|
Prostitution in Ancient Rome was legal and licensed. In Ancient Rome, even Roman men of the highest social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval, as long as they demonstrated self-control and moderation in the frequency and enjoyment of sex. At the same time, the prostitutes themselves were considered shameful: most were either slaves or former slaves, or if free by birth relegated to the ''infames'', people utterly lacking in social standing and deprived of most protections accorded to citizens under Roman law, a status they shared with actors and gladiators, all of whom, however, exerted sexual allure. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly even state-owned. Latin literature makes frequent reference to prostitutes. Historians such as Livy and Tacitus mention prostitutes who had acquired some degree of respectability through patriotic, law-biding, or euergetic behavior. The high-class "call girl" ''(meretrix)'' is a stock character in Plautus's comedies, which were influenced by Greek models. The poems of Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Martial, and Juvenal, as well the ''Satyricon'' of Petronius, offer fictional or satiric glimpses of prostitutes. Real-world practices are documented by provisions of Roman law that regulate prostitution, and by inscriptions, especially graffiti from Pompeii. Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum from sites presumed to be brothels has also contributed to scholarly views on prostitution. ==The prostitutes== Although both women and men engaged prostitutes of either gender, the evidence for female prostitution is more ample. A prostitute could be self-employed and rent a room for work. A girl (''puella'', a term used in poetry as a synonym for "girlfriend" or ''meretrix'' and not necessarily an age designation) might live with a procuress or madame ''(lena)'' or even go into business under the management of her mother,〔 though ''mater'' might sometimes be a mere euphemism for ''lena''. These arrangements suggest the recourse to prostitution by free-born women in dire financial need, and such prostitutes may have been regarded as of relatively higher repute.〔 Prostitutes could also work out of a brothel or tavern for a procurer or pimp ''(leno)''. Most prostitutes seem to have been slaves or former slaves.〔 Some professional prostitutes, perhaps to be compared to courtesans, cultivated elite patrons and could even become wealthy. The ''dictator'' Sulla is supposed to have built his fortune on the wealth left to him by a prostitute in her will.〔 Romans also assumed that actors and dancers were available to provide paid sexual services, and courtesans whose names survive in the historical record are sometimes indistinguishable from actresses and other performers.〔 In the time of Cicero, the courtesan Cytheris was a welcome guest for dinner parties at the highest level of Roman society. Charming, artistic, and educated, such women contributed to a new romantic standard for male-female relationships that Ovid and other Augustan poets articulated in their erotic elegies.〔R.I. Frank, "Augustan Elegy and Catonism," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.30.1 (1982), p. 569.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prostitution in ancient Rome」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|