Overview ĭuring the Republic, a Roman citizen's political liberty ( libertas) was defined in part by the right to preserve his body from physical compulsion, including both corporal punishment and sexual abuse. However, there is scattered evidence-for example, a couple of spells in the Greek Magical Papyri-which attests to the existence of individual women in Roman-ruled provinces in the later Imperial period who fell in love with members of the same sex. Same-sex relations among women are far less documented and, if Roman writers are to be trusted, female homoeroticism may have been very rare, to the point that Ovid, in the Augustine era describes it as "unheard-of". Statue of Antinous (Delphi), polychrome Parian marble depicting Antinous, made during the reign of Hadrian (r. Freeborn male minors were off limits at certain periods in Rome, though professional prostitutes and entertainers might remain sexually available well into adulthood. Acceptable male partners were slaves and former slaves, prostitutes, and entertainers, whose lifestyle placed them in the nebulous social realm of infamia, excluded from the normal protections accorded to a citizen even if they were technically free. Roman men were free to enjoy sex with other males without a perceived loss of masculinity or social status, as long as they took the dominant or penetrative role. The conquest mentality and "cult of virility" shaped same-sex relations. "Virtue" ( virtus) was seen as an active quality through which a man ( vir) defined himself. Roman society was patriarchal, and the freeborn male citizen possessed political liberty ( libertas) and the right to rule both himself and his household ( familia). The primary dichotomy of ancient Roman sexuality was active / dominant / masculine and passive / submissive / feminine. Latin lacks words that would precisely translate " homosexual" and " heterosexual". Homosexuality in ancient Rome often differs markedly from the contemporary West. (left) Busts of the Roman emperor Hadrian (left) and his male lover Antinous, now at the British Museum (right) Roman mosaic from Susa, Libya, depicting the myth of Zeus in the form of an eagle abducting the boy Ganymede
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