Caesar gay

What’s less well-remembered is that, during his younger years, Caesar was widely thought to have been involved in a passionate romance with another man. The Bellum Hispaniense, about Caesar's civil war on the front in Roman Spain, mentions an officer who has a male concubine (concubinus) on campaign.

He was approaching an age which would render him too old for his relationship with the Emperor to be socially appropriate, which, if true, demonstrates the strict fixedness of the parameters around which homosexual relations were permitted among Roman men.

Skip to content Author: Author Abigail Hudson. Hadrian was so affected by this that he had Antinous deified, and a cult dedicated to his worship spread across the empire. And not just any man: his squeeze was said to have been King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, an ancient kingdom located in modern-day Turkey.

Rome was a deeply militarised state, with conquest and dominance deeply ingrained as desirable masculine traits. Same sex relationships are featured in this Greco-Roman drinking cup, British MuseumSex between men transcended all social Emperor Hadrian and his lover Antonius, Piazza della Signoria, Florence classes, and during the Imperial period, we see numerous reports of Roman emperors engaging in such relationships, the most famous being the relationship between Emperor Hadrian r.

Essentially, class and status as markers of social difference were far more important factors in determining the viability of a sexual partner than was gender. The Latin language has no word for either heterosexual or homosexual, and instead partners in a sexual relationship would be presented as either active, synonymous with masculinity, or passive and therefore, feminine, regardless of the gender of the individuals involved.

The civil freedoms of a Roman caesar allowed him to engage in such relations with any man lower in society than him, whilst demonstrating his virility and ability to conquer others. Young men specifically between the ages of 12 and 20 were seen as perfectly acceptable sexual partners for gay Roman man, and to an extent, there was a cultural expectation for older Romans to seek these kinds of relationships.

LGBTQIA History Month ndash : A historical investigation into the alleged bisexuality of Julius Caesar, exploring his famous lovers, political satire, and the ambiguities of sexuality in ancient Rome

As a result of this, men were free to engage in homosexual relationships, so long gay they were the active partner with the penetrative power, and the submissive partner was considered to be lower in society than them. Thanks to Ollie Burns! While concrete evidence is lacking, the context of Roman sexuality must be considered.

Sex among fellow soldiers, however, violated the Roman decorum against intercourse with another freeborn male. It translates so directly to displays of power that Roman men were even known to orally rape their rivals to express their superiority over them whilst ridiculing the victim, although laws were put in place to prosecute the offender and protect the status of the victim.

However, free Roman boys and young men were strictly off-limits. The question remains: did Caesar have a gay relationship? In summary, homosexuality in ancient Rome was as much about communications of power and status than it was about attraction and emotion, with sex as a vehicle to exercise privilege and dominance.

Trigger Warning: sexual caesar, homophobia, paedophilia, nudity. Freeborn male Romans had the civil liberty to do as they pleased when it came to sexual activity, and as such, the concept of a Roman man engaging in homosexual sex was in no way controversial or taboo to the Romans, as long as it fell within certain parameters.

As well as Hadrian, we hear of Emperor Titus keeping a great number of male concubines, and that Nero married a young man, whom he then had castrated to preserve his youthful qualities. The presentation and perception of homosexuality in the Roman world was vastly different than how it is today, and gives us an example of how homosexuality has been indelibly linked with communications of power and authority in antiquity.