Contents:
- WHY THE ROMANS ARE IMPORTANT THE DEBATE ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE
- THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY
WHY THE ROMANS ARE IMPORTANT THE DEBATE ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE
In honour of LGBTQIA+ history month, Ancient History alumni Ollie Burns tak a closer look at the social, polil, and cultural implitns of homosexualy ancient Rome. Trigger Warng: sexual vlence, homophobia, paedophilia, nudy.
The prentatn and perceptn of homosexualy the Roman world was vastly different than how is today, and giv an example of how homosexualy has been libly lked wh munitns of power and thory antiquy. The Lat language has no word for eher heterosexual or homosexual, and stead partners a sexual relatnship would be prented as eher active, synonymo wh masculy, or passive and therefore, feme, regardls of the genr of the dividuals volved. Freeborn male Romans had the civil liberty to do as they pleased when me to sexual activy, and as such, the ncept of a Roman man engagg homosexual sex was no way ntroversial or taboo to the Romans, as long as fell wh certa parameters.
As a rult of this, men were ee to engage homosexual relatnships, so long as they were the active partner wh the perative power, and the submissive partner was nsired to be lower society than them. He was approachg an age which would renr him too old for his relatnship wh the Emperor to be socially appropriate, which, if te, monstrat the strict fixedns of the parameters around which homosexual relatns were permted among Roman men.
THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY
While is unclear as to whether this claim is te, Caar was moured to have been the passive sexual partner, earng him the tle ‘The Queen of Bhynia’ om his enemi, monstratg the relatnship between passivy and femy, as well as the emasculatory effects that beg the recipient of homosexual sex entailed. In summary, homosexualy ancient Rome was as much about munitns of power and stat than was about attractn and emotn, wh sex as a vehicle to exercise privilege and domance.
For more rmatn, see Craig Williams’ ‘ Roman Homosexualy’, Saara Lijia’s ‘Homosexualy Republin and Augtan Rome’, or Suetoni’ ‘Liv of the Caars’.