1AD - 499 AD
AD
8 ADOvid had completed Metamorphoses by this time. Includes Jove’s yearning for
Ganymede, and Orpheus’s love for Thracian men.
The poet Horace died. He is supposed to have a thousand passions for both boys &
girls. His friend and patron Maecenas died a few months earlier and is reputed to
have loved Horace “more than my own bowels.”
26 Tiberius retires to Capri, where stories of sexual excess including same-sex became
rife. He is supposed to have trained young boys to lick and nibble him underwater.
c40 Philo of Alexandria criticises the sexual underworld of his time by evoking Hellenistic
practices of the past: “They accustomed those who were by nature men to submit to
play the part of women, and saddled them with the formidable curse of a female
disease.”
c.55Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians – appears to include a prohibition on pederasty.
c.56-8Paul’s letter to the Romans – only passage in the New Testament to condemn both
male and female same-sex activity, but he also condemns judgementalism.
c.60The Satyricon by Petronius is written. It includes Eumolpus lusting after and then
having sex with an ephebe (18-19). Eventually, Eumolphus can no longer satisfy the
ephebe. Also featured is a cinaedus, an effeminate man, but sexually active.
c.65 Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius are produced - a man loses dignity if he complies in same-
sex acts, especially oral sex.
67Nero marries Sporus, after he has him castrated. Sporus resembled Poppaea, the wife he
had kicked to death.
69Year of the 4 emperors. The first after Nero, Galba is reputed to have liked mature, vigorous men.
81Domitian becomes Emperor of Rome. Claudius Pollio often shows a letter of
Domitian’s in his own handwriting, asking for an assignation. Domitian outlawed
castration, but had a close relationship with his own eunuch, Earinus.
Martial, Source: Wikipedia
86-98 Martial writes his Epigrams. Many of these show an appreciation of
same-sex activity. His accounts of the sexual habits of his era, are the most nuanced
of any period up to the present.
98 The Germania by Tacitus claims that effeminate men of the Naharvali [who later
joined the vandals] may have become priests.
c.108 Epictetus, Greek stoic philosopher, was teaching was admired by early Christians,
spoke of same-sex & male-female sexual attraction in equal terms.
115 Death of Dio Chrysotom, Greek philosopher. He had a friend who could divine any
character. One individual had him stumped, until he sneezed, when he identified
him as a ‘catamite!’
120 Death of Plutarch. His Lives portray same-sex relationships between men honestly,
eg. Alcibiades. His Dialogue on Love borrows some of the ideas from the Symposia
of Plato and Xenephon.
c.125Straton of Sardis writes poems in praise of love of adolescent boys.
130Drowning of Antinous, lover of the Emperor Hadrian, in the Nile. Great outpouring
of grief by Hadrian. Many statues are put up to Antinous and cities were renamed
in his honour.
Bust of Antinous: Wikipedia
138 Hadrian adopts Marcus Aurelius as his heir, and appoints Marcus Cornelius Fronto as
his tutor. Marcus Aurelius’s letters to the latter could be read as love letters.
c.165Lucian of Samosata’s writes Dialogues of the Gods in Greek. This includes Dialogue
IV: Ganymede & Zeus.
170-80In the 5th of Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans, Clonarium has heard that Leaena
(female) is the lover of Megilla, a rich woman from Lesbos. Megilla has many
masculine characteristics.
173-4Herod Atticus starts a personality cult of Polydeukes, an adolescent discipline who
died. Two other disciples were accorded this honour when they died young.
177Commodus rules Rome after the death of Marcus Aurelius. Commodus is reputed to
have kept a naked young boy adorned with jewellery at his side. It was claimed of
Commodus that “every part of his body, even his mouth, was defiled by intercourse
with both male & female”.
c.180Maximus of Tyre believed Cretans conducted same-sex affairs in an exemplary
manner, and thought same-sex relationships existed between 18 & 19-year-olds.
200-69During the supposed reign of Empress Jingū of Japan, 2 male priests, Shino & Ama,
were buried together, after Shino died & the distraught Ama killed himself.
217-238 Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Flavius Philostratus is written. It is replete with
same-sex gossip.
219-222 Reign of Emperor Elgabalus. He shocked Rome with having sex with men as well
as women, and dressing as a woman.
c.220 Flavius Philostratus publishes a series of love letters addressed to young men.
Elagabalus, source: Wikipedia
c242Disciples of Mani, an Iranian prophet, believed that all emanations from the Elect were
holy, especially their semen. Flour was sprinkled on the semen & the mixture was cooked & eaten. Coitus interruptus with either gender was practiced.
c.300Eusebius alleged that young Celtic men were accustomed to have sex with each other.
c.305Synod of Elvira decreed that priests should refuse communion to men who raped boys.
c.310Lactantius, Christian tutor, favoured by Constantine, believed pederastic practices
were regarded as honourable.
311Death of Emperor Galerius. During his reign the soldiers, Sergius & Bacchus,
reputedly a same-sex couple, were put to death for their faith, and later became
Christian saints. Sergius & Bacchus may be fictional.
314Council of Ancyra [Ankara] set heavy penances for men (over 20) who behaved
“irrationally” – believed to refer to sodomy.
342Constantius & Constans introduced burning alive for passive same-sex acts.
Constans, according to Aurelius Victor, was renowned for scandalous behaviour with handsome barbarian hostages.
c.354Libanius notes pederasty was common in Antioch. When discussing passion, he only
speaks of same-sex love.
c.370The poet Ausonius educates the future St Paulinus of Nola. They wrote each other
exquisite love poetry, but it’s not known if their love had a physical expression.
371Augustine’s first visit to Carthage was where he “muddied the stream of friendship
with the fields of lewdness.”
375St Basil of Nyssa wrote that monks guilty of unseemly behaviour with others would
be punished in the same way as adulterers. Adolescents must never sleep next to
each other, but an old monk had to sleep between them.
c.375Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman soldier & historian, wrote about the Taifali people.
“In their country the boys are coupled with the men in a union of unmentionable
lust, to consume the flower of their youth in the polluted intercourse of those
paramours.”
376Augustine in Carthage enjoyed a friendship that was ‘sweeter to me than all the joys
of life’.
c.385Paulinus of Nola writes a love letter to his former tutor, Ausonius.
390Theodosius confirmed that the Roman state was against “the infamy of condemning
their manly body, transformed into a feminine one, to bear practices reserved for
the other sex” ie adult males who were passive. Male prostitutes were to be publicly
burned. A popular charioteer who enjoyed both active and passive sexual roles
was arrested causing widespread unrest. Ambrose refused to admit Theodosius
into Milan’s cathedral because the emperor had enforced Rome’s first anti-
same-sex laws too vigorously. The emperor was humiliated, the power of the
Catholic Church enhanced, and the authority of the Roman Empire was weakened.
c.400John Chrysostom preached against same-sex acts. He claimed people consorted
more with young men than with prostitutes. The fathers of the young men seem to
acquiesce. Additionally, he claimed “there is some danger that womankind will
become unnecessary in the future with young men instead fulfilling all the needs
women were used to”. He advised against long hair to prevent young men looking
effeminate.
c.429Institutes of the Monastic Life by St John Cassian describes the 6 stages which
advance towards chastity.
438Active Roman same-sex acts were now condemned, but same-sex male prostitution
was still tolerated and taxed by Christian emperors.
455According to Procopius the Vandals selected 300 of their most beautiful boys to be
sent as house slaves to Roman patricians. They were to put up with sexual favours
from their masters, and at a pre-arranged day, they were to rise, murder their
masters & open the gates of Rome to the Vandals.
Bibliography
Bray, Alan, The Friend, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Davidson, James, The Greeks & Greek Love, London: Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2007.
Griffin, Gabriele, (ed.), Who’s Who in Lesbian & Gay Writing, Routledge: London, 2002.
Norton, Rictor, My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, San Francisco: Leyland Publications: 1998.
Woods, Gregory, Homosexuality in Literature, London: Yale University Press, 1998
Aldrich, Robert & Garry Wotherspoon (eds.), Who’s Who in Gay & Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II: London, Routledge, 2001.
Aldrich, Robert, Gay Life Stories, London: Thames & Hudson, 2023.
Rowse, A.L., Homosexuals in History, London: Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1977.
Scarre, Chris, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome,, London: Thames & Hudson, 1995.
Spencer, Colin, Homosexuality, a History, London: Fourth Estate, 1995.
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