Sexe, amour et dépendance à Rome

Abstract

Sex, love and dependence in Rome. In Rome, love for men has never been considered as contrary to love for women, but activity has always been opposed to passivity. Be active is to be a male, to be virile, whatever sex and age of the passive partner and his/ her juridical statute. Solely considered is the search of sexual satisfaction. Solely blamed are the practices of inversion that make freemen’s weakness conspicuous and could thereafter threat a social order grounded on tradition and ancestral moral values.