The Brothels of Ancient Rome

Marriage relations were understood in the classical world as a contract for family interests and as a mechanism to generate legitimate children who would inherit the property and the situation of their parents. Sexual pleasure was sought in places outside the home where many of the practices that were carried out were considered immodest for a Roman matron.

El Roman law defined prostitutes as "people who openly obtain money with their bodies" because prostitution was considered a social and necessary good. Thanks to this we know a lot about the types of prostitutes, their activities and even the prices of prostitutes y prostitutes, since there was also the prostitution of young men dedicated to a female and homosexual public.

So we know that this practice was exercised normally in specific streets, public toilets or in various tabernae[1]. However, in the following article I intend focus attention on the buildings dedicated to pleasure, the brothels, to know how they were organized, what was the atmosphere that was breathed and how they fit in the Roman thought of the time.

In the 50th century AD in the city of Rome more than XNUMX prostitution premises were officially registered. In neighborhoods such as Subura or Trastevere there were the most sordid places while the Aventino hosted places with a higher economic level.

These premises were easily identifiable, first because there were signs indicating the direction to the nearest brothel, whether they are phalluses engraved on the floor pavement or vertical signs. In addition, these premises had a huge phallus painted vermilion red, which served as a door knocker. Also at night, the establishments would be illuminated by oil lanterns with phallic shapes.

There were many types of brothels in the Roman world, so it is very difficult to establish a general architectural rule for this building. The excellent conservation of the city of Pompeii has provided data in this regard, with about 30 buildings related to prostitution. Among them, the Lupanar It is the best known and best studied brothel, of which we can learn an example of what the structure of these premises was like.

El Lupanar I had two plants, one at ground level and a first floor.
The ground floor was intended for access by slaves or the poorest classes, while the upper floor was dedicated to a clientele with greater purchasing power. In this plant it also had a good balcony from which the prostitutes seduced the pedestrians with their proposals and sensual movements.

In the lobby of these premises there was a Priapus[2] erect of great proportions that welcomed the visitor as male sexual power symbol. Inside it had a corridor and rooms with beds. It is known that on the ground floor there were usually a maximum of five rooms with a prostitute for each. These cubicles were calledwhores”, name from which our verb fornicate is born.

The upper floor was accessed by a separate entrance that led to a staircase and then to the balcony. This balcony led to the different rooms, larger and more decorated than those on the ground floor. This upper floor was reserved for a wealthier clientele.

Further on, at the entrance to each of the whores, there were paintings showing the sexual specialties of their prostitutes and a blackboard with their name and their rates, so the customer knew very well what he was buying. one was not the same quadrant (so called to charge a quadrant for its services, a pittance), that a fellatrix, specialist in fellatio and oral sex, a practice that no worthy woman or man would perform in a normal situation.

There were also in the entrances of the whores posters with the word occupiedto hang it on the door when the prostitute was with a client. Many of the walls were covered with paintings expressing different erotic positions as decoration.

Finally, the beds of the whores They were mortar. A straw or down mattress was placed on top to make the sexual act more comfortable.. The only furniture they contained was an oil lamp and a basin for cleaning.

Thus, Roman brothels were buildings dedicated to sexual pleasure, normally male. Its architectural profile is the result of the ideological structure of Roman society and the activity that was carried out in it.

To begin with, the building was normally located at a street intersection. This was a point of continuous influx of pedestrians and where the prostitutes who walked around it were visible from any street that crosses it. This was to be a major factor in attracting customers.

The exhibition of the local offer continued on the balcony. The fact of placing the prostitutes to dance and call compliments to pedestrians from a balcony, that is, from an elevated stage, implied a greater visuality of the girls. These were more easily visible to would-be customers, and in turn, they were better able to control what was going on in the surrounding streets.

So much advertising contrasts the point of privacy that the client seeks for the sexual act with the division of space into small rooms. It is true that each cubicle could be dedicated to a different sexual practice, but the reduced space and the possibility of having a door or cloth to cover the entrance denote this desire. In addition, the fact that the space was small and the furniture scarce also implied a precaution against possible attacks on prostitutes. Reducing the space and the objects that could be used as a weapon would prevent aggression and the escape of the possible aggressor.

There are also two levels, the ground floor for the poor and the first floor for the rich.. Access to these spaces was independent, so that the two types of clients did not coincide.

Also, each of the first floor rooms opened directly onto the balcony. Why have this communication between balcony and room? In my opinion this is due to the possibility of rich clients choosing a prostitute. Wealthy pedestrians, who were attracted by the different prostitutes, could choose "the one they liked the most", as a showcase. If client and prostitute agreed on a sexual act, she would need direct access to his room to meet him.

Finally, we must talk about the  decor. With him Priapus, the mural paintings on the walls would also have a very clear function: excite the visitor. The sexual scenes, on the one hand, showed what could be practiced in that lupanar, and on the other, they excited and incited the visitors to perform and discover new sexual positions and practices.

Thus, brothels in Rome have been described as dirty places, poorly ventilated, full of bad odors and characterized by a lack of hygiene and the accumulation of soot and gases from the numerous lamps. Although there were also the most luxurious places, perfectly prepared and with great detail.

Depending on the type of neighborhood where you entered, you could be in danger, so the richest characters would be accompanied by their own escort of slaves armed with lanterns and sticks. as he tells us Plautus “Here we have all categories of men: gentlemen, foot, emancipated, thief, escaped slave, escaped convict, and debt slaves. The suripantas receive anyone as long as they have money".

For its part, the prostitutes o lupae[3] they would be exhibited in the street, walking along the sidewalk capturing customers, alone, in pairs or in small groups. There would also be those who claimed you from the balconies of the lupanar or from its very door, as we have seen.

The reception area, better or worse prepared depending on the level of the brothel, could include food and drink services, as described by Plautus “full of dark corners and cubbyholes. You drink and eat like in taverns. Lined up on shelves along the walls are jars sealed with pitch, with long labels, an indication that this is a place frequented by good drinkers.”

In this area the prostitutes were shown to the clients dressed in gauze or naked, advertising according to their specialty, most with exotic names and probably lying about their place of origin, attributing an origin to some exotic and distant point of the Roman empire.

I would not want to close this section without mentioning a primary source of information to know first-hand the thought of those people: that graffiti that clients and prostitutes left on the walls of these houses. More than 120 inscriptions have been documented in Pompeii, which are very reminiscent of those left in any public bath today:

"So I got here, fucked and came back home" (CIL, IV, 2346)

"Festus screwed here with his comrades" (CIL, IV, 3935)

"Haspocras fucked here very comfortably with Drauca for a denarius" (CIL, IV, 2193)

“Whoever writes this is in love; whoever reads it, takes it in the ass; the one who listens, gets hot; who passes by is a fagot; that the bears gobble me up, and I, who read it, have a baby” (CIL, IV, 2360)

“Caius Valerius Venustus, soldier of the first Praetorian cohort, maximum fucker” (CIL, IV, 2145)

“Crisero and Suceso screwed here three times each” (CIL, 4816)

In summary, we see how the brothels were places of reference for pleasure, usually male. Roman politics understood the social need for the existence of this trade, which is why it legislated and regulated all premises and workers related to prostitution. As the Roman historian wrote Tacit, women who wanted to engage in prostitution had to register at the mayor's office to have the license stupri and thus legally prostitute themselves.

Thereby Roman civilization understood prostitution as something normal and everyday. Sex for pleasure, social sex, was regulated and allowed, even spread and accepted as a necessity within the community. Roman society tolerated quite promiscuous and liberal behaviors and ethics, where extramarital relationships were totally normal. The only requirement was to stay within the limits of legal and social regulations.

It must be understood that marital, love and sexual relationships in classical antiquity had a very different meaning from the one we understand today. Weddings represented contracts between families and a system by which to produce children who would follow the lineage. Fun and pleasure were sought in specialized places, leaving the house for chores and business.

It is also worth noting how prostitution was accessible to all social classes. There were differences in luxuries, prices and prostitutes according to the purchasing power of the clients, that is, we found a sexual pleasure stratification where the business expands its public, but prioritizes the services provided.

Finally, point to the Greek influence of the primordial search for pleasure, although surely by inheritance of the rational hedonism of Epicurus, the Romans also understood that everything has its fair measure, even for visits to prostitutes. A clear example of this morality is found in an anecdote of Cato the Elder When he saw the son of a friend of his leave a brothel, the latter, ashamed, looked away, although Cato told him “what you are doing is fine, so when desire swells your veins you will not abuse decent women”. But the next day he crossed paths with the young man who was leaving the brothel again and this time he reproached him saying "Boy, I told you that it was okay for you to visit that place, not that you live in it."

Bibliography and Webgraphy

“Alkmst” (2014). Prostitution in Roman culture. [online] Historsex.blogspot.com [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

Doménech, Asunción (2012) – The Adventure of History – 164 – Rome, the business of prostitution. Publisher: Editorial Unit Society of Magazines SLU

Lubbes, F. (1979). Archaelogisches Fuhrer Pompeji. p.302.

McClure, L. (2002). Sexuality and gender in the classical world. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

McGinn, T. (2007). Prostitution, sexuality, and the law in ancient Rome. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Sanz, J. (2011). Classes of whores in ancient Rome. [online] Stories of History [Accessed 1 Sep. 2018].

Sanz, J. and Priego, J. (2016). PROSTITUTION, FEMALE AND MALE, IN ANCIENT ROME | Stories of History. [online] YouTube [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

Vanoyeke, V. (1990). Prostitution in Greece and Rome. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

Williams, C. (2010). roman homosexualityNew York: Oxford University Press.

[1] All the  tabernae they were shops located on the ground floor of buildings or the dominant (houses). The inns located on the main roads were also known as taverns.

[2] In Greek mythology, Priapus is a rustic minor god of fertility, both of vegetation and of all animals related to agricultural life, and a purely phallic character.

[3] La magnifying glass or plural lupae It was the name given to the prostitutes who practiced only and exclusively in the brothels.