aroused the hostility of the American judge, in 1907-8. Men
of unquestioned respectability and austere asceticism were in the habit
of making periodic trips to this pornographic Mecca for the reason that
they could there be accommodated with the simultaneous ministrations of
two or even three soiled doves of the stripe of her of whom Martial (ix,
69) makes caustic mention:
"I passed the whole night with a lascivious girl whose naughtiness none
could surpass. Tired of a thousand methods of indulgence, I begged the
boyish favor: she granted my prayers before they were finished, before
even the first words were out of my mouth. Smiling and blushing, I
besought her for something worse still; she voluptuously promised it at
once. But to me, she was chaste. But, AEschylus, she will not be so to
you; take the boon if you want it, but she will attach a condition." In
all that could pertain to accomplished skill in their profession, the
"limit was the ceiling," they were there to serve, and serve they did,
as long as the recipient of their ministrations was willing to pay or as
long as his chits were good. With them, secrecy was the watchword.
Tiberius, probably more sinned against than sinning (he has had an able
defender in Beasley) is charged, by Suetonius, with the invention of an
amplification and refinement of this vice. The performers were called
"spinthriae," a word which signified "bracelet." These copulators could
be of both sexes though the true usage of the word allowed but one, and
that the male. They formed a chain, each link of which was an individual
in sexual contact with one or two other links: in this diversion, the
preference seems to have been in favor of odd numbers (Martial, xii, 44,
5), where the chain consisted of five links, and Ausonius, Epigram 119,
where it consisted of three.
CHAPTER NOTES
CHAPTER 9. Gladiator obscene:--
The arena of his activities is, however, that of Venus and not Mars.
Petronius is fond of figurative language, and in several other passages,
he has made use of the slang of the arena: (chap. 61 ), "I used to fence
with my mistress herself, until even the master grew Suspicious"; and
again, in chapter 19, he says: "then, too, we were girded higher, and I
had so arranged matters that if we came to close quarters, I myself would
engage Quartilla, Ascyltos the maid, and Giton the girl."
Dufour, in commentating upon this expression, Histoire de la
Prostitution, vol. III, pp. 92 and 93, remarks: It is necessary to see in
Petronius the abominable role which the "obscene gladiator" played; but
the Latin itself is clear enough to describe all the secrets of the Roman
debauch. "For some women," says Petronius, in another passage, "will
only kindle for canaille and cannot work up an appetite unless they see
some slave or runner with his clothing girded up: a gladiator arouses
one, or a mule driver, all covered with dust, or some actor posturing in
some exhibition on the stage. My mistress belongs to this class, she
jumps the fourteen rows from the stage to the gallery and looks for a
lover among the gallery gods at the back."
On "cum fortiter faceres," compare line 25 of the Oxford fragment of the
sixth satire of Juvenal; "hic erit in lecto fortissimus," which Housman
has rendered "he is a valiant mattress-knight."