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A collection of essays seeking to establish Roman constructions of sexuality and gender difference as a distinct area of research, complementing work already done on Greece, in an attempt to present a fuller picture of ancient sexuality. By applying feminist critical tools to forms of public discourse, including literature, history, law, medicine, and political oratory, the essays explore the hierarchy of power reflected in most Roman sexual relations, where noblemen acted as the penetrators, and women, boys and slaves the penetrated. In many cases, the authors show how these roles could be inverted, in ways that revealed citizens' anxieties during the days of the early Empire, when traditional power structures seemed threatened.
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Edited by Skinner PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRINCETON, PRESS NEW JERSEY Photograph of Lag)lJlos, Roman, late first-second century A.D. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Bequest of Professor Albert Mathias Friend, Jr. Photo O-edit: Bruce M. VVhite. COPYRIGHT © 1997 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA ROMAN SEXUALITIES I EDITED BY JUDITH P. HALLETT AND MARlLYN B. SKINNER. P. CM. INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX. ISBN 0-691-01179-6 (CL : ALK. PAPER) ISBN 0-691-01178-8 (PBK. : ALK. PAPER) 1. SEX CUSTOMS-ROME-HISTORY. 2. SEX IN LITERATURE. 3. ROME IN LITERATURE. 4. CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 5. FEMINIST CRITICISM. 6. ROME-HISTORY. 7. ROME-SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. 1. HALLETT, JUDITH P., 1944- HQ13.R65 1998 . II. SKINNER, MARlLYN B. 306.7'0945'63-DC21 97-12684 CIP THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN JANSON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS ARE PRINTED ON ACID-FREE PAPER AND MEET THE GUIDELINES FOR PERMANENCE AND DURABILITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRODUCTION GUIDELINES FOR BOOK LONGEVITY OF THE COUNCIL ON LIBRARY RESOURCES. HTTP://PUP.PRINCETON.EDU PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 (PBK) IN MEMORY OF John Patrick Sullivan WHOSE SCHOLARLY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN SEX AND GENDER SYSTEMS PAVED THE WAY FOR THIS COLLECTION vitam quae faciant beatiorem, iucundissime Martialis, haec sunt ... prudens simplicitas, pares amici; convictus facilis, sine arte mensa ... quod sis, esse velis nihilque malis; summum nee metuas diem nee optes. (Martial 10.47) CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX INTRODUCTION Quod multo fit aliter in Graecia . .. 3 Marilyn B. Skinner PART ONE: UNMARKED SEXUALITY ONE Invading the Roman Body: Manliness and Impenetrability in Roman Thought 29 Jonathan Walters PART TWO: WAYWARD SEXUALITIES TWO The Teratogenic Grid 47 Holt N Parker THREE Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome 66 Catharine Edwards PART THREE: GENDER SLIPPAGE IN LITERARY CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE MASCULINE FOUR Dining Deviants in Roman Political Invective 99 Anthony Corbeill FIVE Ego mulier: The Construction of Male Sexuality in Catullus Marilyn B. Skinner SIX The Erotics of amicitia: Readings in Tibullus, Propertius, and Horace 151 Ellen Oliensis 129 viii CONTENTS SEVEN Reading Broken Skin: Violence in Roman Elegy David Fredrick 172 PART FOUR: MALE CONSTRUCTIONS OF "WOMAN" EIGHT Pliny's Brassiere 197 Amy Richlin NINE Female Desire and the Discourse of Empire: Tacitus's M