The Brothels of Ancient Rome

Marital relations were understood in the classical world as a contract for family interests and as a mechanism for begetting legitimate children who would inherit their parents' property and status. 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 make money from 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 prostitutesThe prostitution of young men catering to a female and homosexual public also existed.

We know that this practice was carried out as a matter of course in specific streets, public toilets 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 organised, what the atmosphere was like and how they fitted into the Roman thinking of the time.

In the 4th century AD more than 50 brothels were officially registered in the city of Rome.. In neighbourhoods such as Subura or Trastevere there were the seedier premises, while the Aventine was home to more affluent premises.

These premises were easily identifiable, firstly because there were signs pointing in the direction of the nearest brothelThe premises had 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 in phallic shapes.

There were many types of brothels in the Roman world, It is therefore 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 see an example of the structure of these premises.

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

In the foyer of these premises was located a Priapus[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 ground floor there were usually a maximum of five rooms with one prostitute for each room. These cubicles were called "fornicesThe noun from which our verb "to fornicate" is born.

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 ground 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 specialities of their 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 quadrant for their services, a pittance), which one felatrizHe 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 for men. Its architectural profile is the result of the ideological structure of Roman society and the activity that took place there.

To begin with, the building was usually located at a crossroads. This was a point of continuous influx of pedestrians and where the prostitutes who strolled around it were visible from any street that crosses it. This must have been a major factor in attracting customers.

The display of the shop's offer continued on the balcony.. Positioning the prostitutes to dance and call out compliments to pedestrians from a balcony, i.e. from an elevated stage, meant that the girls were more visible. The girls were more easily visible to would-be customers, and in turn, they were better able to monitor what was going on in the surrounding streets.

So much publicity contrasts the point of privacy that the client seeks 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 a cloth to cover the entrance indicate this will. Moreover, the fact that the space was small and the furniture sparse also implied a precaution against possible aggressions against prostitutes. Reducing the space and the objects that could be used as a weapon would prevent aggression 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 that the two types of customers did not coincide.

In addition, 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 was due to the possibility for rich clients to choose a prostitute. 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 necessary to talk about the decoration. Together with the PriapusThe wall 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 practised in that brothel, and on the other hand, excited and incited the visitors to to perform and discover new sexual positions and practices.

Thus, the brothels of Rome have been described as dirty placesThe poorly ventilated, foul-smelling, unhygienic and unhygienic facilities are characterised by the accumulation of soot and fumes from the numerous lamps. However, there were also the more luxurious venuesperfectly prepared and with all the details.

Depending on the type of neighbourhood 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 categories of men: knights, footmen, emancipated, thieves, escaped slaves, escaped convicts, and debt slaves. Suripantas welcome anyone as long as they have money.".

For its part, prostitutes o lupae[3] would be displayed on the streetThey would stroll along the pavement attracting clients, alone, in pairs or in groups. There were also those who called out to you from the balconies of the brothel or from their own door, as we have seen.

The reception area, better or worse prepared according to the level of the brothel, could include food and drink services, as described by Plautus "full of dark corners and shacks. You drink and eat like in taverns. Lined up on shelves along the walls are long-labelled, fish-sealed pitchers, a sign that this is a place frequented by good drinkers.

In this area the prostitutes showed themselves to the clients dressed in gauze or naked.The majority of them advertise themselves according to their speciality, 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 get a first-hand insight into the thinking of those people: the graffiti which clients and prostitutes left on the walls of these houses. More than 120 inscriptions have been documented in Pompeii, which are very reminiscent of those left today at any public bath:

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

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

"Haspocras fucked here 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; let 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 fucked here three times each" (CIL, 4816).

In a nutshell, 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 premises and workers related to prostitution. As the Roman historian wrote Tacit, women who wanted to engage in prostitution had to register at the councillor's office to dispose of the licentia stupri and thus legally prostitute themselves.

In this way Roman civilisation understood prostitution as something normal and everyday.. 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 behaviour and ethics, where extra-marital 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 what we understand today.. Weddings represented contracts between families and a system by which to sire children to carry on the lineage. Entertainment and pleasure were sought in specialised places, leaving the home for chores and business.

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

Finally, aiming at the Greek influence of the primordial pursuit of pleasure, although surely as a legacy 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 passed the young man coming out of 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

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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. [onlineYouTube [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 shops located on the ground floor of the buildings or the domi (houses). The inns along 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 exclusively in brothels.