The Brothels of Ancient Rome

Marital relations were understood in the classical world as a contract for family interests and as a mechanism to beget legitimate children who would inherit the property and status of their parents. Sexual pleasure was sought in places outside the home where many of the practices performed were considered unchaste for a Roman matron.

The Roman Law defined prostitutes as "people who openly obtain money with their bodies" because they prostitution was considered a social and necessary good.. Thanks to this we know a lot about the types of prostitutestheir activities and even the prices of prostitutes y prostitutesThere was also prostitution of young men dedicated to a female and homosexual public.

We know that this practice was exercised normally in specific streets, public restrooms or in various tabernae[1]. However, in the following article I intend to focus on the buildings dedicated to pleasure, the lupanars, to find out how they were organized, what the atmosphere was like and how they fitted into the Roman thinking of the time.

In the 4th century A.D., more than 50 brothels were officially registered in the city of Rome.. In neighborhoods such as Subura or Trastevere there were the most sordid locals while the Aventine hosted locals with a higher economic level.

These premises were easily identifiable, firstly because there were signs indicating the direction to the nearest whorehouseThe premises had a number of signs, either phalluses engraved on the floor pavement or vertical signs. In addition, these premises had a huge phallus painted vermilion redwhich served as a door knocker. Also at night, the establishments would be illuminated by oil lanterns with phallic shapes.

There were many types of brothels in the Roman world, so that it is very difficult to establish a general architectural rule for this building. The excellent preservation of the city of Pompeii has provided data in this regard, with some 30 buildings related to prostitution. Among them, the Lupanare is the best known and best studied brothel, from which we can learn an example of the structure of these premises.

The Lupanare had two floorsone at ground level and a second floor.
The first floor was intended for slaves or the poorer classes, while the upper floor was dedicated to a more affluent clientele. On this floor, the also had a good balcony from which the prostitutes seduced pedestrians with their proposals and sensual movements..

In the foyer of these premises was located a Príapo[2] erect of large proportions that welcomed the visitor as a symbol of male sexual power. Inside it had a corridor and rooms with beds. It is known that on the first floor there were usually a maximum of five rooms with a prostitute for each room.. These cubicles were called "fornicesThe name from which our verb "to fornicate" originates.

The upper floor was accessed by a separate entrance leading to a staircase and then to the balcony. This balcony overlooked the different rooms, which were larger and more decorated than those on the first floor. This upper floor was reserved for a more affluent clientele..

Further on, at the entrance to each of the fornices, there were paintings showing the sexual specialties of his prostitutes and a blackboard with their names and rates.The customer knew exactly what he was buying. It was not the same as a quadrantaria (so called to charge a pittance for their services), which a felatrizShe is a specialist in fellatio and oral sex, a practice that no worthy woman or man would perform in a normal situation.

There were also at the entrances of the fornices posters with the word occupatato hang on the door when the prostitute was with a client. Many of the walls were covered with paintings expressing different erotic positions as decoration.

Finally, the beds of the fornices were made of 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.

Thus, Roman lupanars were buildings dedicated to sexual pleasure, usually male.. Its architectural profile is the result of the ideological structure of Roman society and the activity that took place there.

For starters, the building was normally located at a crossroads of streets. This was a point of continuous influx of pedestrians and where the prostitutes were visible walking around from any street that crosses it. This must have been a major factor in attracting customers.

The display of the store's offerings continued on the balcony.. The fact of placing the prostitutes to dance and call out compliments to pedestrians from a balcony, that is, from an elevated stage, implied a greater visuality of the girls. They were more easily seen by the alleged clients, and in turn, they could better control what was going on in the surrounding streets.

So much publicity contrasts the point of privacy sought by the client for the sexual act with the division of the 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 reduced and the furniture scarce also implied a precaution against possible aggressions to prostitutes. Reducing the space and the objects that could be used as a weapon would prevent aggressions and the escape of the possible aggressor.

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

In addition, each of the rooms on the second floor opened directly onto the balcony. Why have this communication between balcony and room? In my opinion, this was due to the possibility for wealthy clients to choose prostitutes. Wealthy pedestrians, who were attracted by the different prostitutes, could choose "the one they liked the most", as a kind of showcase. If client and prostitute agreed on a sexual act, the prostitute would need direct access to his room to meet him..

Finally, it is important to mention the decoration. Together with the PríapoThe 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 lupanar, and on the other hand, excited and incited visitors to to perform and discover new sexual postures and practices.

Thus, the brothels of Rome have been described as dirty places.The facilities are poorly ventilated, full of bad odors and characterized by a lack of hygiene and the accumulation of soot and fumes from the numerous lamps. However, there were also the most luxurious premisesperfectly prepared and with all luxury of details.

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 it tells us Plautus "Here we have all categories of men: gentlemen, foot, emancipated, thief, escaped slave, escaped convict, and debt slaves. Suripantas welcome anyone as long as they have money.".

For its part, prostitutes o lupae[3] would be exhibited in the streetwalking along the sidewalk attracting customers, alone, in pairs or in groups. There were also those who claimed you from the balconies of the brothel or from their own door, as we have seen.

The reception area, better or worse prepared depending on the level of the brothel, could include food and beverage services, as described by Plautus "full of dark corners and shacks. One drinks and eats as in taverns. Lined up on shelves along the walls are pitchers sealed with fish, with long labels, a sign that it is a place frequented by good drinkers".

In this area, the prostitutes showed themselves to the clients dressed in gauze or naked.most of them with exotic names and probably lying about their place of origin, claiming an origin in some exotic and distant part of the world. Roman Empire.

I would not want to close this section without mentioning a primary source of information to know first hand the thinking of those people: the graffiti that clients and prostitutes left on the walls of these homes. More than 120 inscriptions have been documented in Pompeii, which are very reminiscent of those that are left today in any public restroom:

"So I came here, fucked and went home" (CIL, IV, 2346).

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

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

"He who writes this is in love; he who reads it, takes it up the ass; he who listens, gets horny; he who passes by, is a faggot; may the bears eat me, and I, who read it, a cunt" (CIL, IV, 2360).

"Gaius Valerius Venutius, 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 the lupanars were places of reference for pleasure, usually male.. Roman politics understood the social necessity of the existence of this trade and therefore 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 dispose of the licentia stupri and thus legally prostitute themselves.

In this way Roman civilization understood prostitution as a normal, everyday occurrence.. Sex for pleasure, social sex, was regulated and permitted, even widespread and accepted as a necessity within the community. Roman society tolerated quite promiscuous and liberal behavior and ethics, where extramarital relations were totally normal. The only requirement was to stay within the limits of legal and social norms.

It must be understood that marital, love and sexual relations in classical antiquity had a very different meaning than the one we understand today.. Weddings represented contracts between families and a system by which to beget children who would follow the lineage. Fun and pleasure were sought in specialized places, leaving the home for chores and business.

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

Finally, aiming at the Greek influence of the primordial search for pleasure, although probably due to the inheritance of the rational hedonism of Epicurusthe Romans also understood that everything has its fair shareeven for visits to prostitutes. A clear example of this morality can be found in an anecdote from Cato the Elder who saw the son of a friend of his coming out of a brothel, the latter, ashamed, looked away, although Cato told him "what you are doing is right, so that when desire swells your veins you will not abuse decent women". But the next day he came across the young man who was leaving the brothel again and this time he reproached him saying "Boy, I told you it was right for you to visit that place, not to live in it".

Bibliography and Webography

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

Doménech, Asunción (2012) - La Aventura de la Historia - 164 - Roma, el negocio de la prostitución. Publishing house: Unidad Editorial Sociedad de Revistas S. L. U.

Lübbes, 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). Classes of whores in ancient Rome. [online] Stories from History [Accessed 1 Sep. 2018].

Sanz, J. and Priego, J. (2016). PROSTITUTION, FEMALE AND MALE, IN ANCIENT ROME | Histories of History. [online] YouTube [Accessed 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 were stores located on the first floor of the buildings or in 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 plural lupae was the name given to prostitutes who worked only and exclusively in brothels.