The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
[213] Deipnosoph. bk. XII. p. 518., Πάντες δὲ οἱ πρὸς ἑσπέραν οἰκοῦντες
βάρβαροι πιττοῦνται καὶ ξυροῦνται τὰ σώματα· καὶ παρά γε τοῖς Τυῤῥηνοῖς
ἐργαστήρια κατεσκεύασται πολλὰ, καὶ τεχνῖται τούτου τοῦ πράγματός
εἰσιν, ὥσπερ παρ’ ἡμῖν οἱ κουρεῖς· παρ’ οὓς ὅταν εἰσέλθωσι, παρέχουσιν
ἑαυτοὺς πάντα τρόπον, οὐδὲν αἰσχυνόμενοι τοὺς ὁρῶντας, οὐ δὲ τοὺς
παριόντας· χρῶντοι δὲ τούτῳ τῷ νόμῳ πολλοὶ καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τῶν τὴν
Ἰταλίαν οἰκούντων, μαθόντες παρὰ Σαμνιτῶν καὶ Μεσαπίων. (Now all the
Barbarians that dwell towards the West, use pitch as a depilatory,
and shave their bodies. Indeed amongst the Tyrrhenians establishments
are fitted up in numbers for this purpose, and there are artistes who
practise this profession, like barbers among ourselves. And when men
go into their shops, they expose themselves in every part, feeling no
shame of spectators nor of passers-by. And this custom is followed
also by many of the Greeks and of the inhabitants of Italy, who have
learned it from Samnites and Messapians). The depilation of men and
boys was attended to by women (_Martial_, XI. 79.) at the period of the
highest degree of dissoluteness; in fact there was a special guild of
such women, known as _ustriculae_. _Tertullian_, De pallio ch. 4. In
the same way men performed this service for women, as e. g. _Domitian_,
according to _Suetonius_, ch. 22., Erat fama, quasi concubinas ipse
develleret (Rumour went, to the effect that the Emperor used to “pluck”
his mistresses with his own hand,)—and _Heliogabalus_ according to
_Lampridius_, ch. 31., In balneis semper cum mulieribus fuit, ita ut
eas ipse psilothro curaret, ipse quoque barbam psilothro accurans,
quodque pudendum dictu est, eodem quo mulieres accurabantur, et eadem
hora. Rasit et virilia subactoribus suis ad novaculam manu sua, qua
postea barbam fecit. (At the baths he was always with the women,
going so far as to apply the “psilothrum” (a depilatory) in their
treatment himself, finishing off his own beard also with “psilothrum”,
and using, disgusting to relate, the same as the women were being
treated with, and at one and the same time. Moreover he shaved his
debauchees’ (pathics) privates to the navel with his own hand, and then
shaved his own beard).
[214] They used to remove the hair on the _face_ (_Martial_, III. 74.),
from the _nose_ (Ovid, Art. Amand. I. 520.), on the arches of the
_eyebrows_ (Cicero, Orat. pro Roscio), from the armpits (_Juvenal_,
XIV. 194., _Seneca_, Epist. 115.), on the _arms_ (_Martial_, III. 63.),
the _hands_ (_Martial_, V. 41.), on the _legs_ (_Juvenal_, IX. 12.) As
to the beard, that has already been spoken of.
[215] _Martial_, II. 62., Cui praestas culum, quem, Labiene, pilas. (To
whom you give your fundament, Labienus, that you strip of hair).
[216] _Martial_, II. 62.,
Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia vellis,
Quod cincta est brevibus _mentula tonsa_ pilis,
Haec praestas, Labiene, tuae, quis nescit? amicae.
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