The Brothels of Ancient Rome

Marriage relations were understood in the classical world as a contract for family interests and as a mechanism to generate legitimate children who inherited the property and situation of their parents. Sexual pleasure was sought in places outside the home where many of the practices that were carried out were considered immodest for a Roman matron.

He roman law defined whores as "people who openly get money with their bodies" because prostitution was considered a social and necessary good. Thanks to this we know a lot about the types of prostitutes, their activities and even the prices of prostitutes and prostitutes, since there was also the prostitution of young men dedicated to a feminine and homosexual public.

So we know that this practice was practiced normally in specific streets, public toilets or in various tabernae[1]. However, in the following article I intend to focus attention on the buildings dedicated to pleasure, the brothels, to find out how they were organized, what the atmosphere was and how they fit into the Roman thought of the time.

In the 4th century AD, in the city of Rome, more than 50 places of prostitution were officially registered.. In neighborhoods like Subura or Trastevere there were the most sordid places while the Aventino housed places with a higher economic level.

These places were easily identifiable, firstly because there were signs indicating the direction to the nearest brothel, whether they are phalluses engraved on the ground pavement or vertical signs. In addition, these premises had a huge phallus painted vermilion red, which served as a knocker on the door. Also at night, the establishments would be illuminated by phallic shaped oil lanterns.

There were many types of brothels in the Roman world, so it is very difficult to establish a general architectural rule for this building. The excellent conservation of the city of Pompeii has provided data in this regard, with about 30 buildings related to prostitution. Among them, the lupanare It is the best known and best studied brothel, of which we can see an example of what the structure of these premises was like.

He lupanare had two plants, one at ground level and one first floor.
The ground floor was intended for access by slaves or the poorest classes, while the upper floor was dedicated to a clientele with greater purchasing power. In this plant It also had a good balcony from which the prostitutes seduced the pedestrians with their proposals and sensual movements..

In the lobby of these premises there was a Priapus[2] erect of great proportions that welcomed the visitor as male sexual power symbol. Inside it had a corridor and rooms with beds. It is known that on the ground floor there were normally a maximum of five rooms with a prostitute for each one. These cubicles were called “fornicas”, name from which our verb to fornicate is born.

The upper floor was accessed through a separate entrance that led to a staircase and then to the balcony. The different rooms opened onto this balcony, larger and more decorated than those on the ground floor. This upper floor was reserved for a more affluent clientele.

Later, at the entrance of each of the fornicas, there were paintings showing the sexual specialties of his prostitutes and a blackboard with his name and his rates, so the customer knew very well what he was buying. It was not the same one quadrant (so called to charge a quadrant for their services, a pittance), that a felatriz, a specialist in fellatio and oral sex, a practice that no worthy woman or man would perform in a normal situation.

There was also at the entrances of the fornicas posters with the word busy, to hang it on the door when the whore was with a client. Many of the walls were covered with paintings expressing different erotic positions as decoration.

Finally, the beds of the fornicas they were mortar. A straw or down mattress was placed on top to make the sexual act more comfortable.. The only furniture they contained was an oil lamp and a basin for cleaning.

So that, Roman lupanaries were buildings dedicated to normally male sexual pleasure. Its architectural profile is the result of the ideological structure of Roman society and the activity that was carried out in it.

For a start, the building was normally located at a street junction. This was a point of continuous influx of pedestrians and where the prostitutes who walked around the surroundings were visible from any street that crossed it. This should be a main factor to attract customers.

The exhibition of the local offer continued on the balcony. The fact of placing the prostitutes to dance and calling pedestrians compliments from a balcony, that is, from a high stage, implied a greater visuality of the girls. These were more easily visible to potential customers, and in turn, they could better control what was happening in the surrounding streets.

So much publicity contrasts the point of privacy that the client seeks for the sexual act with the division of space into small rooms. It is true that each cubicle could be dedicated to a different sexual practice, but the reduced space and the possibility of having a door or cloth to cover the entrance denote this will. In addition, the fact that the space was small and the furniture scarce also implied a precaution against possible attacks on prostitutes. Reducing the space and the objects that could be used as a weapon would prevent attacks and the escape of the possible aggressor.

There are also two levels, the ground floor for the poor and the first floor for the rich.. Access to these spaces was independent, so the two types of customers did not coincide.

Also, each of the rooms on the first floor opened directly onto the balcony. Why have this communication between balcony and room? In my opinion this would be due to the possibility of rich clients to choose a prostitute. Wealthy pedestrians, who were attracted to different whores, could choose "the one they liked best" as a showcase. If client and prostitute agreed to a sexual act, she would need direct access to his room to meet him..

Finally, we must talk about the decor. With him Priapus, the mural paintings on the walls would also have a very clear function: excite the visitor. The sexual scenes, on the one hand, showed what could be practiced in that brothel, and on the other, excited and incited the visitors to perform and discover new positions and sexual practices.

So that, the brothels of Rome have been described as dirty places, poorly ventilated, full of bad odors and characterized by a lack of hygiene and the accumulation of soot and gases from the numerous lamps. Although there were also the most luxurious places, perfectly prepared and with great detail.

Depending on the type of neighborhood you entered, you could be in danger, so the richest characters would be accompanied by their own escort of slaves armed with lanterns and sticks. As he tells us plautus “Here we have all the categories of men: gentlemen, on foot, emancipated, thief, escaped slave, escaped convict, and debt slaves. The suripantas receive anyone as long as they have money“.

For his part, the prostitutes either lupae[3] they would be displayed on the street, walking along the sidewalk attracting customers, alone, in pairs or forming groups. There would also be those who claimed you from the balconies of the brothel or from its very door, as we have seen.

The reception area, better or worse prepared depending on the level of the brothel, could include food and drink services, as Plautus describes it to us. “full of dark corners and little rooms. You drink and eat like in taverns. Lined up on shelves along the walls are sealed jars of pitch, with long labels, an indication that this is a place frequented by good drinkers.”

In this area, the prostitutes showed themselves to the clients dressed in gauze or naked., announcing themselves according to their specialty, most of them with exotic names and surely lying about their place of origin, attributing their origin to some exotic and distant point in the world. Roman empire.

I would not want to close this section without mentioning one primary source of information to know first-hand the thought of those people: the graffiti that clients and prostitutes left on the walls of these houses. In Pompeii, more than 120 inscriptions have been documented, which are very reminiscent of those left today in any public bath:

“So I got here, fucked and came back home” (CIL, IV, 2346)

"Festus fucked here with his comrades" (CIL, IV, 3935)

"Haspocras fucked here very comfortably with Drauca for a denarius" (CIL, IV, 2193)

“Whoever writes this is in love; whoever reads it, takes it up the ass; the one who listens, gets hot; whoever passes by is a fag; let the bears eat me, and I, who read it, a dick” (CIL, IV, 2360)

"Gaius Valerius Venustus, soldier of the first Praetorian cohort, maximum fucker" (CIL, IV, 2145)

"Crisero and Suceso screwed here three times each" (CIL, 4816)

In summary, we see how brothels were places of reference for pleasure, normally male. Roman politics understood the social need for the existence of this trade, which is why it legislated and regulated all the premises and workers related to prostitution. As the Roman historian wrote Tacit, women who wanted to engage in prostitution had to register with the mayor's office to have the licentia stupri and thus legally prostitute.

Thus Roman civilization understood prostitution as something normal and everyday. Sex for pleasure, social sex, was regulated and allowed, even widespread and accepted as a necessity within the community. Roman society tolerated quite promiscuous and liberal behaviors and ethics, where extramarital relationships were totally normal. The only requirement was to stay within the limits of legal and social regulations.

It must be understood that marital, loving and sexual relationships in classical antiquity had a very different meaning from the one we understand today.. Weddings represented contracts between families and a system by which to sire children to follow the lineage. Fun and pleasure were sought in specialized places, subtracting the house for chores and business.

It should also be noted how prostitution was accessible to all social classes. There were differences in luxuries, prices and prostitutes according to the purchasing power of the clients, that is, we found a stratification of sexual pleasure where the business expands its public, but hierarchizes the services provided.

Finally, aim at the Greek influence of the primordial pursuit of pleasure, although surely by inheritance of the rational hedonism of Epicurus, the Romans also understood that everything has its fair measure, even for visits to prostitutes. A clear example of this morality can be found in an anecdote about Cato the Elder When he saw the son of a friend of his leave a brothel, he withdrew his eyes, ashamed, although Cato told him "what you do is fine, so when desire swells your veins you will not abuse decent women." But the next day he ran into the young man who was leaving the brothel again and this time he reprimanded him saying "Boy, I told you it was okay for you to visit that place, not for you to live in it."

Bibliography and Webgraphy

"Alkmst" (2014). Prostitution in Roman culture. [on-line] Historsex.blogspot.com [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

Doménech, Asunción (2012) – The Adventure of History – 164 – Rome, the business of prostitution. Publisher: Editorial Unit Society of Magazines SLU

Lubbes, F. (1979). Archäelogisches Führer Pompeji. p.302.

McClure, L. (2002). Sexuality and gender in the classical world. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

McGinn, T. (2007). Prostitution, sexuality, and the law in ancient Rome. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Sanz, J. (2011). Whore classes in ancient Rome. [on-line] Stories of History [Accessed on 1 Sep. 2018].

Sanz, J. and Priego, J. (2016). PROSTITUTION, FEMALE AND MALE, IN ANCIENT ROME | Stories of History. [on-line] YouTube [Accessed on 2 Sep. 2018].

Vanoyeke, V. (1990). Prostitution in Greece and Rome. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

Williams, C. (2010). Roman homosexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.

[1] The tabernae They were shops located in the basement of the buildings or the domi (houses). The inns located on the main roads were also known as taverns.

[2] In Greek mythology, Priapus is a rustic minor god of fertility, both of vegetation and of all animals related to agricultural life, and a purely phallic character.

[3] The magnifying glass or in the plural lupae It was the name given to the prostitutes who worked solely and exclusively in brothels.