ON THE INCREASED INTEREST OF YOUNG ROMAN MEN IN PRETTY BOYS, 167-161 BC
Presented here in the order in which they were written are the surviving three ancient texts concerning the sudden increase in sexual interest in boys amongst young Roman men reported as having occurred, due to Greek influence, in the years following the Roman conquest of Macedon. The only one of importance is the first, that of the eye-witness Polybios. The other two merely repeat him.
Polybios, The Histories, XXXI 25 ii-viii
The future Greek historian Polybios was taken to Rome as a hostage in 167 BC, following the final triumph of Rome over Macedon, and was therefore a witness to what he wrote here. Soon after arriving in Rome, he became a close friend and tutor of the future Roman general and statesman, the 18-year-old Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus, known as “the younger”. In the following passage, under the year 161/0, Polybios explained how Scipio’s fame in Rome grew.
The translation is W. R. Paton for the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1922.
The first direction taken by Scipio’s ambition to lead a virtuous life, was to attain a reputation for temperance and excel in this respect all the other young men of the same age. This is a high prize indeed and difficult to gain, but it was at this time easy to pursue at Rome owing to the vicious tendencies of most of the youths. For some of them had abandoned themselves to amours with boys and others to the society of courtesans, and many to musical entertainments and banquets, and the extravagance they involve, having in the course of the war with Perseus been speedily infected by the Greek laxity in these respects.[1] So great in fact was the incontinence that had broken out among the young men in such matters, that many paid a talent for a boy-beloved[2] and many three hundred drachmas for a jar of caviar. Regarding this, Cato[3] once said in a public speech that it was the surest sign of deterioration in the republic when pretty boys fetch more than fields, and jars of caviar more than plowmen.[4] It was just at the period we are treating of that this present tendency to extravagance declared itself, first of all because they thought that now after the fall of the Macedonian kingdom their universal dominion was undisputed, and next because after the riches of Macedonia had been transported to Rome there was a great display of wealth both in public and in private. Scipio, however, setting himself to pursue the opposite course of conduct, combating all his appetites and molding his life to be in every way coherent and uniform, in about the first five years[5] established his universal reputation for strictness and temperance. | [ii] Πρώτη δὲ τις ἐνέπεσεν ὁρμὴ καὶ ζῆλος τῶν καλῶν τὸ τὴν ἐπὶ σωφροσύνῃ δόξαν ἀναλαβεῖν καὶ παραδραμεῖν ἐν τούτῳ τῷ μέρει τοὺς κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡλικίαν ὑπάρχοντας. [iii] ὢν δὲ μέγας οὗτος καὶ δυσέφικτος ὁ στέφανος εὐθήρατος ἦν κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ διὰ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον ὁρμὴν τῶν πλείστων. [iv] οἱ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἐρωμένους τῶν νέων, οἱ δ᾿ εἰς ἑταίρας ἐξεκέχυντο, πολλοὶ δ᾿ εἰς ἀκροάματα καὶ πότους καὶ τὴν ἐν τούτοις πολυτέλειαν, ταχέως ἡρπακότες ἐν τῷ Περσικῷ πολέμῳ τὴν τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἰς τοῦτο τὸ μέρος εὐχέρειαν. [v] καὶ τηλικαύτη τις ἐνεπεπτώκει περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν ἔργων ἀκρασία τοῖς νέοις ὥστε πολλοὺς μὲν ἐρώμενον ἠγορακέναι ταλάντου, πολλοὺς δὲ ταρίχου Ποντικοῦ κεράμιον τριακοσίων δραχμῶν. ἐφ᾿ οἷς καὶ Μάρκος εἶπέ ποτε πρὸς τὸν δῆμον ὅτι μάλιστ᾿ ἂν κατίδοιεν τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον προκοπὴν τῆς πολιτείας ἐκ τούτων, ὅταν πωλούμενοι πλεῖον εὑρίσκωσιν οἱ μὲν εὐπρεπεῖς παῖδες τῶν ἀγρῶν, [vi] τὰ δὲ κεράμια τοῦ ταρίχου τῶν ζευγηλατῶν. συνέβη δὲ τὴν παροῦσαν αἵρεσιν οἷον ἐκλάμψαι κατὰ τοὺς νῦν λεγομένους καιροὺς πρῶτον μὲν διὰ τὸ καταλυθείσης τῆς ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ βασιλείας δοκεῖν ἀδήριτον αὐτοῖς ὑπάρχειν τὴν περὶ τῶν ὅλων ἐξουσίαν, [vii] ἔπειτα διὰ τὸ πολλὴν ἐπίφασιν γενέσθαι τῆς εὐδαιμονίας περί τε τοὺς κατ᾿ ἰδίαν βίους καὶ περὶ τὰ κοινά, [viii] τῶν ἐκ Μακεδονίας μετακομισθέντων εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην χορηγίων. πλὴν ὅ γε Σκιπίων ὁρμήσας ἐπὶ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἀγωγὴν τοῦ βίου καὶ πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ἀντιταξάμενος καὶ κατὰ πάντα τρόπον ὁμολογούμενον καὶ σύμφωνον ἑαυτὸν κατασκευάσας κατὰ τὸν βίον ἐν ἴσως πέντε τοῖς πρώτοις ἔτεσι πάνδημον ἐποιήσατο τὴν ἐπ᾿ εὐταξίᾳ καὶ σωφροσύνῃ δόξαν. |
Diodoros of Sicily, Library of History
Diodoros of Agyrion in Sicily wrote his history of the world known to him between 60 and 30 BC. As will be apparent, he is following Polybios in what he writes here. The translation is by Francis R. Walton. for the Loeb Classical Library 409 and 423, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1957-67.
In the following passage, he is apparently recalling events of 161 BC.
Because certain young men paid a talent for a boy-beloved[6] and three hundred Attic drachmas for a jar of Pontic pickled fish, Marcus Porcius Cato, a man held in high esteem, declared before an assembly of the people that they could very readily discern herein the turn for the worse in men’s conduct and in the state, when boy-beloveds[7] were sold at a higher price than farm lands, and a jar of pickled fish than teamsters.[8] | Ὅτι νεανίσκων τινῶν πριαμένων ἐρώμενον μὲν ταλάντου, κεράμιον δὲ Ποντικοῦ ταρίχου τριακοσίων δραχμῶν Ἀττικῶν Μάρκος Πόρκιος Κάτων, τῶν εὐδοκιμουμένων ἀνδρῶν, εἶπεν ἐν τῷ δήμῳ διότι μάλιστα δύνανται κατιδεῖν ἐκ τούτου τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον τῆς ἀγωγῆς καὶ πολιτείας διαστροφήν, ὅταν πωλούμενοι πλεῖον εὑρίσκωσιν οἱ μὲν ἐρώμενοι τῶν ἀγρῶν, τὰ δὲ κεράμια τοῦ ταρίχου τῶν ζευγηλατῶν. |
Here Diodoros is contrasting the behaviour of the young P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus Africanus with that of most fashionable young men at the time:
Nevertheless, he [Scipio] began, as befitted his years, by winning first a name for temperance. Now the fashion of the time tended strongly to unbridled pleasures and excessive licentiousness among the younger men.Some had abandoned themselves to catamites, others to courtesans, others to all sorts of musical entertainments and banquetings, and, in general, to the extravagance that these things entail. For having spent considerable time in Greece during the war with Perseus, they soon affected the easygoing Greek attitude to such matters, the more so as they had acquired ample funds, so that their wealth made adequate provision for the costs of indulgence. | [vi] πολλὴ γάρ τις ὁρμὴ πρὸς τὰς ἀνέδην ἡδονὰς καὶ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς ἀκολασίας τοῖς τότε νέοις ἐνεπεπτώκει. [vii] οἱ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἐρωμένους, οἱ δὲ εἰς ἑταίρας, οἱ δὲ εἰς ἀκροάματα παντοδαπὰ καὶ πότους καὶ καθόλου τὴν ἐπὶ τούτοις πολυτέλειαν ἐξεκέχυντο. ἐν γὰρ τῷ Περσικῷ πολέμῳ χρόνον πλείονα διατρίψαντες ταχέως ἐζήλωσαν τῶν Ἑλλήνων τὴν περὶ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος εὐχέρειαν, ἄλλως τε καὶ χρημάτων εὐπορηκότες καὶ χορηγὸν ἀξιόχρεων τὸν πλοῦτον ἔχοντες ταῖς πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς δαπάναις. |
Among the many ways young Roman men changed after a long period of peace and gave themselves up to luxury and pleasure:
A jar of wine, for example, sold for a hundred drachmas, a jar of Pontic smoked fish for four hundred drachmas, chefs who were especially gifted in the culinary arts at four talents, and male concubines of striking physical beauty for many talents. […] Marcus Cato, a man distinguished for his probity and good conduct, when denouncing before the senate the prevalence of luxury at Rome, stated that only in this city were jars of Pontic smoked fish valued more highly than teamsters, and catamites than farmlands. |
τοῦ μὲν γὰρ οἴνου τὸ κεράμιον ἐπωλεῖτο δραχμῶν ἑκατόν, τῶν δὲ Ποντικῶν ταρίχων τὸ κεράμιον δραχμῶν τετρακοσίων, τῶν δὲ μαγείρων οἱ διαφέροντες ὀψαρτυτικαῖς φιλοτεχνίαις ταλάντων τεττάρων, οἱ δὲ ταῖς εὐμορφίαις ἐκπρεπεῖς παράκοιτοι πολλῶν ταλάντων. […] Ὅτι Μάρκος Κάτων, ἀνὴρ σώφρων καὶ ἀγωγῇ καλῇ διαφέρων, ἐν τῇ συγκλήτῳ κατηγορῶν τῆς ἐπιπολαζούσης ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ τρυφῆς ἔφησεν ἐν μόνῃ τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ τὰ μὲν κεράμια τῶν Ποντικῶν ταρίχων ὑπάρχειν τιμιώτερα τῶν ζευγηλατῶν, τοὺς δ᾿ ἐρωμένους τῶν ἀγρῶν. |
Athenaios, The Learned Banqueters 274f-275a
Athenaios of Naukratis wrote this in the early 3rd century AD. The translation is by Douglas Olson in the Loeb Classical Library volume 224 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008).
According to Polybius in Book XXXI of his History, the well-known Cato was disgusted and complained publicly that certain people had imported foreign luxury into Rome by buying a jar of Pontic saltfish for 300 drachmas, and handsome boys for more than fields cost. | [274f] Κάτων δὲ ἐκεῖνος, ὡς Πολύβιος ἱστορεῖ ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ καὶ τριακοστῇ τῶν Ἱστοριῶν, ἐδυσχέραινε καὶ ἐκεκράγει ὅτι τινὲς τὰς ξενικὰς τρυφὰς εἰσήγαγον εἰς τὴν [275a] Ῥώμην ǁ τριακοσίων μὲν δραχμῶν κεράμιον ταρίχων Ποντικῶν ὠνησάμενοι, καὶ μειράκια δ᾿ εὔμορφα ὑπερβαλλούσης ἀγρῶν τιμῆς. |
[1] Note that this reference to “Greek laxity” is in Polybios’s voice rather than Cato’s, thus “the only unequivocal association of moral decline with the effects of Hellenism in this period was made by a Greek!” (Erich S. Gruen, Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. Ithaca, 1992, p. 261).
[2] Paton’s “male favourite” (a typical euphemism of his day) has been replaced by “boy-beloved” as a translation of ἐρώμενον, the standard Greek word for a boy (erotically) loved by a man. This is reflecting the Greek, though “catamite” would better reflect the reality that it is bought slave-boys that are under discussion.
[3] The Cato here was the Roman consul Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), known as “the Elder” to distinguish him from later members of this family of loathsome, pleasure-hating individuals. His views expressed here are entirely characteristic: probably his most famous admonition on similar lines was that it was a wasteful extravagance not to sell one’s slaves once they grew too old for their labour to justify the cost of feeding them. Lest some modern rush in typical fashion to point this out as a moral blindness of the ancients, it should be pointed out that it was Cato’s ancient biographer, Plutarch, who excoriated him for his implicit heartlessness: an old slave would fetch a pittance and would accordingly be treated as worthless, while suffering the misery of being taken away from everything he was familiar with at an age when he was too old to adapt.
[4] “Other Greek writers describing this incident specify the object of Cato’s displeasure: Plutarch observes that Cato was out to “attack extravagance” and Diodorus says that Cato was launching an assault on the luxurious lifestyle that increasingly took hold of Rome, while Athenaeus reports that Cato complained of the importation of “foreign luxury” into Rome. To use Athenaeus’ terms, what Cato saw as foreign was neither homosexuality nor pederasty but the luxury exemplified by indulgence in expensive delicacies, boy prostitutes, female prostitutes, and the like. Neither Cato nor the later writers describing his reaction mention pederasty in the strict sense of the term (relations with freeborn boys), some of them even fail to mention boys, and the use of costly male prostitutes is cited as only one among several characteristics of the 'Greek permissiveness' that gradually took hold among philhellenizing Romans.” (Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 71-2).
[5] The first five years of his close friendship with Polybius, which the latter says began when Scipio was eighteen, ie. in 167/6.
[6] Walton’s “male favourite” (a typical euphemism of his day) has been replaced by “boy-beloved” as a translation of ἐρώμενον, the standard Greek word for a boy (erotically) loved by a man.
[7] Walton’s “favourites” (a typical euphemism of his day) has again been replaced by “boy-beloveds” as a translation of ἐρώμενον, the standard Greek word for a boy (erotically) loved by a man.
[8] In view of the likely date, Cato may have made this speech in favour of the Lex Fannia, a statute of that year which he, as the great champion of compulsory parsimony, is bound to have supported, since it limited dinner expenditure, the kind of food that could be offered and the number of guests.