Love It or Leave It: The Concept of Same-Sex Intercourse in Ancient Rome

My name is Caecilius and I guess if you are looking at male to male sexuality in Ancient Rome, I would fulfill the passive role. Though some people jump between fulfilling the passive role and the active role, it is more standard for us to choose a role and then stay there. Yepp, you read correctly, I choose to take the passive role and for that people call me a cinaedus. Many mean it in a derogatory manner, but some say it just as a categorization. Many people do not understand why we choose the passive life style. We are looked down upon both by the people and the government. If someone chooses to live the passive lifestyle, there are fines placed upon them by the government because it is considered to be illegal. For that reason, there is typically anonymity among those who choose to live a passive lifestyle. There are many of us which is why the Molly-Houses exist. At a Molly-House, we males who enjoy the passive role in sex are free to be who we are and we can enjoy sex as we choose. I am lucky to live in a large city like Rome because some of the smaller towns on the outskirts of the city do not have Molly-Houses.

Living the passive lifestyle requires following a certain code. Many nonpassives think that all effeminates act as passives in male to male sexual intercourse, but that is not necessarily true. The outsiders think it is inherent in them since they have a lot of the same characteristics as the rest of us, but it is not necessarily true. If you do identify as someone who enjoys the passive role in sex, a way that you know someone is soliciting sex from you is if they curiously scratch their head with one finger. Of course, this would typically happen at a Molly House. Also the look of a passive is a bit distinctive. Typically a Roman male who enjoys the passive role will have a lisping speech and place his hand on his hip. He also wears make-up and likes to wear the colors light green and sky blue. Though these are all simply the stereotypical attributes of a male who enjoys the passive role in sex with other Roman men, it could really be anybody. The passive role is not bad. It is even said that Caesar partook in the passive role in sex for some time and if Caesar did it, then clearly it is not a bad thing.

Caesar

While many of us choose to fulfill the passive role, there are many who choose not to like slaves or younger males. Since it is illegal the empire tends to use penetration as a punishment. As someone who enjoys penetration, I think that it is a silly punishment, but who am I to tell the empire what to do?

I guess you can see that I am a pretty huge supporter of the passive role in male to male sexual intercourse. I am not alone in my support even though society may think that I am wrong, but I will keep doing what I am doing.