To understand ancient Roman sexuality, we first need to understand how Roman society functioned. For example, the Suburban Baths of Pompeii had erotic wall paintings featuring group and oral sex scenes suggesting that people back then would not have found such erotic scenes offensive 1. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini wanting to recreate a new Roman empire saw the Pompeii excavations favorably but the presence of sexually explicit material was. This sexual art included paintings of erotic scenes, phallic oil lamps and other objects deemed pornographic. When archaeologists discovered the ancient city of Pompeii in the 18th and 19th century, they discovered a lot of sexual art deemed obscene and later hidden from view by the public in the Secret Cabinet of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
The topic of ancient Roman sexuality brings to mind a society of unbridled sexuality but is this modern perception of Roman sexuality correct? To address this question, we need to distinguish between facts and fiction and take into account the cultural, religious and legal aspects of sexuality in Ancient Rome.Ĭultural aspects of ancient Roman sexuality
