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Perhaps the most prevalent mischaracterization of Roman sexuality is that the Romans were sex- crazed and indulged themselves in all manner of debauchery – most notably, orgies. By its very

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classified as the most social of the sexual relations a Roman might have. But, contrary to the modern imagination, they did not widely engage in orgies – at least not the kind with which a modern

American might be familiar. The word for orgy, Latin orgia, comes from the same roots as orgasm – ὀργάω [ripen, swell, arouse].

Rather than purely sex parties, they were religious nocturnal rituals in the honor of Bacchus, a pastoral god of wine, madness, and fertility. Orgies were drunken and frenzied rituals that, although involving sex, often turned violent. Livy recounts some of the earliest events related to these rites:

To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of converts. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the

intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced… from this store-house of villainy proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended

discoveries. From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases, not even the bodies could be found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them by force.

(Livy, History of Rome 39.8)

During the year 186 BCE, the kind of worship of Bacchus as described above was criminalized, the existing cults were disbanded, often by force and violence, and a reformed version was brought under the control of the Roman pontifices [priests]. While orgies were not as widespread as one might be led

Figure 9: This is an ancient Roman depiction of an orgy. It is apparent in the picture that an orgy was more about the wine and drugs rather than the sex.

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to believe from some modern stereotyped portrayals of Roman life, thereafter the scope and functionality of orgies, or gatherings with orgy-like aspects, was primarily restricted to festivals and rituals with apotropaic properties.

Certainly, as it is transmitted by historical authors such as Suetonius in his biographical

anthology Lives of the Caesars, the emperors and perhaps, by extension, members of the imperial court were exceptions to this generalization and engaged in orgies outside of these apotropaic purposes. But Suetonius tends to look on the Julio-Claudians, some of the most infamous sexual deviants, unfavorably and may have transmitted exaggerations or misinformation. Thus, it is entirely possible that an average Roman during the relatively socially conservative Flavian dynasty would have seen such debaucheries and sexual deviances as distasteful. Suetonius may have only included these scandalous occurrences in order to paint the current rulers in a more favorable light. It is therefore unrealistic to assume that Rome was sex-crazed and filled with orgies as many people do when in reality most Roman citizens were quite reserved in regards to sex.

Although the Roman orgy was far from common, there were a number of rights or festivals, primarily fertility festivals, which involved many orgiastic events. The Lupercalia was one of the most celebrated rites in the Roman year, held in the middle of February, in order to purify Rome and promote fertility. It was originally a festival in honor of pastoral deities which pre-date the monarchy. The ritual, in its preserved form, throughout

Figure 10: a modern depiction of the Lupercalia. Based on the descriptions of the rituals, the Lupercalia was much more orgiastic to modern audiences than the orgies of Bacchus.

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the Republic and Empire involved naked men running through the streets of Rome ritualistically lashing women with the flayed hides of animal sacrifices. This act was thought to have the power to make barren women conceive and pregnant women have a childbirth without complication. Certainly, this is apotropaic in nature, and although not an orgy in the proper sense, certainly had characteristics of an orgy. This is an example of the most wide-spread social-sexual interactions in Roman culture. However, the Lupercalia may have even gone further and included a custom which young men would draw lots for young women and they would become sexual companions for up to a year (Galician, 318). These parings would certainly have increased fertility, though it is unclear how prevalent such pairings were because of the strict monogamy generally forced upon women. Other instances of such orgiastic festivals and rituals include the Floralia, Liberalia, as well as rites of Cybele and Priapus.

Roman culture very clearly had a number of very widespread events which afforded citizens a certain degree of freedom in being social with their sexuality. However, outside of these events, sex tended to be a very private affair – dinner parties would not degenerate into orgies as modern media like to believe (Laurence, 92). The majority of sexual interactions among people would have been very limited in nature; that is to say with one or, perhaps, two people at a time. This limitation of sexual conduct is very characteristic of how Roman society handled sex. Rather than being a free flowing continuum of sexuality, Roman sexuality was actually confined to certain acceptable categories and any slight deviation from them would have been shameful.