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In Bed with the Romans

In Bed with the Romans

by Paul Chrystal
In Bed with the Romans

In Bed with the Romans

by Paul Chrystal

Overview

One 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781445666730
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Publication date: 08/01/2017
Series: In Bed with the ...
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Paul Chrystal was educated at the Universities of Hull and Southampton where he took degrees in Classics and wrote his MPhil thesis on attitudes to women in Roman love poetry. He appears regularly on BBC local radio the World Service. He is the author of over fifty books on a wide range of subjects, including histories of northern places, social histories of tea and of chocolate, a history of confectionery in Yorkshire and various aspects of classical literature and Roman history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7

Part 1 In Bed with a Roman

Introduction: Whose Bed Is It Anyway? 10

1 Love, and Being a Matrona 13

2 Marriage, Divorce and Adultery 36

3 'The Incomplete Woman' and Sexual Medicine 50

4 Birth Control, Aphrodisiacs and Love Potions: the Need (or Not) for Venus 79

5 Buggery, Beasts and Brothels: the Need for Virtus 92

6 Sex in the Afternoon: the domina and Her Love Slave 127

7 Cross-Dressing, Transsexualism and Same-Sex Marriage 139

8 Bacchanalian Orgies and Vestal Virginity 144

9 Raping the Romans 157

10 The Power of Sex: In Bed with a Soldier 163

11 Gladiator Adulator 168

12 Bad Language: Roman Sexual Vocabulary 174

Part 2 In Bed with the Emperors, and an Empress or Two

13 Augustus' Women: Flawless, Faithful and Fornicating 182

14 Capricious Depravity with Tiberius 188

15 'The "Whore Augusta', Incest with Caligula and Claudius, and Nero's Necrophilia 191

16 Hadrian and Antinous: A Man Worth Dying For 214

17 Faustina and the Gladiator's Bloodbath; the Vile Corruption of Commodus 219

18 Elagabalus: 'An Unspeakably Disgusting Life' 223

19 Theodora: Slut or Saint? 229

Primary Sources Cited 234

Abbreviations 258

Bibliography 260

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