Since no contemporary accounts exist of Cleopatra’s life, it is difficult to piece together her biography with much certainty. But, when Gaius Scribonius Curio, an orator and outspoken opponent of Caesar, called him “a man to every woman and a woman to every man”, it at least took something of a sting out of the tail.Cleopatra: Early Life and Ascension to Throne This didn’t exonerate Caesar in his colleagues’ eyes. But, as long as sexual favors were given for the purpose of advancing your own political career, they could be overlooked.Īt least it showed some degree of interest in the proper, political values an upper class Roman should have. Granted, they might earn you the derision of your macho-militaristic cohort. Homosexual tendencies weren’t frowned upon in Roman culture per se. “Caesar might have conquered the Gauls but Nicomedes conquered him!” They couldn’t resist making reference to his submission to a certain Bithynian king (boys will be boys) and in the course of their banter also boomed out: But these weren’t the only exploits his soldiers sang about on this triumphal occasion. The bald adulterer had indeed slept his way through the rank and file of aristocratic Roman women, even seducing the wives of fellow consuls and political allies. With Caesar returning, there was good reason for men to lock up their wives (and, indeed, daughters). In Gaul he f*cked his way through a fortune Julius Caesar’s behavior in Gaul didn’t go unnoticed by his men either.ĭuring his military triumph celebrating his success there they chanted: Cleopatra’s libido lived on, however, when she struck up a fertile relationship with Caesar’s former right-hand man, Mark Antony. Their relationship would ultimately be cut short, however, when Caesar sustained 23 stab wounds on March 15 44 BC. Within nine months she gave birth to their son Caesarian an unfortunate child who wouldn’t survive the purges of Caesar’s successor Octavian. (Check out this scene from HBO’s wonderdul series Rome for an idea of how this might have happened!)Ĭleopatra clearly made an impression. While in Egypt he had a fling with another historical A-lister, Cleopatra, who forced their introduction by having herself smuggled into his palace wrapped in a carpet. He was just as badly behaved in the provinces, his veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) mantra applying just as much to his sexual as to his military conquests. Even the great Cicero couldn’t resist a poke, writing that it was on a Bithynian couch that Caesar-the son of Venus-lost his virginity. One colleague, Bibulus, addressed Caesar as “the queen of Bithynia.” During an assembly, a man named Octavius hailed his co-consul Pompey as “king” and Caesar as “queen”. But it was a stain that proved difficult to wash out and he would be reminded of it throughout his prematurely ended life. Suetonius tells us that this was the only stain on Caesar’s masculinity. His return to Bithynia just a few days after leaving to “collect a debt” further fanned the flames. As a young man he spent a considerable amount of time at the court of King Nicomedes of Bithynia, fuelling a series of rumors about an affair in which Caesar was the submissive party. Nicknamed the “bald adulterer,” Julius Caesar fit the Roman political stereotype perfectly by sleeping his way to power. Julius Caesar’s Scandalous Sex Lifeīetter known to history as the penetrated than the penetrator, sexually speaking Caesar was both. We begin our series with the most famous Roman of all: Gaius Julius Caesar. But by adding historical context and comparing his anecdotes with those of other writers, we can at least get a feeling for the sexual attitudes of the authors if not for sexual acts of his subjects. Mosaic from Pompeii’s Brothal (the Lupanar)Ī lot of what he wrote might be fanciful and fictitious. Lurid and scandalous, his biographies read like the Roman equivalent of a modern gossip magazine. If you’ve never heard of him (which few, to be fair, have), do make time to check him out. In this article – and the forthcoming series – we’ll be turning to “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” by the first century AD court biographer Suetonius. (In the literature of the time, the two are often indistinguishable).īut how much of what we think we know is true? Since many powerful Roman politicians made a whole host of enemies, and it is from these rivals that we know about the history, this is why the emperors have come down to us as templates for erotic degeneracy and sadistic cruelty. Macho and militaristic, elite Roman culture revolved as much around a man’s ability to demonstrate his sexual prowess as it did around political point-scoring against rivals by accusing rivals them of a lack thereof. Ancient Roman attitudes towards sex were nothing if not direct.įor example, it is from the Roman term for the sheath of one’s sword that we have our word “vagina!”
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