ROMA EROTICA

[tlclark]

The Greek and Roman societies, on the other hand, were urban and centered on the security of the city/state. They didn't care what people did to amuse themselves sexually. They cared very much about political/social attitudes. Fornication and buggery were not serious. Treason was serious. In Rome, the greatest crimes were those that endangered the whole community, arson being at the top of the list. Sacrilege was also serious, because it angered the gods, who would punish the whole community.

I think that the looser attitudes towards prostitution and other sexual acts are the product of pluralistic, relatively free cosmopolitan societies as you suggest, the question is are those normative of the population? I think not. There are numerous Roman pagan injunctions to chastity and fidelity, family and marriage. Too many to mention. Our society is very cosmopolitan and comparable to Roman society in many ways (but not others) and most of us are not philanderers, pornographers or particularly promiscuous regardless of our religious views on pre-marital sex. While we hear statistics that say that 50% of men engage in extramarital sex those statistics don't give us any idea about the frequencies and attitudes. When we do hear what adulterers feel about their actions most concede it was a mistake or it was a daliance an not a serial behavior.

What does this mean for Romans? I think that the historical record argues for a fairly conservative set of sexual morals, on pragmatic and religious grounds, with all the usual exceptions, failings and endemic problems that humans always face.

The evidence that this is the case is that there is no evidence that prostitution abated during the Christian period. All the usual sexual vices were present during the Byzantine period despite the endless harrangue of Christians.

If anything I think the pagan era is marked by a more epicurean attitude towards sex, that excess prevents future enjoyment of pleasures. In Rome, the concept of personal and familial virtus is also pretty strong. It was couched in moral terms, but not in eschatological terms like the Christians. Rather it was the moral terms of the family and personal honor and dignity so there was a strong shame component there as well.

but I'm just rambling and far from my notes on this subject when I was doing research on this so I better stop the endless stream of generalizations now before I hurt myself. :wink:

On a related note, I offer this from my diss research:

Moreover, all the brute animals copulate without seeing each other face to face, and have commerce in a brutal and shameless manner. But man alone as rational proceeds to the act face to face, so that the pair seeing each other may embrace with reason, modesty, and reverence, and may thankfully sing the praises of their Maker for his goodness in giving to their nature help and mutual impulse for the propagation and multiplication of our race. God moreover made the woman from the man's side, because the two sides bind the whole body close together; for he neither made her from the front of man lest the woman should exalt herself above him, nor from his back parts that he might not exalt himself above the woman; but from his side, as being in her nature his equal, although the man, as the cause, is first in point of time, but not, however, in his nature itself. And still further----since the hand always protects and guards the side to which it belongs, so when he had made the female from the male, and the male from the earth, God pronounced the two to be one flesh, both from the constitution of the two sides, and from the fruit that springs from their connection. Wherefore the fornicator sins by estranging his own flesh and sowing illegitimate progeny; nay, he that commits adultery is ranked with the homicide, since he divides what is one flesh, and thus perpetrates murder.

- Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography Book 3

It shows that early Christian views were engaged in the meaning and value of sex and tried to create a naturalistic view of its value and spiritual dimension.[/quote]