The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
An te ibi vis inter istas vorsarier
_Prosedas_, pistorum amicas, reliquias alicarias,
Miseras coeno delibutas, servilicolas, sordidas,
Quae tibi olent stabulum, statumque, sellam et sessibulum merum,
Quas adeo haud quisquam tetigit, neque duxit domum?
(It is your wish to pass your time there amongst those _common
strumpets_, bakers’ mistresses, refuse of the spelt-mill girls, drabs
besmeared with filth, slaves’ darlings, squalid creatures that reek of
their stand and trade, of the chair and bare stool, women that no free
man ever touched or took home?) This serves also to explain the passage
in _Juvenal_, III. 136., Et dubitas alta Chionem deducere sella. (And
you hesitate to hand down Chione from her high seat).
[194] _Martial_, XI. 45., I. 35. Usually however this appears only to
have been done, when the customer was gratifying unnatural lusts.
[195] _Plautus_, Asin., IV. 1. 19., In foribus scribat, occupatam esse
se. (Let her write on the door that she is engaged).
[196] _Martial_, XI. 62.,
Quem cum fenestra vidit a Suburana
Obscoena _nudum_ lena _fornicem_ clausit.
(When she saw him from a window in the Subura, the foul
brothel-mistress shut the _unoccupied “chamber”_).
_Juvenal_, VI. 121.,
Intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar,
Et cellam _vacuam_ atque suam.
(She entered the brothel cosy with its old patch-work quilt, and the
chamber that was _vacant_ and her own.). Messalina had hired, we see, a
special “chamber” of her own, where she acted as a prostitute under the
name of Lycisca.
[197] Juvenal, VI. 127.,
Mox, lenone suas iam dimittente puellas,
Tristis abit—tamen ultima cellam clausit.
(Presently when time is up and the brothel-keeper dismisses his girls,
sadly she takes her departure,—but she was the last to shut her
chamber).
[198] III. 65., et _ad circum_ iussas prostare puellas (and girls
bidden stand for hire _at the Circus_).
[199] Of Heliogabalus _Lampridius_, (Vita Heliog. ch. 26.)
relates: Omnes de _circo_, de theatro, de stadio—meretrices
collegit. (He collected all the harlots,—from _circus_, theatre and
stadium—race-course). An old poem (_Priapeia_, carm. 26,) says:
Deliciae populi, _magno_ notissima _circo_
Quintia.
(The darling of the people, Quintia, so well known _in the Great
Circus_). Comp. _Buleng._ De Circo ch. 56. Supposing this view to be
correct, we might read in the passage of _Juvenal_, III. 136., as
several Critics do, “alta Chionem deducere _cella_” (to lead Chione
down from her lofty “chamber”).
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