Rome -- Fiction; Satire, Latin -- Translations into English
nature; if any should have been detected in adultery, by this plan she
was not in any way reformed, but rather utterly given over to an increase
of her ill behaviour. They used to shut the woman up in a narrow room,
admitting any that would commit fornication with her, and, at the moment
when they were accomplishing their foul deed, to strike bells, that the
sound might make known to all, the injury she was suffering. The Emperor
hearing this, would suffer it no longer, but ordered the very rooms to be
pulled down” (Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscel. xiii, 2). Rent from a
brothel was a legitimate source of income (Ulpian, Law as to Female
Slaves Making Claim to Heirship). Procuration also, had to be notified
before the aedile, whose special business it was to see that no Roman
matron became a prostitute. These aediles had authority to search every
place which had reason to fear anything, but they themselves dared not
engage in any immorality there; Aulus Gellius, Noct. Attic. iv, 14,
where an action at law is cited, in which the aedile Hostilius had
attempted to force his way into the apartments of Mamilia, a courtesan,
who thereupon, had driven him away with stones. The result of the trial
is as follows: “the tribunes gave as their decision that the aedile had
been lawfully driven from that place, as being one that he ought not to
have visited with his officer.” If we compare this passage with Livy,
xl, 35, we find that this took place in the year 180 B C. Caligula
inaugurated a tax upon prostitutes (vectigal ex capturis), as a state
impost: “he levied new and hitherto unheard of taxes; a proportion of the
fees of prostitutes;--so much as each earned with one man. A clause was
also added to the law directing that women who had practiced harlotry and
men who had practiced procuration should be rated publicly; and
furthermore, that marriages should be liable to the rate” (Suetonius,
Calig. xi). Alexander Severus retained this law, but directed that such
revenue be used for the upkeep of the public buildings, that it might not
contaminate the state treasure (Lamprid. Alex. Severus, chap. 24). This
infamous tax was not abolished until the time of Theodosius, but the real
credit is due to a wealthy patrician, Florentius by name, who strongly
censured this practice, to the Emperor, and offered his own property to
make good the deficit which would appear upon its abrogation (Gibbon,
vol. 2, p. 318, note). With the regulations and arrangements of the
brothels, however, we have information which is far more accurate. These
houses (lupanaria, fornices, et cet.) were situated, for the most part,
in the Second District of the City (Adler, Description of the City of
Rome, pp. 144 et seq.), the Coelimontana, particularly in the Suburra
that bordered the town walls, lying in the Carinae,--the valley between
the Coelian and Esquiline Hills. The Great Market (Macellum Magnum) was
in this district, and many cook-shops, stalls, barber shops, et cet. as
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