Roman Prostitution and Sexuality

In Thomas A. J. McGinn's scholarly study, “The Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome" he strives to understand the "Legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution in Rome during the central part of its history extending from approximately 200 BC two A.D. 250."

By McGinn inspecting all social bonds that connect to the interaction of prostitution, he can apply a unique understanding of how this cultural aspect fit into not only a functioning complex society but into their loss system as well. His approach, on the subject. is unique due to the exploration of how these social bonds could not only affect the people but the law as well. McGinn’s study is also acclaimed as one of the fullest studies in Roman prostitution and is a valued source into the field. Even though this source is highly commended in the field, McGinn does state that his research comes with a hint of speculation which is the bias of high classed male opinionated sources that he used to research this topic; forcing him to do extensive research and hypothesizing on his findings and study.

The author makes it clear at the very beginning of his work to touch on Roman sexuality as a whole before he begins to go into a focused examination of prostitution. By explaining that prostitution should be acknowledged as a separate sexual act on the worker's position than that of Adulterer and concubine, as these things hold different social forms. To understand the laws that applied to prostitution and its workings you have to understand that prostitution in Roman society was based on three main criteria; Emotional indifference, promiscuity, and payment. This allowed them to be distinguishable but flexible in their roles in society.

The next main point you must understand to fully comprehend this book to the fullest is simply Rome didn’t have “Laws of Prostitution”. While it did have laws and legislation concerning prostitution, never was there an exact set directive of prostitution. The laws were mostly set towards prostitution in regards to “repression, Regulation, and toleration”. Repression was out of all three of these things the least practiced or cared about by the Romans, while their laws may cause amounts of restriction on their basic motions it did nothing to stop it. The regulation was attempted perhaps in light of repression being a lesser option. It was loosely practiced and not very well carried out. The registration of prostitutes, and regulating of medical visits for benefits of the public but lack of movement on the motion prevented it from truly forming. This information was used a few times though to impose taxation on the prostitutes and their pimps. This taxation though is a perfect example of roman legislators acknowledging that prostitution was a profitable review. It also showed how Roman society tolerated Prostitution in Roma society. While toleration is the most present aspect the other two were still used in more regards of repressing and regulating that which society found objectable.

While there weren’t any laws specifically dedicated to prostitution there was a more powerful barrier that all levels of Roman society faced, Honor-shame syndrome. This is the idea that a Roman man or woman have to keep there honor and to not do anything that would risk themselves or those connected to them to be shamed. The link between personal and familia Honor extends beyond the family unit and in a way, self-governs people to keep to the acceptable social standards of his or her social class. A woman in Roman society had a far trying burden to keep their honor as they had several more ways to cause this shaming. Their actions, words, and physic were all capable of being to some degree of shameful. This is the main reason as to why men of this era were held such exclusive control over the females in there lives, it was seen as there duty to protect himself and his families honor. While we see this as a syndrome at the time it was simply the Roman way.

It is easy to understand through the Honor-shame syndrome how some might wish to label these woman as simply “prostitutes”. While in all honesty, they made up the majority of four subfields; “freeborn, freed, slave, and peregrine”. All of these various situations of prostitutes had different levels of benefits and exposure to the Syndrome. An example of this is that those practicing open prostitution weren’t allowed to participate in the major fixtures that made up the important aspects of Rome, such as both politics and Military. These things being a major capacity of Roman culture placed both the men and women of prostitution outside of the Roman social normality. In fact, they held a social class all on their own entire. They were seen as a low class yet they were often in positions of great income and connections to all levels of powerful people. They held positions of shame yet people still willingly interacted with them and even paid them for services rendered.

To attempt to prevent such interactions between prostitutes and the elite class several barriers were put in place, the main being The Augustan Laws. These laws covered many issues with prostitution, including keeping the distinct separation of upper society from lower class so as not to have any public shaming scandals. Things such as appropriate marriage practices and the effects of adultery. Prostitutes were not supposed to marry a freeborn

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