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
[200] Already in _Livy_, II. 18., we read the account: Eo anno Romae,
cum per ludos ab Sabinorum iuventute per lasciviam scorta raperentur,
etc. (That year at Rome, when during the games harlots were carried
off in their wantonness by the youth of the Sabines, etc.) _Plautus_,
Casin. Prolog., 82-86.; this passage is repeatedly cited in this
connection, but really has only a remote bearing on the matter. But
in confirmation _Isidore_, XVIII. 42., says: Idem vero theatrum
idem et prostibulum, eo quod _post ludos exactos meretrices ibi
prosternerentur_. (But theatre and brothel were identical, for _after
the games were over, harlots used to prostitute themselves there_).
Comp. _Buleng._ De Theatro I. 16. and 49. _Lipsius_, Elect., I. 11.
Of course these statements may refer equally well to the Floralia or,
as _Isidore_ lived so much later, to the lascivious representations
of brothel-life of which _Tertullian_ tells us. The latter writes,
De Spectaculis ch. 17., Ipsa etiam prostibula, publicae libidinis
hostiae, in scena proferantur, plus miserae in praesentia feminarum,
quibus solis latebant: perque omnis aetatis, omnis dignitatis ora
transducuntur, locus, stipes, elogium, etiam quibus opus est,
praedicatur. (Nay, the very harlots, victims of the public lust, are
brought forward on the stage, more wretched still in the presence of
women, who alone used to be ignorant of such things; and they are
discussed by the lips of every age and every condition, and place,
origin, merits, even what should never be mentioned, are freely spoken
of). In 1791 in a public theatre in Paris just such things were
represented as _Juvenal_ in his Sixth Satire speaks of as being acted
at Rome. Gynaeology Pt. III. p. 423. That whores were to be found in
the Theatre as well as in the Circus is shown by _Lampridius_, Vita
Heliogab., ch. 32., fertur et una die ad omnes _circi_ et _theatri_ et
_amphitheatri_ et omnium urbis locorum _meretrices_ ingressus. (And
access is given on one day to all the _harlots of circus, theatre
and amphitheatre_ and all the places of the city). Comp. ch. 26.,
and _Abram._ on Cicero’s Speech for Milo ch. 24. p. 177. Perhaps at
all these spots “chambers” (cellae) were put up, to which the word
_locorum_ (places) above may very well refer.
[201] _Horace_, Epist. I. 14. 21.,
Fornix tibi et uncta popina
Incutiunt urbis desiderium, video; et quod
Angulus iste feret piper et thus ocius uva;
Nec vicina subest vinum praebere taberna
Quae possit tibi; nec meretrix tibicina, cuius
Ad strepitum salias terrae gravis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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