In Bed with the RomansOne way or another the Romans spent quite a lot of time in bed, in between conquering and civilising the known world. The men were intent on demonstrating their power and virility; the women were busy conceiving, delivering and raising as many children as possible, in order to keep Rome topped up with soldiers, politicians and workers. In Bed with the Romans takes the clothes off Roman society to reveal the truth about sex and sexuality. It describes love and marriage; the role of the wife in the family and in religion, as well as in bed; and sexual medicine, homosexuality, pornography and pederasty. All manner of sexual behaviour is covered in this comprehensive and balanced discussion of the Roman relationship with sex. Paul Chrystal vividly describes the sexual predilections and debauchery of the Roman emperors and their empresses and mistresses, and draws his conclusions from literature, ancient graffiti, inscriptions and the visual arts that form the bedrock of this book. |
Contents
The Incomplete Woman and Sexual Medicine | |
the Need or Not for Venus | |
the Need for Virtus | |
Bacchanalian Orgies and Vestal Virginity | |
Raping the Romans | |
In Bed with a Soldier | |
Gladiator Adulator | |
Roman Sexual Vocabulary | |
In Bed with the Emperors and an Empress or | |
Flawless Faithful and Fornicating | |
Capricious Depravity with Tiberius | |
the domina and Her Love Slave | |
CrossDressing Transsexualism and SameSex Marriage | |
The Whore Augusta Incest with Caligula and Claudius | |
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Common terms and phrases
adultery affair Agrippina Antinous Antiquity Augustus Aurelius baby baths behaviour birth boys breast brothel Caesar Caligula Cambridge Cato Catullus childbirth Cicero Claudius Cornelia daughter death describes divorce Domitian dowry dressed Elagabalus emperor Empire erotic eunuchs exile father Faustina female freeborn Gaius Galen genitals girls gladiator graffiti Greek and Roman Hadrian Hippocratic Historia Augusta History homosexual Horace husband intercourse Julia Justinian Juvenal Latin lesbian Livia Livy London lover Lucius Lucretius Magic male Marcus marriage married Martial matrona Medicine Messalina mother Nero Nero’s Octavian Ovid Ovid’s penetration penis Petronius phallus Plautus Pliny Pliny the Elder Plutarch poets Pompeii pregnant Priapus Procopius Propertius prostitutes pudicitia rape Richlin role Roman society Roman Women Roman World Satyricon second century Seneca slave Soranus stuprum Suetonius Tacitus tells Theodora Tiberius univira vagina Valerius Maximus Venus Verginia Vestal Virgins virtue wedding whore wife wife’s wives woman womb