Gay caligula

Despite the fact that Roman sources were hostile to the issue of Nero’s marriages, Cassius Dio mentions that society saw the emperor’s artistic performances as worse than weddings.
In the 3rd century CE, Emperor Elagabalus was to stand on a wedding carpet as a bride with a Greek slave – Hierocles. All the more scandalous as Caesar adopted Octavian as his son and heir.

Their victim was, among others Mark Antony, who had a long relationship with Publius Clodius. Caesar was sent there on the orders of praetor Marcus Minucius Thermus from Asia to obtain a Bithynian fleet to help in the siege of the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. The mythology of Caligula, whose name means little solider’s boot, is built around the idea that he was an insane tyrant whose extreme arrogance, cruelty, luxurious lifestyle—how else would an Emperor live?—and intense sexual perversions ultimately led to his assassination.

In death, Caligula grew even more infamous and has provided artists and even a few misguided Hollywood film producers with a rich and textured character from which to build a story.

Such a crime was considered one of the worst crimes that could be committed alongside patricide, rape of a virgin and sacking of a temple.

The lack of self-control, especially in managing his own sex life, indicated that the man was unable to properly control other people. Often described by gay friends of mine as the perfect coupling of a “bear” and a “twink”.

Hadrian spent a big part of his reign on a tour of the empire.

Cicero ridiculed this account in fourteen malicious Philipics, mentioning, inter alia, the escape of the future triumvir over the roofs from the angry father of his lover. It was often suggested – probably rightly – that they were lovers. Hadrian’s intense love affair with Antinous wasn’t viewed negatively at the time although his reaction to the young man’s death was seen as over the top.

Outside of marriage, a man could have sex with slaves, prostitutes (who were usually slaves) and the so-called infames (the restricted man). Homosexuality among men was tolerated and accepted, but it was certainly not the rule.

So if any high-ranking free-born Roman allowed himself to be passive during intercourse, he risked mockery.

There are few surviving sources about the reign of Caligula, though he is described as a noble and moderate emperor during the first six months of his rule. Both women and young men were perceived as natural objects of desire. Known for his extremely audacious – not only sexual – practitioners of Caligula his first official lover Lepidus married his sister (with whom he also remained in an active erotic relationship).

He had just kicked to death his pregnant second wife Poppaea Sabina when he decided to marry a male freed slave called Sporus who resembled her. There are small mentions in the works of Ovid, who advocates for heterosexual love, and in the writer Lucian of Samosata (2nd century CE). In Pompeii, wall frescoes depicting a couple of women during the act and graffiti emphasizing same-sex desire have been found.

The “active” person most often exposed himself to flogging and expulsion from the legions, while the “passive” person was sentenced to death – according to Polybius by beating (fustuarium).

Emperor Octavian Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE) introduced a legionary marriage ban – a law that was in force for almost two centuries.

Suggesting that he had gone ‘native’ while out in the East and succumbed to all that sleaze and corruption. It is worth presenting here a controversial fragment from Caesar’s life. Womanly even – in one sneering comment.

Other LGBT Roman Emperors– including the boundary pushing Elagabalus

Other LGBT Roman Emperors include Nero’s immediate successor Galba; the Flavian dynasty emperors Titus and Domitian; the “good emperors” Nerva and Trajan; Commodus (as featured in the movie Gladiator); and the notorious Elagabalus.

The latter LGBT emperor – Elagabalus – is a corker!

His legal prudishness even led to the banishment of his own daughter, Julia, to the island of Pandateria and the exile of the licentious poet, Ovid.