Did ancient Rome have any sexual taboos?
- Thread starter Lonkut
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ohcrapitsnico
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I highly doubt they did, if they di I'm sure any of our resident rome experts would know...I'm thinking Gaius.
TheBladeRoden
Deity
Sex with a Christian?
ohcrapitsnico
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Maybe necrophilia 
Even then the romans were just so incredibly liberal...
Even then the romans were just so incredibly liberal...
Kraznaya
Princeps
Leifmk
Deity
For both men and women, being the "receiving" partner in either anal or oral sex was considered very degrading. The other party was not very degraded (though overindulgence might be cause for ridicule and loss of respect).
Adultery (i.e. sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man not her husband) was a criminal offense and somewhat taboo; so was sexual intercourse with an unmarried woman (but it was a different offense).
All of this really only applied to citizens, and a married man could do nearly whatever he pleased with a non-citizen. Mostly it seems they were concerned about maintaining masculine identity as a matter of honour (i.e. men are those who penetrate), and preventing their women from having babies of uncertain paternity.
Adultery (i.e. sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man not her husband) was a criminal offense and somewhat taboo; so was sexual intercourse with an unmarried woman (but it was a different offense).
All of this really only applied to citizens, and a married man could do nearly whatever he pleased with a non-citizen. Mostly it seems they were concerned about maintaining masculine identity as a matter of honour (i.e. men are those who penetrate), and preventing their women from having babies of uncertain paternity.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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There was the "not showing the breasts" thing, judging from the paintings in Pompeii.
TrailblazingScot
I was kittenOFchaos
Incest was still taboo.
Was the only occasion when slaves didn't have to be tortured before giving evidence if I remember the teaching company lecture correctly.
Was the only occasion when slaves didn't have to be tortured before giving evidence if I remember the teaching company lecture correctly.
Wasn't there really a lot of taboos, but not so much punishments. If I remember correctly during the last century BC, many Romans disapproved nonstandard sex, like homosexuality, and thought that Rome was falling in to decadence. Augustus had some strict laws and even exiled his own daughter. And if we think about actions of Nero, Caligula &c, would they have been recorded if they weren't disapproved?
Maimonides
Emperor
The Vestal Virgins haven't been mentioned yet. It was a capital crime for them to have sex.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Was there a punishment for the partner? Or just the girl?
Sofista
Deity
@innonimatu: the taboo of female nudity was common with ancient Greeks, just check Grek statues.
@Cheesy: I don't know about the men, but I read, and I wish I could recall where, about a vestal walled alive.
@Cheesy: I don't know about the men, but I read, and I wish I could recall where, about a vestal walled alive.
MadScotsMan
The Ruler of Cattle
didn't know the romans had taboos. Thought they were wild orgy craving fiends, but that might be LATER Rome I am thinking about
Maimonides
Emperor
Off the top of my head, I'm not sure. I'd have to research that, which is unlikely to happen ATM.
Besides what Plotinus said, there are reports of some of the more decadent emperors behaving that way, but that was not the lifestyle of the average Roman. On the other hand, prostitution was practiced openly.
History_Buff
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Well, harming a Vestal or thier escorts was punishable by death. I imagine a number of people were tossed off the rock for this over the hundreds of years.
Leifmk
Deity
Such behavior was frequently considered scandalous by their contemporaries, and doubtlessly over-reported in some cases.
It depends somewhat on whether you're talking about the Republic or the Imperial times.
The behavior expected of married Roman women (Roman matrons) was that they would support their husbands, have lots of children (Augustus gave special privileges to mothers of 3 or more children), and keep themselves modestly busy in their households, spinning and weaving, teaching the children, and otherwise upholding the "Roman Virtues."
Prostitution was a recognized profession, although not one that respectable women aspired to.
Incest was a huge taboo. Caligula committed it regularly with his sisters, and even treated one of them as his wife (before he murdered her). And later, Claudius decided to marry his niece, but that would have been incestuous. So he changed the laws that forbade uncles and nieces to marry. However, cousin marriage was considered okay and normal.
Nero was married to Claudius' daughter, Octavia -- which would technically have been incestuous, since Claudius had adopted Nero as his son, so one of Claudius' friends adopted Octavia to provide the legal fiction that Nero was not actually marrying his sister (which he wasn't anyway -- Octavia was actually Nero's cousin... I think
).
It can really take a scorecard to keep track of all this -- there was a short while during Claudius' marriage to his cousin Messalina when Messalina and Agrippina (Nero's mother) were simultaneously each other's aunt and niece!
The behavior expected of married Roman women (Roman matrons) was that they would support their husbands, have lots of children (Augustus gave special privileges to mothers of 3 or more children), and keep themselves modestly busy in their households, spinning and weaving, teaching the children, and otherwise upholding the "Roman Virtues."
Prostitution was a recognized profession, although not one that respectable women aspired to.
Incest was a huge taboo. Caligula committed it regularly with his sisters, and even treated one of them as his wife (before he murdered her). And later, Claudius decided to marry his niece, but that would have been incestuous. So he changed the laws that forbade uncles and nieces to marry. However, cousin marriage was considered okay and normal.
Nero was married to Claudius' daughter, Octavia -- which would technically have been incestuous, since Claudius had adopted Nero as his son, so one of Claudius' friends adopted Octavia to provide the legal fiction that Nero was not actually marrying his sister (which he wasn't anyway -- Octavia was actually Nero's cousin... I think
).It can really take a scorecard to keep track of all this -- there was a short while during Claudius' marriage to his cousin Messalina when Messalina and Agrippina (Nero's mother) were simultaneously each other's aunt and niece!
Talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
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