The habits and sexual obsessions of ancient Rome

Article by Christian-Georges Schwentzel* Posted on the weekly website The point (France) On July 26, 2018, freely translated by Valentina Picano

In the essay Les Femmes et le Sexe dans la Rome Antique (Women and sex in ancient Rome, Tallandier 2013) Virginie Girod, specialized in ancient history, offers us a living panorama of female sexuality in the Roman era. The text is even more precious if we think that the sexual habits of antiquity have invaded the common imagination, at least starting from the nineteenth century, through painting, then cinema, and today in comics and TV shows. The Roman world is often associated with sulphurous and orgiastic images.

But what was reality? Virginie Girod tries to answer the question, without however denigrating the fantasies that have crystallized on female sexuality since ancient times. The investigation is conducted on two fronts, which constitute two sides of the same theme: the scholar wonders about the historical reality of women, guiding us to their intimacy; It also shows us how Roman writers, all men, have built, through their works, a certain image of femininity, which corresponded to their desires.

Very male fantasies

The essay is abundantly documented. Virginie Girod uses all available resources: from literature to objects of everyday life, passing through works of art. Everything is written in a very pleasant and easily accessible way.

It is a fresco consisting of three large paintings: "Female sexual morality" outlines the portraits of mythical Romans; "Female bodies and sexuality" faces sexual practices without taboos; "Mother and whore" It distinguishes the two main categories of women in the patriarchal Roman society.

This is what we could believe when we contemplate, using contemporary parameters, the numerous erotic paintings discovered in Pompeii. For a long time these works, like other objects judged licentious, have been kept away in a specific room in the Museum of Naples, whose access was banned from women and children.

But this ancient pornography, Virginie Girod explains to us, was not felt as obscene: "Oscenity, in the form of images or words, assumed very different meanings in antiquity. What is perceived as obscene today could then have a prophylactic or cathartic value " The historic writes.

A different perception of obscenity

In reality, obscenity does not exist as such: it is a perception, a social representation. For example, the work The flowers of evil of Baudelaire at the time of the publication he was considered a stomach, and then became a masterpiece of French literature. Judging by the numerous paintings found in Pompeii, we could naively think that the city was nothing more than a vast brothel. Of course, one could find a luparean decorated with pornographic paintings, but also many dwellings, more or less rich, exposed lewd paintings in everyone's eyes, residents and guests.

There were no secret rooms in Pompeian dwellings. They are the Christian authors as Tertullian who upset the perception of eroticism, transforming the celebration of life to offense to modesty: "Under the pressure of Christianity, the erotic body would have been increasingly hidden and denigrated".

Matron and prostitutes

Basically the Roman society was not egalitarian. Today the laws are the same for everyone: in Rome, everything depended on the legal status of the individual: rights, duties and behaviors differentiated themselves radically based on the fact that a woman was a spouse of a citizen or a slave. Between the two poles gravitated other status, more ambiguous, such as the freedmen, or the slaves to whom freedom had been made, but which remained submitted to their old masters.

The married women, called matrone, had to own three essential qualities, specifies Virginie Girod: chastity, loyalty and fertility. It was not at all sexual abstinence, but the wife, a woman of the house, had to devote herself exclusively to her husband. When he went out of the house, he had to cover himself with large clothes that disguised the shapes, in order to make his sexual unavailability understand. Fertility was seen as the greatest physical quality of matrons; The Romans particularly admired women who had given birth more than ten or twelve times.

The prostitutes, on the contrary, took charge of recreational and non -reproductive sexuality. They were seen as sexual objects. They resorted to several accessories in order to increase their erotic potential. The full nakedness does not seem to excite the Romans very much, who preferred the female bodies adorned with jewelry, or surrounded by chains that often measured several meters in length. They also loved making love with girls who only wore a bra. We probably tried to conceal flaccidity or excessive volume of breasts, in an era where men appreciated small and firm breasts. According to another hypothesis, the piece of fabric excited the partner in that he suggested the act of stripping in progress; the bra constitutes a sort of "Last barrier", writes the historic.

Coded sexual practices

The Romans, like the Greeks, distinguished two types of partner Sexual: the dominant man who penetrated sexually, and the dominated person who was penetrated, whether he was a woman or a boy. But, contrary to what is sometimes written, it is not an opposition between being active and passive. The dominant could be passive and the dominated person active, like the woman who rides the lover in a position called "erotic horse". It is clear that the Knight, who is however seen as dominated, was far from being active during the ride.

Virginie Girod consecrates a very detailed chapter to sexual practices that evokes without false modesty. It is learned that the Romans loved kisses, more or less sweet. They often kissed prostitutes in the mouth, like preliminary.

Vaginal orgasm was mainly part of the sexuality of couple, as the main objective of marriage was procreation. But the prostitutes opened their vagina to customers, with the risk, when they remained pregnant, to be temporarily unavailable. Sodomy e fellatio they allowed to escape these consequences.

"A legitimate spouse was born free and was not to practice the fellatio." This task was reserved for prostitutes and slaves of both sexes. Core and prisoner they were socially despised; For this reason the two terms served as insults. Virginie Girod cites the graffiti found in surprising Pompeii, such as "Secundilla fellatrix" ("Secundilla the prosecutor"). A equivalent is still found, today, in public bathrooms. More surprising again: "Sabina Fellas, not beautiful faces" ("Sabina Prati Fellatio, but you don't do them well").

"Lick-vagina": the supreme insult

If the fellatio is seen as degrading, the cunnilingus It is considered even worse, the person who practices him is in a dog's position. "Lick-vagina" It was one of the worst insults that could be heard in Rome.

The Latin Martial poet (Epigrams IX) complains of an obligatory servant to lick his mistress; he vomited every morning. Some rich Roman also possessed living erotic games: they bought beautiful slaves, who castrated in order to benefit from sexual pleasure without risking being pregnant, as Giovenale tells (Satire you)

We stop here. The immense merit of Virginie Girod's book is to highlight, through a simple and pleasant reading style, an intimate and confidential Roman history, often ignored. Pedante reader, take up.

* Christian-Georges Schwentzel is professor of ancient history at the University of Lorena.

Original text: Les Romains Étaient-Ils des Obsédés Sexuels?