title: Edinburgh Castle

text: Following Oliver Cromwell's seizure of the castle in 1650, the Great Hall was converted into a barracks for his troops; and in 1737 it was subdivided into three storeys to house 312 soldiers. Following the construction of the New Barracks in the 1790s, it became a military hospital until 1897. It was then restored by Hippolyte Blanc in line with contemporary ideas of medieval architecture. The Great Hall is still occasionally used for ceremonial occasions, and has been used as a venue on Hogmanay for BBC Scotland's "Hogmanay Live" programme. To the south of the hall is a section of curtain wall from the 14th century with a parapet of later date.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: In the 16th century, this area housed the kitchens serving the adjacent Great Hall, and was later the site of the Royal Gunhouse. The present building was named after Queen Anne and was built during the attempted Jacobite invasion by the Old Pretender in 1708. It was designed by Captain Theodore Dury, military engineer for Scotland, who also designed Dury's Battery, named in his honour, on the south side of the castle in 1713. The Queen Anne Building provided accommodation for Staff Officers, but after the departure of the Army it was remodelled in the 1920s as the Naval and Military Museum, to complement the newly opened Scottish National War Memorial. The museum later moved to the former hospital in the western part of the castle, and the building now houses a function suite and an education centre.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The Scottish National War Memorial occupies a converted barrack block on the north side of Crown Square. It stands on the site of the medieval St. Mary's Church which was rebuilt in 1366, and was converted into an armoury in 1540. It was demolished in 1755, and the masonry reused to build a new North Barrack Block on the site. Proposals for a Scottish National War Memorial were put forward in 1917, during the First World War, and the architect Sir Robert Lorimer was appointed in 1919. Construction began in 1923, and the memorial was formally opened on 14 July 1927 by the Prince of Wales. The exterior is decorated with gargoyles and sculpture, while the interior contains monuments to individual regiments. The stained-glass windows are by Douglas Strachan.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The memorial commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those serving with Scottish regiments, who died in the two world wars and in more recent conflicts. Upon the altar within the Shrine, placed upon the highest point of the Castle Rock, is a sealed casket containing Rolls of Honour which list over 147,000 names of those soldiers killed in the First World War. After the Second World War, another 50,000 names were inscribed on Rolls of Honour held within the Hall, and further names continue to be added there. The memorial is maintained by a charitable trust.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: Edinburgh Castle is in the ownership of the Scottish Ministers as heads of the devolved Scottish Government. The castle is run and administered, for the most part, by Historic Environment Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government, although the Army remains responsible for some areas, including the New Barracks block and the military museums. Both Historic Environment Scotland and the Army share use of the Guardroom immediately inside the castle entrance.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: Historic Environment Scotland undertakes the dual tasks of operating the castle as a commercially viable tourist attraction, while simultaneously bearing responsibility for conservation of the site. Edinburgh Castle remains the most popular paid visitor attraction in Scotland, with over 2.2 million visitors in 2019. Historic Environment Scotland maintains a number of facilities within the castle, including two cafés/restaurants, several shops, and numerous historical displays. An educational centre in the Queen Anne Building runs events for schools and educational groups, and employs re-enactors in costume and with period weaponry.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: Direct administration of the castle by the War Office came to an end in 1905, and in 1923 the Army formally moved to the city's new Redford Barracks. Nevertheless, the castle continues to have a strong connection with the Army, and is one of the few ancient castles in Britain that still has a military garrison, albeit for largely ceremonial and administrative purposes. Public duties performed by the garrison include guarding the Honours of Scotland, and armed sentries stand watch at the Gatehouse outside opening hours. The post of Governor of Edinburgh Castle is now a ceremonial post. The New Barracks contain both the Governor's House, which serves as the Officers' Mess, and the Regimental Headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The Army retains responsibility for these and for the Royal Scots Museum and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: A series of performances known as the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (since 2010 the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo) takes place on the Esplanade each year during August. The basis of each performance is a parade of the massed pipes and drums of the Scottish regiments, and since its inception in 1950 the tattoo has developed a complex format that includes a variety of performers invited from around the world, although still with a largely military focus. The climax of the evening is the lone piper on the castle battlements, playing a pibroch in memory of dead comrades-in-arms, followed by massed bands joining in a medley of traditional Scottish tunes. The tattoo attracts an annual audience of around 217,000 people, and is broadcast in some 30 countries to a television audience estimated at 100 million.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The One O'Clock Gun is a time signal, fired every day at precisely one p.m., excepting Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The 'Time Gun' was established in 1861 as a time signal for ships in the harbour of Leith and the Firth of Forth, away. It complemented the 'Time Ball', which was installed on the Nelson Monument in 1852, but was useless as a visual signal in foggy weather. Because sound travels relatively slowly (approximately ), a map was produced in 1861 to show the actual time when the sound of the gun would be heard at various locations across Edinburgh.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The original gun was an 18-pound muzzle-loading cannon, which needed four men to load, and was fired from the Half Moon Battery. This was replaced in 1913 by a 32-pound breech-loader, and in May 1952 by a 25-pound Howitzer. The present One O'Clock Gun is an L118 Light Gun, brought into service on 30 November 2001.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: On Sunday 2 April 1916, at an unknown time of day, the One O'Clock Gun was fired in vain at a German Zeppelin during an air raid, the gun's only known use in war.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The gun is now fired from Mill's Mount Battery, on the north face of the castle, by the District Gunner from the 105th Regiment Royal Artillery. Although the gun is no longer required for its original purpose, the ceremony has become a popular tourist attraction. The longest-serving District Gunner, Staff Sergeant Thomas McKay MBE, nicknamed "Tam the Gun", fired the One O'Clock Gun from 1979 until his retirement in January 2005. McKay helped establish the One O'Clock Gun Association, which opened a small exhibition at Mill's Mount, and published a book entitled "What Time Does Edinburgh's One O'clock Gun Fire?" In 2006 Sergeant Jamie Shannon, nicknamed "Shannon the Cannon", became the 29th District Gunner, and in 2006 Bombardier Allison Jones became the first woman to fire the gun.


title: Edinburgh Castle

text: The castle has become a recognisable symbol of Edinburgh, and of Scotland. It appears, in stylised form, on the coats of arms of the City of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh. It also features on the badge of No. 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron which was based at RAF Turnhouse (now Edinburgh Airport) during Second World War. Images of the castle are used as a logo by organisations including Edinburgh Rugby, the "Edinburgh Evening News", Hibernian F.C. and the Edinburgh Marathon. It also appears on the "Castle series" of Royal Mail postage stamps, and has been represented on various issues of banknotes issued by Scottish clearing banks. In the 1960s the castle was illustrated on £5 notes issued by the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, and since 1987 it has featured on the reverse of £1 notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Since 2009 the castle, as part of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site, has appeared on £10 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank. The castle is a focal point for annual fireworks displays which mark Edinburgh's Hogmanay (new year) celebrations, and the end of the Edinburgh Festival in the summer.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Creep is a 2014 American found footage psychological horror film directed by Patrick Brice, his directorial debut, from a story by Brice and Mark Duplass, who both star in the film. Filmed as found footage, Brice portrays a videographer assigned to record an eccentric client, played by Duplass. "Creep" was inspired by Brice's experiences on Craigslist and the movies "My Dinner with Andre", "Misery", and "Fatal Attraction." Brice and Duplass refined the film's story during filming, which resulted in multiple versions of each scene and several alternate end scenarios.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: The film premiered on March 8, 2014, at South by Southwest, and was released on video on demand on June 23, 2015, by The Orchard prior to an international release via Netflix on July 14, 2015. It received positive reviews from critics and has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 90%. A sequel was released in 2017, also directed by Brice and starring Duplass, with a third film planned for a future release.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Struggling videographer Aaron accepts an assignment to travel to a remote cabin, where he meets his client Josef. Josef explains that he has an inoperable brain tumor and is expected to die before his pregnant wife Angela gives birth, so he wishes to have Aaron record a video diary for his unborn child. Throughout the day, Josef demonstrates eccentric behavior that makes Aaron uneasy, which culminates in Josef confessing that he raped his wife. As an increasingly-disturbed Aaron is hindered from departing by being unable to locate his car keys, he intercepts a phone call from Angela, who reveals she is actually Josef's sister and urges Aaron to escape. Josef, however, attempts to stop Aaron from leaving, leading to a scuffle that ends with Aaron getting away.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Back at his home, Aaron starts receiving items in the mail from Josef, including a recording of Josef digging a grave. The police are unable to take action due to Aaron's knowing little about Josef, who Aaron realizes is stalking him. A final DVD is sent to Aaron, in which Josef offers to meet him in a public park to make amends. Aaron accepts Josef's offer, but places a camera on himself and sets his phone to dial the police as a precaution. While Aaron waits on a park bench for Josef to arrive, Josef kills him from behind with an axe. Reviewing the footage, Josef questions why Aaron did not turn around in the moments leading up to his death. He concludes that Aaron believed he was a good person who would not harm him and because of this, he declares Aaron to be his favorite victim.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Josef, now calling himself Bill, later receives a phone call from his newest target as he places a DVD of Aaron's murder alongside recordings of his past victims.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Duplass said that the film's story "was inspired by character-driven dramas that are, at their heart, two-handers: "My Dinner with Andre", "Misery", and "Fatal Attraction"" as well as "[his] myriad of strange Craigslist experiences over the years." Brice and Duplass originally began working on "Creep" under the working title "Peachfuzz" after the wolf mask owned by Duplass' character, but chose to rename the film as the title's relevance came later in the movie's plot and they did not want viewers to "spend the first half hour trying to figure out why the movie is called "Peachfuzz" and [not] pay attention to the very intricate details". The two built the movie from a series of conversations they had with one another and decided to refine "Creep" while they were filming, which enabled them to film and screen portions of the film to see what would or would not work on camera. As a result, the film had multiple alternate end scenarios and Duplass stated that there were "10 to 12 permutations of each scene".


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Of the creative process for his character, Josef, Duplass explained: "We were interested in the psychological profile of this very, very strange person. We were very interested in how you meet people and don’t quite understand what’s up, but you start to get signs. For us that was intense eye contact, lack of personal space, oversharing, maybe a little bit too much love here and there. But, for me, there’s something wrong with both of these guys. Deeply. This concept of, 'who is the creep in this scenario?'"


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: "Creep" received a world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on March 8, 2014, and film rights were purchased by RADiUS-TWC shortly thereafter. Plans for an October 2014 video on demand release fell through, when RADiUS didn't release the film. In June 2015, The Orchard and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Orchard's parent company) acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on June 23, 2015, on video on demand, prior to a global release on Netflix on July 14, 2015.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: "Creep" received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 90% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The critical consensus states, "a smart, oddball take on found-footage horror, "Creep" is clever and well-acted enough to keep viewers on the edges of their seats". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Indiewire" both gave the film positive reviews, and "Indiewire" noted that although the film had its flaws, they mostly worked in "Creep's" favor. "Variety" remarked that "Creep" "could have been more effective if Duplass’ performance were a shade more ambiguous, and the audience had a chance to at least fleetingly believe Josef might be telling the truth" but that "despite the blatancy of his character’s ulterior motives, Duplass scores a considerable impact by making the most of the aforementioned plot twists."


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: "Shock Till You Drop" panned the movie overall, stating that ""Creep" might work for those don't regularly digest horror films, but for the hardened fan, this is a film that spins its wheels all too often and feels like an exercise in self-indulgence."


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Shortly after "Creep's" premiere at South by Southwest, Duplass announced that he intended to film a sequel. After the film distribution rights were purchased by RADiUS-TWC, he further announced that he was planning on creating a trilogy. In August 2014, Duplass further stated that he and Brice planned on filming the second "Creep" film at the end of the year, that the film's cast would be announced during that time, and that the trilogy would be completed in 2015. However, in February 2015, Duplass commented that neither he nor Brice had been able to start filming on "Creep 2" due to scheduling issues, as the careers of both men had greatly expanded since "Creep" release, but that the both of them were still actively developing the project. In May 2016, Duplass and Brice announced discussions had begun on the sequel. In August 2016, Duplass revealed that he had begun trying on costumes for the film.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: In September 2016, it was announced production had begun on the film, with Duplass returning, and Desiree Akhavan joining the cast, with Brice returning as the director. "Creep 2" premiered at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2017, and was released through video on demand on October 24, 2017. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.


title: Creep (2014 film)

text: Brice and Duplass announced plans to create a third film, titled "Creep 3". In March 2020, they stated that they were struggling to come up with a concept as they wanted the third film to be "super inspired".


title: Catalonia national football team

text: The Catalonia national football team () is the official football team of Catalonia. It is organised by the Catalan Football Federation, founded in 1900. The team has been referred to by various names including ', ' and the Catalan XI.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: As the Catalan Federation is affiliated with the Royal Spanish Football Federation as one of the several Spanish regional football federations, Catalonia cannot be affiliated with either FIFA or UEFA as a national member association and is therefore not allowed to participate in official competitions for national teams such as the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship. Other than in certain cases where other nationalities are involved, Catalan players are full Spanish citizens who are eligible to play for Spain, and often do.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Since 1904, the team has played nearly 200 games against various national, regional and club teams. International friendly games have been played more regularly since 1997. Among the teams they have played are Nigeria, Brazil, and Argentina.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: The Catalonia team made their debut in 1905 Initially they played against various club teams such as Club Espanyol, Madrid CF, FC Barcelona and Irún Sporting Club. On 24 July 1910, they played their first-ever international game against a Paris XI, which they lost 1-3, with the author of the Catalan goals being Carles Comamala. The team was: Costa, Bru, Halden, Massana, Aguirreche, Sampere, Barenys, Angoso, Berdié, Comamala and Roteta. On 20 February 1912, they made their international friendly debut against France, losing 7–0 in Paris. The team was: Reñé, Irízar, Amechazurra, German, Peris, Kinké, Forns, Pepe Rodríguez, Comamala, Morales and Ramirez. On 1 December 1912, the two teams met again in Barcelona and this time the Catalans won 1–0 thanks to a goal from Genaro de la Riva of RCD Espanyol.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: On 8 December 1912, Catalonia faced a selection of foreigners at the Camp de la Indústria in a benefit match for the "Sindicat de Periodistes", ending in a 5–2 win for the Catalans with goals from Massana (2), C. Comamala, Wallace (own goal) and Forns, while the foreign goalscorers were Wallace and Stewart. The Catalan team was: Renyé, Amechazurra, Irízar, A. Massana, Sagnier, Quirante, Armet-Kinké, A. Comamala, C. Comamala, Janer and Forns. The Selection of foreigners was: Manchan, Braussendorf, Wallace, Rositzky, Greenwell, Morris, Allack, Kaiser, Steel, Stewart and McLean. In 1914, the Catalan XI played the Basque Country XI for the first time, but there is no record of the result, while the first recorded game between the two teams took place on 3 January 1915 at San Mamés Stadium, which ended in a 6–1 loss to the Catalan side.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Between 1915 and 1926, the Catalan XI competed in the Copa Príncep d'Astúries, an inter-regional competition. They finished as runners-up in 1915 and won for the first time in 1916, beating a Castile/Madrid XI 8–5 over two games, including a shocking 6–3 win in the first leg at the Campo de O'Donnell in Madrid. They then relinquished the trophy in 1917 after losing 2–0 to a weak Castile XI side. During the 1920s, a team featuring Josep Samitier, Paulino Alcántara, Sagibarba and Ricardo Zamora helped the Catalan XI win the competition in 1924 and 1926. In the quarter-finals of the former, Catalonia defeated a Gipuzkoa XI featuring René Petit by a score of 2–1, and then beat Biscay XI 1–0 in the semi-finals with the solitary goal being scored by Cristóbal Martí. The final was played on 24 February 1924 in San Mamés against a Castile/Madrid XI, and the game was a tremendously competitive clash, with back-and-forth drama on the scoreboard, but at the end of regulation time the match was tied at 3–3 with Samitier (twice) and Piera scoring the Catalan goals. In extra-time Juan Monjardín appeared to have won the game for the Castile/Madrid XI when he scored past Zamora, but with two minutes remaining Emili Sagi-Barba leveled the scores at 4–4 when no one was expecting it anymore, and the draw forced a replay two days later and this time Catalonia ended up winning 3-2 with goals from Carulla, Samitier and Piera, thus becoming champion. The Catalan team that lined-up that day was: Zamora, Massaguè, Montané, Caicedo, Sancho, Carulla, Piera, Martí, Peidró, Samitier and Sagibarba. The last edition of the competition was a two-legged final between the winners of the previous two, Asturias XI and Catalonia, who faced each other only for the right to keep the trophy, and Catalonia won both games (2–0 and 4–3), thus earning the right to keep the trophy. The Catalan goalscorers were Domingo Broto(2), Josep Forgas(2), Juan Pellicer and Paulino Alcántara.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: As well as playing other regional teams from throughout Spain and Europe, the 1920s also saw the Catalan XI play several international friendly matches. On 13 March 1924, at the Camp de Les Corts, the Catalan XI played Spain for the first time. The Spain XI included Josep Samitier and Zamora, two of the best Catalan players of the era, while the Catalan XI featured Alcántara and Sagibarba. Samiter scored twice to help Spain to a 7–0 win. On 13 December 1925, Samitier, Zamora, Alcántara and Sagibarba were on the same side as the Catalan XI beat Czechoslovakia at the Estadi de Sarrià. After conceding a penalty and going down 1–0, Sagibarba then equalized with another penalty before Samitier clinched a 2–1 win. On 7 July 1926, the Catalan XI played Czechoslovakia in Prague. Despite Samitier putting the Catalans 1–0 ahead, they eventually lost 2–1.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: During the 1930s, Catalonia continued playing friendly games against an array of teams; 1934 was a particularly good year. On 2 February, they played Spain and lost 2–0 at Les Corts. Four months later, they played Brazil twice. On 17 June, the Catalan XI beat Brazil 2–1 at Les Corts and then on 24 June, they held them to a 2–2 draw at the Vista Alegre in Girona. The Brazil team had been in Europe to play in the official 1934 FIFA World Cup and included the legendary Leônidas in their team. The Catalan XI completed a good month when on June 29 they beat the reigning official La Liga champions, Athletic Bilbao, 5–1.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: After the Spanish Civil War, caudillo Francisco Franco imposed several restrictions on Catalonia, abolishing the Generalitat de Catalunya and banning the official use of the Catalan language and the Catalan flag. Despite these restrictions, the Catalan XI continued to play regularly during this period and even played Spain twice. On 19 October 1947, at the Sarrià and with a team featuring Juan Velasco, Marià Gonzalvo, Joan Segarra and César, they beat Spain 3–1. On 9 August 1953, Spain avenged this defeat with a 6–0 win.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: During this era, several notable Barcelona players, including the Spanish players László Kubala, Luis Suárez, Evaristo and later Chus Pereda, played for the Catalan XI. On 26 January 1955, in a friendly game against Bologna at Les Corts, Kubala was also joined by another guest player, Alfredo Di Stéfano. The Catalan XI won 6–2 with two goals from Kubala and one from Di Stéfano. On 1 September 1956, Di Stéfano returned to Les Corts with Real Madrid, recent winners of the first official European Cup, and played a "Selecció de Barcelona". Real won the game 7–3.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: The Catalan XI marked the end of the Franco era with a friendly game against the Soviet Union at the Camp Nou on 6 June 1976. The team included Carles Rexach, guest Netherlands players Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens and Chilean international Carlos Caszely who played for Espanyol. The game finished 1–1 with Neeskens scoring for the Catalan XI. Cruyff's son, Jordi, would subsequently play regularly for the Catalan XI.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s, the Catalonia representative team has regularly played international friendly matches. They put together a string of successful results against countries like Bulgaria, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, Lithuania and Chile. On 5 May 2002, Catalonia hosted Brazil in a warm up friendly game before the official 2002 World Cup. Brazil, who went on to win the official competition, beat Catalonia 3–1. In 2004, Brazil returned for a second friendly game and this time won 5–2 at the Camp Nou, where some months later Argentina defeated Catalonia 3–0. The last friendly matches have been against Paraguay, Costa Rica, Basque Country, Argentina and Colombia.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: On 2 November 2009, it was announced that Dutch legend and former Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff would be the new coach of Catalonia. On 22 December 2009, they played a friendly against Argentina, which ended in a Catalonia win, 4–2 at Camp Nou. On 28 December 2010, Catalonia played another friendly against Honduras winning 4–0 at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. On 30 December 2011, Catalonia played Tunisia in a goalless draw at the Lluís Companys. In their last game under Cruyff, on 2 January 2013, Catalonia drew with Nigeria at the Cornellà-El Prat, 1–1.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Former player Gerard was appointed new coach for the Catalan team for two years. His first match with the team took place on 30 December 2013 against Cape Verde at the Olímpic Lluís Companys.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Due to the unofficial status of the Catalonia team and others, many of the usual conventions of international football do not apply. Players who have already appeared for a FIFA national team can play for the Catalans in addition, but if they are simultaneously called up for both, the FIFA squad (usually Spain) takes precedence. Clubs are also not obligated to release their players, and the request is sometimes refused by clubs outwith the Spanish leagues, or when the fixture takes place during the domestic season and the club has important upcoming fixtures. Eligible players can also choose not to be involved. This means the Catalan squads are frequently below what would be considered their 'full strength', but also means those who do take part are fully committed to the concept, and in many cases would have no other opportunities to experience international football so consider the match to be an important matter. This contrasts with their opponents, as the fixture does not contribute to their Association ranking points or individual cap totals and is thus one of the least significant matches out of several they would play each year. In combination with home advantage for the Catalan team in most of their fixtures, this has led to the results falling in their favour more often than might be expected compared to other nations perceived to have a similar standard of players.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: The following players have been called up for the team within the last played matches and are still available for selection.


title: Catalonia national football team

text: Because Catalonia is not a member of either UEFA or FIFA due to it being a region of Spain and plays only in unofficial friendly matches, normal eligibility rules based on birthplace do not apply, and a number of players who were not born in Catalonia and played for other international teams have guested for the Catalan XI, although this is much less frequent in the 21st century. With the notable exception of Alfredo Di Stéfano, most were playing for Barcelona or Espanyol at the time. Some of these players, such as Andrés Iniesta, César Rodríguez, Francisco Bru, Guillermo Amor and Pepe Reina had lived a large part of their lives in Catalonia due to their football careers.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Tornado climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in certain areas and storm chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Although the official boundaries of Tornado Alley are not clearly defined, the main alley extends from northern Texas, through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. States such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana, and Ohio are sometimes included in Tornado Alley, as are the easternmost portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Research suggests that the main alley may be shifting eastward away from the Great Plains, and that tornadoes are also becoming more frequent in the northern parts of Tornado Alley where it reaches the Canadian prairies.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Over the years, the location(s) of Tornado Alley have not been clearly defined. No definition of tornado alley has ever been officially designated by the National Weather Service (NWS). Thus, differences in location are the result of the different criteria used.


title: Tornado Alley

text: According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) FAQ, "Tornado Alley" is a term used by the media as a reference to areas that have higher numbers of tornadoes. A study of 1921–1995 tornadoes concluded almost one-fourth of all significant tornadoes occur in this area.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Although the official boundaries of Tornado Alley are not clearly defined, its core extends from northern Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa along with South Dakota.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and western Ohio are sometimes included in Tornado Alley. Some research suggests that tornadoes are becoming more frequent in the northern parts of Tornado Alley where it reaches the Canadian prairies.


title: Tornado Alley

text: No place on earth is entirely free of tornadoes, however, they occur much more frequently in the United States, particularly in the Central states, between the Rocky Mountains to the west and Appalachian Mountains to the east. Texas has the most overall number of tornadoes of any state. Per data collected through 2007, Kansas and Oklahoma ranked first and second respectively in the number of tornadoes per area. However, in 2013 statistics from the National Climatic Data Center reported Florida ranked first in tornadoes per area, although Florida is not a part of Tornado Alley. Florida's high ranking on the tornado list also has to do with the fact that the state sees a high number of waterspouts, small tornadoes that form over water. Although strong land-tornadoes have hit Florida and reports show Florida has a very high number of overall tornadoes, the tornadoes in the state seldom reach the velocity of those that may occur in the Southern Plains. In the United States, tornadoes typically occur in late spring and early summer during the changing season patterns as a warm air mass typically collides with a cold air mass resulting in tornadoes.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Another criterion for the location of Tornado Alley can be where the strongest tornadoes occur more frequently.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Tornado Alley can also be defined as an area reaching from central Texas to the Canadian prairies and from eastern Colorado to western Ohio.


title: Tornado Alley

text: It has also been asserted that there may be numerous Tornado Alleys. In addition to the Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas core, such other areas include the Upper Midwest, the lower Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and the lower Mississippi valley. Some studies, however, suggest that there is one Tornado Alley in the United States and that it can simply be subdivided into smaller tornado alleys based on regional categories.


title: Tornado Alley

text: The tornado alleys in the southeastern U.S., notably the lower Mississippi Valley and the upper Tennessee Valley, are sometimes called by the nickname "Dixie Alley", coined in 1971 by Allen Pearson, former director of the National Severe Storms Forecasting Center (NSSFC). A 2018 study found in the U.S., over the study period 1979-2017, an overall eastward shift of tornado frequency and impacts - toward Dixie Alley. The study found, since 1979, relatively-lower tornado frequency and impacts in parts of the traditional Tornado Alley, especially areas from north-central Texas toward the Houston, TX area, and relatively-higher tornado frequency and impacts in parts of the Mid-South, especially eastern Arkansas, the greater Memphis, TN area and northern Mississippi - all areas near the heart of Dixie Alley - see especially Figure 4.


title: Tornado Alley

text: In Tornado Alley, warm, humid air from the equator meets cool to cold, dry air from Canada and the Rocky Mountains. This creates an ideal environment for tornadoes to form within developed thunderstorms and super cells.


title: Tornado Alley

text: The term "tornado alley" was first used in 1952 by U.S. Air Force meteorologists Major Ernest J. Fawbush (1915–1982) and Captain Robert C. Miller (1920–1998), as the title of a research project to study severe weather in parts of Texas and Oklahoma.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Despite the elevated frequency of destructive tornadoes, building codes, such as requiring strengthened roofs and more secure connections between the building and its foundation, are not necessarily stricter compared to other areas of the United States and are markedly weaker than some hurricane prone areas, such as south Florida. One particular tornado-afflicted town, Moore, Oklahoma, managed to increase its building requirements in 2014. Other common precautionary measures include the construction of storm cellars and the installation of tornado sirens. Tornado awareness, preparedness, and media weather coverage are also high.


title: Tornado Alley

text: The southeastern United States is particularly prone to violent, long track tornadoes. Much of the housing in this region is less robust compared to other areas in the United States, and many people live in mobile homes. As a result, tornado-related casualties in the southern United States are higher. Significant tornadoes occur less frequently than in the traditionally recognized tornado alley; however, very severe and expansive outbreaks occur every few years.


title: Tornado Alley

text: These figures, reported by the National Climatic Data Center for the period between 1991 and 2010, show the seventeen U.S. states with the highest average number of tornadoes per per year.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Canada gets the second most tornadoes in the world after the United States. The average number of tornadoes per equal area of land is highest in the southern parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Roughly half of all Canadian tornadoes strike the Canadian prairies and Northern Ontario as far east as Lake Superior. Together, these regions make up the northernmost border of the U.S. Tornado Alley. Tornadoes up to EF5 in strength have been documented in this region.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Another third of Canadian tornadoes strike Southern Ontario and Quebec, especially in the region between the Great Lakes and the nation's capital city, Ottawa. Tornadoes do not often hit lake shadow regions, although they are not unknown, and some, such as the 2011 Goderich tornado, and the 2018 Ottawa tornadoes have been violent. However, most Ontario tornadoes are concentrated in a narrow corridor from Windsor to Ottawa as well as through portions of Central Quebec. Tornadoes up to F4 in strength have been documented in this region. Southwestern Ontario weather is strongly influenced by its peninsular position between the Great Lakes. As a result, increases in temperature in this region are likely to increase the amount of precipitation in storms due to lake evaporation. Increased temperature contrasts may also increase the violence and possibly the number of tornadoes.


title: Tornado Alley

text: Northern Ontario between the Manitoba border and Lake Superior is also prone to severe tornadoes, but tornadoes in this area are believed to be underestimated due to the extremely low population in this region.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Sexual attitudes and behaviors in ancient Rome are indicated by art, literature, and inscriptions, and to a lesser extent by archaeological remains such as erotic artifacts and architecture. It has sometimes been assumed that "unlimited sexual license" was characteristic of ancient Rome. Verstraete and Provençal opine that this perspective was simply a Christian interpretation: "The sexuality of the Romans has never had good press in the West ever since the rise of Christianity. In the popular imagination and culture, it is synonymous with sexual license and abuse."


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Sexuality was not excluded as a concern of the "mos maiorum", the traditional social norms that affected public, private, and military life. "Pudor", "shame, modesty", was a regulating factor in behavior, as were legal strictures on certain sexual transgressions in both the Republican and Imperial periods. The censors—public officials who determined the social rank of individuals—had the power to remove citizens from the senatorial or equestrian order for sexual misconduct, and on occasion did so. The mid-20th-century sexuality theorist Michel Foucault regarded sex throughout the Greco-Roman world as governed by restraint and the art of managing sexual pleasure.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Roman society was patriarchal (see "paterfamilias"), and masculinity was premised on a capacity for governing oneself and others of lower status, not only in war and politics, but also in sexual relations. "Virtus", "virtue", was an active masculine ideal of self-discipline, related to the Latin word for "man", "vir". The corresponding ideal for a woman was "pudicitia", often translated as chastity or modesty, but a more positive and even competitive personal quality that displayed both her attractiveness and self-control. Roman women of the upper classes were expected to be well educated, strong of character, and active in maintaining their family's standing in society. But with extremely few exceptions, surviving Latin literature preserves the voices only of educated male Romans on the subject of sexuality. Visual art was created by those of lower social status and of a greater range of ethnicity, but was tailored to the taste and inclinations of those wealthy enough to afford it, including, in the Imperial era, former slaves.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Some sexual attitudes and behaviors in ancient Roman culture differ markedly from those in later Western societies. Roman religion promoted sexuality as an aspect of prosperity for the state, and individuals might turn to private religious practice or "magic" for improving their erotic lives or reproductive health. Prostitution was legal, public, and widespread. "Pornographic" paintings were featured among the art collections in respectable upperclass households. It was considered natural and unremarkable for men to be sexually attracted to teen-aged youths of both sexes, and pederasty was condoned as long as the younger male partner was not a freeborn Roman. "Homosexual" and "heterosexual" did not form the primary dichotomy of Roman thinking about sexuality, and no Latin words for these concepts exist. No moral censure was directed at the man who enjoyed sex acts with either women or males of inferior status, as long as his behaviors revealed no weaknesses or excesses, nor infringed on the rights and prerogatives of his masculine peers. While perceived effeminacy was denounced, especially in political rhetoric, sex in moderation with male prostitutes or slaves was not regarded as improper or vitiating to masculinity, if the male citizen took the active and not the receptive role. Hypersexuality, however, was condemned morally and medically in both men and women. Women were held to a stricter moral code, and same-sex relations between women are poorly documented, but the sexuality of women is variously celebrated or reviled throughout Latin literature. In general the Romans had more fluid gender boundaries than the ancient Greeks.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: A late-20th-century paradigm analyzed Roman sexuality in terms of a "penetrator–penetrated" binary model, however this model has limitations, especially in regard to expressions of sexuality among individual Romans. Even the relevance of the word "sexuality" to ancient Roman culture has been disputed, but in the absence of any other label for "the cultural interpretation of erotic experience", the term continues to be used.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Ancient literature pertaining to Roman sexuality falls mainly into four categories: legal texts; medical texts; poetry; and political discourse. Forms of expression with lower cultural cachet in antiquity—such as comedy, satire, invective, love poetry, graffiti, magic spells, inscriptions, and interior decoration—have more to say about sex than elevated genres, such as epic and tragedy. Information about the sex lives of the Romans is scattered in historiography, oratory, philosophy, and writings on medicine, agriculture, and other technical topics. Legal texts point to behaviors Romans wanted to regulate or prohibit, without necessarily reflecting what people actually did or refrained from doing.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Major Latin authors whose works contribute significantly to an understanding of Roman sexuality include:


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Ovid lists a number of writers known for salacious material whose works are now lost. Greek sex manuals and "straightforward pornography" were published under the name of famous "heterai" (courtesans), and circulated in Rome. The robustly sexual "Milesiaca" of Aristides was translated by Sisenna, one of the praetors of 78 BC. Ovid calls the book a collection of misdeeds "(crimina)", and says the narrative was laced with dirty jokes. After the Battle of Carrhae, the Parthians were reportedly shocked to find the "Milesiaca" in the baggage of Marcus Crassus's officers.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Erotic art, especially as preserved in Pompeii and Herculaneum, is a rich if not unambiguous source; some images contradict sexual preferences stressed in literary sources and may be intended to provoke laughter or challenge conventional attitudes. Everyday objects such as mirrors and serving vessels might be decorated with erotic scenes; on Arretine ware, these range from "elegant amorous dalliance" to explicit views of the penis entering the vagina. Erotic paintings were found in the most respectable houses of the Roman nobility, as Ovid notes:


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Just as venerable figures of men, painted by the hand of an artist, are resplendent in our houses, so too there is a small painting "(tabella)" in some spot which depicts various couplings and sexual positions: just as Telamonian Ajax sits with an expression that declares his anger, and the barbarian mother "(Medea)" has crime in her eyes, so too a wet Venus dries her dripping hair with her fingers and is viewed barely covered by the maternal waters.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The pornographic "tabella" and the erotically charged Venus appear among various images that a connoisseur of art might enjoy. A series of paintings from the Suburban Baths at Pompeii, discovered in 1986 and published in 1995, presents erotic scenarios that seem intended "to amuse the viewer with outrageous sexual spectacle," including a variety of positions, oral sex, and group sex featuring male–female, male–male, and female–female relations.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The décor of a Roman bedroom could reflect quite literally its sexual use: the Augustan poet Horace supposedly had a mirrored room for sex, so that when he hired a prostitute he could watch from all angles. The emperor Tiberius had his bedrooms decorated with "the most lascivious" paintings and sculptures, and stocked with Greek sex manuals by Elephantis in case those employed in sex needed direction.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In the 2nd century AD, "there is a boom in texts about sex in Greek and Latin," along with romance novels. But frank sexuality all but disappears from literature thereafter, and sexual topics are reserved for medical writing or Christian theology. In the 3rd century, celibacy had become an ideal among the growing number of Christians, and Church Fathers such as Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria debated whether even marital sex should be permitted for procreation. The sexuality of martyrology focuses on tests against the Christian's chastity and sexual torture; Christian women are more often than men subjected to sexual mutilation, in particular of the breasts. The obscene humor of Martial was briefly revived in 4th-century Bordeaux by the Gallo-Roman scholar-poet Ausonius, although he shunned Martial's predilection for pederasty and was at least nominally a Christian.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Like other aspects of Roman life, sexuality was supported and regulated by religious traditions, both the public cult of the state and private religious practices and magic. Sexuality was an important category of Roman religious thought. The complement of male and female was vital to the Roman concept of deity. The "Dii Consentes" were a council of deities in male–female pairs, to some extent Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of the Greeks. At least two state priesthoods were held jointly by a married couple. The Vestal Virgins, the one state priesthood reserved for women, took a vow of chastity that granted them relative independence from male control; among the religious objects in their keeping was a sacred phallus: "Vesta's fire ... evoked the idea of sexual purity in the female" and "represented the procreative power of the male". The men who served in the various colleges of priests were expected to marry and have families. Cicero held that the desire "(libido)" to procreate was "the seedbed of the republic", as it was the cause for the first form of social institution, marriage. Marriage produced children and in turn a "house" "(domus)" for family unity that was the building block of urban life.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Many Roman religious festivals had an element of sexuality. The February Lupercalia, celebrated as late as the 5th century of the Christian era, included an archaic fertility rite. The Floralia featured nude dancing. At certain religious festivals throughout April, prostitutes participated or were officially recognized.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The connections among human reproduction, general prosperity, and the wellbeing of the state are embodied by the Roman cult of Venus, who differs from her Greek counterpart Aphrodite in her role as a mother of the Roman people through her half-mortal son Aeneas. During the civil wars of the 80s BC, Sulla, about to invade his own country with the legions under his command, issued a coin depicting a crowned Venus as his personal patron deity, with Cupid holding a palm branch of victory; on the reverse military trophies flank symbols of the augurs, the state priests who read the will of the gods. The iconography links deities of love and desire with military success and religious authority; Sulla adopted the title "Epaphroditus", "Aphrodite's own", before he became a "dictator." The "fascinum", a phallic charm, was ubiquitous in Roman culture, appearing on everything from jewelry to bells and wind chimes to lamps, including as an amulet to protect children and triumphing generals.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Cupid inspired desire; the imported god Priapus represented gross or humorous lust; Mutunus Tutunus promoted marital sex. The god Liber (understood as the "Free One") oversaw physiological responses during sexual intercourse. When a male assumed the "toga virilis", "toga of manhood," Liber became his patron; according to the love poets, he left behind the innocent modesty "(pudor)" of childhood and acquired the sexual freedom "(libertas)" to begin his course of love. A host of deities oversaw every aspect of intercourse, conception, and childbirth.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Classical myths often deal with sexual themes such as gender identity, adultery, incest, and rape. Roman art and literature continued the Hellenistic treatment of mythological figures having sex as humanly erotic and at times humorous, often removed from the religious dimension.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The Latin word "castitas", from which the English "chastity" derives, is an abstract noun denoting "a moral and physical purity usually in a specifically religious context", sometimes but not always referring to sexual chastity. The related adjective "castus" (feminine "casta", neuter "castum"), "pure", can be used of places and objects as well as people; the adjective "pudicus" ("chaste, modest") describes more specifically a person who is sexually moral. The goddess Ceres was concerned with both ritual and sexual "castitas", and the torch carried in her honor as part of the Roman wedding procession was associated with the bride's purity; Ceres also embodied motherhood. The goddess Vesta was the primary deity of the Roman pantheon associated with "castitas", and a virgin goddess herself; her priestesses the Vestals were virgins who took a vow to remain celibate.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: "Incestum" (that which is "not "castum"") is an act that violates religious purity, perhaps synonymous with that which is "nefas", religiously impermissible. The violation of a Vestal's vow of chastity was "incestum", a legal charge brought against her and the man who rendered her impure through sexual relations, whether consensually or by force. A Vestal's loss of "castitas" ruptured Rome's treaty with the gods "(pax deorum)", and was typically accompanied by the observation of bad omens "(prodigia)". Prosecutions for "incestum" involving a Vestal often coincide with political unrest, and some charges of "incestum" seem politically motivated; for example, Marcus Crassus was acquitted of "incestum" with a Vestal who shared his family name, and in 113 BC there was a trial involving three vestal virgins and a network of Roman elite. Although the English word "incest" derives from the Latin, incestuous relations are only one form of Roman "incestum", sometimes translated as "sacrilege". When Clodius Pulcher dressed as a woman and intruded on the all-female rites of the Bona Dea, he was charged with "incestum".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In Latin legal and moral discourse, "stuprum" is illicit sexual intercourse, translatable as "criminal debauchery" or "sex crime". "Stuprum" encompasses diverse sexual offenses including "incestum", rape ("unlawful sex by force"), and adultery. In early Rome, "stuprum" was a disgraceful act in general, or any public disgrace, including but not limited to illicit sex. By the time of the comic playwright Plautus ("ca." 254–184 BC) it had acquired its more restricted sexual meaning. "Stuprum" can occur only among citizens; protection from sexual misconduct was among the legal rights that distinguished the citizen from the non-citizen. Although the noun "stuprum" may be translated into English as fornication, the intransitive verb "to fornicate" (itself derived from the Latin "fornicarium", which originally meant "a vaulted room"; the small vaulted rooms in which some prostitutes plied their trade led to the verb "fornicare") is an inadequate translation of the Latin "stuprare", which is a transitive verb requiring a direct object (the person who is the target of the misconduct) and a male agent (the "stuprator").


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The English word "rape" derives ultimately from the Latin verb "rapio, rapere, raptus", "to snatch, carry away, abduct" (the words "rapt", "rapture", and "raptor" still have the same meaning). In Roman law, "raptus" or "raptio" meant primarily kidnapping or abduction; the mythological rape of the Sabine women is a form of bride abduction in which sexual violation is a secondary issue. (Before the word "rape" acquired its modern strictly sexual meaning, the verb meant simply to seize something or someone by force; this usage persisted at least into the early 19th century.) The abduction of an unmarried girl from her father's household in some circumstances was a matter of the couple eloping without her father's permission to marry. Rape in the English sense was more often expressed as "stuprum" committed through violence or coercion ("cum vi" or "per vim"). As laws pertaining to violence were codified toward the end of the Republic, "raptus ad stuprum", "abduction for the purpose of committing a sex crime", emerged as a legal distinction. (See further discussion of rape under "The rape of men" and "Rape and the law" below.)


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Divine aid might be sought in private religious rituals along with medical treatments to enhance or block fertility, or to cure diseases of the reproductive organs. Votive offerings "(vota"; compare ex-voto) in the form of breasts and penises have been found at healing sanctuaries.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: A private ritual under some circumstances might be considered "magic", an indistinct category in antiquity. An "amatorium" (Greek "philtron") was a love charm or potion; binding spells "(defixiones)" were supposed to "fix" a person's sexual affection. The Greek Magical Papyri, a collection of syncretic magic texts, contain many love spells that indicate "there was a very lively market in erotic magic in the Roman period", catered by freelance priests who at times claimed to derive their authority from the Egyptian religious tradition. Canidia, a witch described by Horace, performs a spell using a female effigy to dominate a smaller male doll.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Aphrodisiacs, anaphrodisiacs, contraceptives, and abortifacients are preserved by both medical handbooks and magic texts; potions can be difficult to distinguish from pharmacology. In his Book 33 "De medicamentis", Marcellus of Bordeaux, a contemporary of Ausonius, collected more than 70 sexually related treatments—for growths and lesions on the testicles and penis, undescended testicles, erectile dysfunction, hydrocele, "creating a eunuch without surgery", ensuring a woman's fidelity, and compelling or diminishing a man's desire—some of which involve ritual procedures:


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: If you’ve had a woman, and you don't want another man ever to get inside her, do this: Cut off the tail of a live green lizard with your left hand and release it while it’s still alive. Keep the tail closed up in the palm of the same hand until it dies and touch the woman and her private parts when you have intercourse with her.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: There is an herb called "nymphaea" in Greek, 'Hercules’ club' in Latin, and "baditis" in Gaulish. Its root, pounded to a paste and drunk in vinegar for ten consecutive days, has the astonishing effect of turning a boy into a eunuch.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: If the spermatic veins of an immature boy should become enlarged, split a young cherry-tree down the middle to its roots while leaving it standing, in such a way that the boy can be passed through the cleft. Then join the sapling together again and seal it with cow manure and other dressings, so that the parts that were split may intermingle within themselves more easily. The speed with which the sapling grows together and its scar forms will determine how quickly the swollen veins of the boy will return to health.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Marcellus also records which herbs could be used to induce menstruation, or to purge the womb after childbirth or abortion; these herbs include potential abortifacients and may have been used as such. Other sources advise remedies such as coating the penis with a mixture of honey and pepper to get an erection, or boiling an ass's genitals in oil as an ointment.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Ancient theories of sexuality were produced by and for an educated elite. The extent to which theorizing about sex actually affected behavior is debatable, even among those who were attentive to the philosophical and medical writings that presented such views. This elite discourse, while often deliberately critical of common or typical behaviors, at the same time cannot be assumed to exclude values broadly held within the society.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The fourth book of Lucretius' "De rerum natura" provides one of the most extended passages on human sexuality in Latin literature. Yeats, describing the translation by Dryden, called it "the finest description of sexual intercourse ever written." Lucretius was the contemporary of Catullus and Cicero in the mid-1st century BC. His didactic poem "De rerum natura" is a presentation of Epicurean philosophy within the Ennian tradition of Latin poetry. Epicureanism is both materialist and hedonic. The highest good is pleasure, defined as the absence of physical pain and emotional distress. The Epicurean seeks to gratify his desires with the least expenditure of passion and effort. Desires are ranked as those that are both natural and necessary, such as hunger and thirst; those that are natural but unnecessary, such as sex; and those that are neither natural nor necessary, including the desire to rule over others and glorify oneself. It is within this context that Lucretius presents his analysis of love and sexual desire, which counters the erotic ethos of Catullus and influenced the love poets of the Augustan period.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Lucretius treats male desire, female sexual pleasure, heredity, and infertility as aspects of sexual physiology. In the Epicurean view, sexuality arises from impersonal physical causes without divine or supernatural influence. The onset of physical maturity generates semen, and wet dreams occur as the sexual instinct develops. Sense perception, specifically the sight of a beautiful body, provokes the movement of semen into the genitals and toward the object of desire. The engorgement of the genitals creates an urge to ejaculate, coupled with the anticipation of pleasure. The body's response to physical attractiveness is automatic, and neither the character of the person desired nor one's own choice is a factor. With a combination of scientific detachment and ironic humor, Lucretius treats the human sex drive as "muta cupido", "dumb desire", comparing the physiological response of ejaculation to the blood spurting from a wound. Love "(amor)" is merely an elaborate cultural posturing that obscures a glandular condition; love taints sexual pleasure just as life is tainted by the fear of death. Lucretius is writing primarily for a male audience, and assumes that love is a male passion, directed at either boys or women. Male desire is viewed as pathological, frustrating, and violent.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Lucretius thus expresses an Epicurean ambivalence toward sexuality, which threatens one's peace of mind with agitation if desire becomes a form of bondage and torment, but his view of female sexuality is less negative. While men are driven by unnatural expectations to engage in onesided and desperate sex, women act on a purely animal instinct toward affection, which leads to mutual satisfaction. The comparison with female animals in heat is meant not as an insult, though there are a few traces of conventional misogyny in the work, but to indicate that desire is natural and should not be experienced as torture.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Having analyzed the sex act, Lucretius then considers conception and what in modern terms would be called genetics. Both man and woman, he says, produce genital fluids that mingle in a successful procreative act. The characteristics of the child are formed by the relative proportions of the mother's "seed" to the father's. A child who most resembles its mother is born when the female seed dominates the male's, and vice versa; when neither the male nor female seed dominates, the child will have traits of both mother and father evenly. Infertility occurs when the two partners fail to make a satisfactory match of their seed after several attempts; the explanation for infertility is physiological and rational, and has nothing to do with the gods. The transfer of genital "seed" "(semina)" is consonant with Epicurean physics and the theme of the work as a whole: the invisible "semina rerum", "seeds of things," continually dissolve and recombine in universal flux. The vocabulary of biological procreation underlies Lucretius's presentation of how matter is formed from atoms.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Lucretius' purpose is to correct ignorance and to give the knowledge necessary for managing one's sex life rationally. He distinguishes between pleasure and conception as goals of copulation; both are legitimate, but require different approaches. He recommends casual sex as a way of releasing sexual tension without becoming obsessed with a single object of desire; a "streetwalking Venus"—a common prostitute—should be used as a surrogate. Sex without passionate attachment produces a superior form of pleasure free of uncertainty, frenzy, and mental disturbance. Lucretius calls this form of sexual pleasure "venus", in contrast to "amor", passionate love. The best sex is that of happy animals, or of gods. Lucretius combines an Epicurean wariness of sex as a threat to peace of mind with the Roman cultural value placed on sexuality as an aspect of marriage and family life, pictured as an Epicurean man in a tranquil and friendly marriage with a good but homely woman, beauty being a disquieting prompt to excessive desire. Lucretius reacts against the Roman tendency to display sex ostentatiously, as in erotic art, and rejects the aggressive, "Priapic" model of sexuality spurred by visual stimulus.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In early Stoicism among the Greeks, sex was regarded as a good, if enjoyed between people who maintained the principles of respect and friendship; in the ideal society, sex should be enjoyed freely, without bonds of marriage that treated the partner as property. Some Greek Stoics privileged same-sex relations between a man and a younger male partner (see "Pederasty in ancient Greece"). However, stoics in the Roman Imperial era departed from the view of human beings as "communally sexual animals" and emphasized sex within marriage, which as an institution helped sustain social order. Although they distrusted strong passions, including sexual desire, sexual vitality was necessary for procreation.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Roman-era Stoics such as Seneca and Musonius Rufus, both active about 100 years after Lucretius, emphasized "sex unity" over the polarity of the sexes. Although Musonius is predominately a Stoic, his philosophy also partakes of Platonism and Pythagoreanism. He rejected the Aristotelian tradition, which portrayed sexual dimorphism as expressing a proper relation of those ruling (male) and those being ruled (female), and distinguished men from women as biologically lacking. Dimorphism exists, according to Musonius, simply to create difference, and difference in turn creates the desire for a complementary relationship, that is, a couple who will bond for life for the sake of each other and for their children. The Roman ideal of marriage was a partnership of companions who work together to produce and rear children, manage everyday affairs, lead exemplary lives, and enjoy affection; Musonius drew on this ideal to promote the Stoic view that the capacity for virtue and self-mastery was not gender-specific.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Both Musonius and Seneca criticized the double standard, cultural and legal, that granted Roman men greater sexual freedom than women. Men, Musonius argues, are excused by society for resorting to prostitutes and slaves to satisfy their sexual appetites, while such behavior from a woman would not be tolerated; therefore, if men presume to exercise authority over women because they believe themselves to have greater self-control, they ought to be able to manage their sex drive. The argument, then, is not that sexual freedom is a human good, but that men as well as women should exercise sexual restraint. A man visiting a prostitute does harm to himself by lacking self-discipline; disrespect for his wife and her expectations of fidelity would not be at issue. Similarly, a man should not be so self-indulgent as to exploit a female slave sexually; however, her right not to be used is not a motive for his restraint. Musonius maintained that even within marriage, sex should be undertaken as an expression of affection and for procreation, and not for "bare pleasure".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Musonius disapproved of same-sex relations because they lacked a procreative purpose. Seneca and Epictetus also thought that procreation privileged male–female sexual pairing within marriage, and Seneca strongly opposed adultery, finding it particularly offensive by women.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Although Seneca is known primarily as a Stoic philosopher, he draws on Neopythagoreanism for his views on sexual austerity. Neopythagoreans characterized sexuality outside marriage as disordered and undesirable; celibacy was not an ideal, but chastity within marriage was. To Seneca, sexual desire for pleasure "(libido)" is a "destructive force "(exitium)" insidiously fixed in the innards"; unregulated, it becomes "cupiditas", lust. The only justification for sex is reproduction within marriage. Although other Stoics see potential in beauty to be an ethical stimulus, a way to attract and develop affection and friendship within sexual relations, Seneca distrusts the love of physical beauty as destroying reason to the point of insanity. A man should have no sexual partner other than his wife, and the wise man ("sapiens", Greek "sophos") will make love to his wife by exercising good judgment "(iudicium)", not emotion "(affectus)". This is a far stricter view than that of other Stoics who advocate sex as a means of promoting mutual affection within marriage.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The philosophical view of the body as a corpse that carries around the soul could result in outright contempt for sexuality: the emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius writes, "as for sexual intercourse, it is the friction of a piece of gut and, following a sort of convulsion, the expulsion of some mucus". Seneca rails "at great length" against the perversity of one Hostius Quadra, who surrounded himself with the equivalent of funhouse mirrors so he could view sex parties from distorted angles and penises would look bigger.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Sexual severity opened the Roman Stoics to charges of hypocrisy: Juvenal satirizes those who affect a rough and manly Stoic façade but privately indulge. It was routinely joked that not only were Stoics inclined toward pederasty, they liked young men who were acquiring beards, contrary to Roman sexual custom. Martial repeatedly makes insinuations about those who were outwardly Stoic but privately enjoyed the passive homosexual role.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Stoic sexual ethics are grounded in their physics and cosmology. The 5th-century writer Macrobius preserves a Stoic interpretation of the myth of the birth of Venus as a result of the primal castration of the deity Heaven (Latin Caelus). The myth, Macrobius indicates, could be understood as an allegory of the doctrine of seminal reason. The elements derive from the "semina", "seeds," that are generated by heaven; "love" brings together the elements in the act of creation, like the sexual union of male and female. Cicero suggests that in Stoic allegory the severing of reproductive organs signifies, "...that the highest heavenly aether, that seed-fire which generates all things, did not require the equivalent of human genitals to proceed in its generative work".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: During the Republic, a Roman citizen's political liberty "(libertas)" was defined in part by the right to preserve his body from physical compulsion, including both corporal punishment and sexual abuse. "Virtus", "valor" as that which made a man most fully a man "(vir)", was among the active virtues. Roman ideals of masculinity were thus premised on taking an active role that was also, as Williams has noted, "the prime directive of masculine sexual behavior for Romans." The impetus toward action might express itself most intensely in an ideal of dominance that reflects the hierarchy of Roman patriarchal society. The "conquest mentality" was part of a "cult of virility" that particularly shaped Roman homosexual practices. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, an emphasis on domination has led scholars to view expressions of Roman male sexuality in terms of a "penetrator-penetrated" binary model; that is, the proper way for a Roman male to seek sexual gratification was to insert his penis in his partner. Allowing himself to be penetrated threatened his liberty as a free citizen as well as his sexual integrity.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: It was expected and socially acceptable for a freeborn Roman man to want sex with both female and male partners, as long as he took the dominating role. Acceptable objects of desire were women of any social or legal status, male prostitutes, or male slaves, but sexual behaviors outside marriage were to be confined to slaves and prostitutes, or less often a concubine or "kept woman." Lack of self-control, including in managing one's sex life, indicated that a man was incapable of governing others; the enjoyment of "low sensual pleasure" threatened to erode the elite male's identity as a cultured person. It was a point of pride for Gaius Gracchus to claim that during his term as a provincial governor he kept no slave-boys chosen for their good looks, no female prostitutes visited his house, and he never accosted other men's slave-boys.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In the Imperial era, anxieties about the loss of political liberty and the subordination of the citizen to the emperor were expressed by a perceived increase in passive homosexual behavior among free men, accompanied by a documentable increase in the execution and corporal punishment of citizens. The dissolution of Republican ideals of physical integrity in relation to "libertas" contributes to and is reflected by the sexual license and decadence associated with the Empire.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The poet Ennius ("ca." 239–169 BC) declared that "exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace "(flagitium)"," a sentiment echoed by Cicero that again links the self-containment of the body with citizenship. Roman attitudes toward nudity differed from those of the Greeks, whose ideal of masculine excellence was expressed by the nude male body in art and in such real-life venues as athletic contests. The toga, by contrast, distinguished the body of the sexually privileged adult Roman male. Even when stripping down for exercises, Roman men kept their genitals and buttocks covered, an Italic custom shared also with the Etruscans, whose art mostly shows them wearing a loincloth, a skirt-like garment, or the earliest form of "shorts" for athletics. Romans who competed in the Olympic Games presumably followed the Greek custom of nudity, but athletic nudity at Rome has been dated variously, possibly as early as the introduction of Greek-style games in the 2nd century BC but perhaps not regularly till the time of Nero around 60 AD.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Public nudity might be offensive or distasteful even in traditional settings; Cicero derides Mark Antony as undignified for appearing near-naked as a participant in the Lupercalia, even though it was ritually required. Nudity is one of the themes of this religious festival that most consumes Ovid's attention in the "Fasti", his long-form poem on the Roman calendar. Augustus, during his program of religious revivalism, attempted to reform the Lupercalia, in part by suppressing the use of nudity despite its fertility aspect.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Negative connotations of nudity include defeat in war, since captives were stripped, and slavery, since slaves for sale were often displayed naked. The disapproval of nudity was thus less a matter of trying to suppress inappropriate sexual desire than of dignifying and marking the citizen's body as free.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The influence of Greek art, however, led to "heroic" nude portrayals of Roman men and gods, a practice that began in the 2nd century BC. When statues of Roman generals nude in the manner of Hellenistic kings first began to be displayed, they were shocking not simply because they exposed the male figure, but because they evoked concepts of royalty and divinity that were contrary to Republican ideals of citizenship as embodied by the toga. The god Mars is presented as a mature, bearded man in the attire of a Roman general when he is conceived of as the dignified father of the Roman people, while depictions of Mars as youthful, beardless, and nude show the influence of the Greek Ares. In art produced under Augustus, the programmatic adoption of Hellenistic and Neo-Attic style led to more complex signification of the male body shown nude, partially nude, or costumed in a muscle cuirass.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: One exception to public nudity was the baths, though attitudes toward nude bathing also changed over time. In the 2nd century BC, Cato preferred not to bathe in the presence of his son, and Plutarch implies that for Romans of these earlier times it was considered shameful for mature men to expose their bodies to younger males. Later, however, men and women might even bathe together.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Roman sexuality as framed by Latin literature has been described as phallocentric. The phallus was supposed to have powers to ward off the evil eye and other malevolent supernatural forces. It was used as an amulet "(fascinum)", many examples of which survive, particularly in the form of wind chimes "(tintinnabula)". Some scholars have even interpreted the plan of the Forum Augustum as phallic, "with its two semi-circular galleries or "exedrae" as the testicles and its long projecting forecourt as the shaft".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The outsized phallus of Roman art was associated with the god Priapus, among others. It was laughter-provoking, grotesque, or used for magical purposes. Originating in the Greek town of Lampsacus, Priapus was a fertility deity whose statue was placed in gardens to ward off thieves. The poetry collection called the "Priapea" deals with phallic sexuality, including poems spoken in the person of Priapus. In one, for instance, Priapus threatens anal rape against any potential thief. The wrath of Priapus might cause impotence, or a state of perpetual arousal with no means of release: one curse of Priapus upon a thief was that he might lack women or boys to relieve him of his erection, and burst.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: There are approximately 120 recorded Latin terms and metaphors for the penis, with the largest category treating the male member as an instrument of aggression, a weapon. This metaphorical tendency is exemplified by actual lead sling-bullets, which are sometimes inscribed with the image of a phallus, or messages that liken the target to a sexual conquest—for instance "I seek Octavian's asshole." The most common obscenity for the penis is "mentula", which Martial argues for in place of polite terms: his privileging of the word as time-honored Latin from the era of Numa may be compared to the unvarnished integrity of "four letter Anglo-Saxon words". Cicero does not use the word even when discussing the nature of obscene language in a letter to his friend Atticus; Catullus famously uses it as a pseudonym for the disreputable Mamurra, Julius Caesar's friend ("Dick" or "Peter" might be English equivalents). "Mentula" appears frequently in graffiti and the "Priapea", but while obscene the word was not inherently abusive or vituperative. "Verpa", by contrast, was "an emotive and highly offensive word" for the penis with its foreskin drawn back, as the result of an erection, excessive sexual activity, or circumcision. "Virga", as well as other words for "branch, rod, stake, beam", is a common metaphor, as is "vomer", "plough".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The penis might also be referred to as the "vein" "(vena)", "tail" ("penis" or "cauda"), or "tendon" "(nervus)". The English word "penis" derives from "penis", which originally meant "tail" but in Classical Latin was used regularly as a risqué colloquialism for the male organ. Later, "penis" becomes the standard word in polite Latin, as used for example by the scholiast to Juvenal and by Arnobius, but did not pass into usage among the Romance languages. It was not a term used by medical writers, except for Marcellus of Bordeaux. In medieval Latin, a vogue for scholarly obscenity led to a perception of the dactyl, a metrical unit of verse represented as an image of the penis, with the long syllable "(longum)" the shaft and the two short syllables "(breves)" the testicles.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The apparent connection between Latin "testes", "testicles," and "testis", plural "testes", "witness" (the origin of English "testify" and "testimony") may lie in archaic ritual. Some ancient Mediterranean cultures swore binding oaths upon the male genitalia, symbolizing that "the bearing of false witness brings a curse upon not only oneself, but one's house and future line". Latin writers make frequent puns and jokes based on the two meanings of "testis": it took balls to become a legally functioning male citizen. The English word "testicle" derives from the diminutive "testiculum". The obscene word for "testicle" was "coleus".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: To Romans and Greeks, castration and circumcision were linked as barbaric mutilations of the male genitalia. When the cult of Cybele was imported to Rome at the end of the 3rd century BC, its traditional eunuchism was confined to foreign priests (the "Galli)", while Roman citizens formed sodalities to perform honors in keeping with their own customs. It has been argued that among the reasons for the Apostle Paul's exhortation of the Galatians not to undergo circumcision, the practice at the time should be understood not only in the context of Jewish circumcision, but also of the ritual castration associated with Cybele, whose cult was centered in Galatia. Among Jews, circumcision was a marker of the Abrahamic covenant; diaspora Jews circumcised their male slaves and adult male converts, in addition to Jewish male infants. Although Greco-Roman writers view circumcision as an identifying characteristic of Jews, they believed the practice to have originated in Egypt, and recorded it among peoples they identified as Arab, Syrian, Phoenician, Colchian, and Ethiopian. The Neoplatonic philosopher Sallustius associates circumcision with the strange familial–sexual customs of the Massagetae who "eat their fathers" and of the Persians who "preserve their nobility by begetting children on their mothers".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: During the Republican period, a Lex Cornelia prohibited various kinds of mutilation, including castration. (Two millennia later, in 1640, the poet Salvatore Rosa would write in "La Musica", “Fine Cornelia law, where hast thou gone / Now that the whole of Norcia seems not enough / For the castration of boys?”) Despite these prohibitions, some Romans kept beautiful male slaves as "deliciae" or "delicati" ("toys, delights") who were sometimes castrated in an effort to preserve the androgynous looks of their youth. The emperor Nero had his freedman Sporus castrated, and married him in a public ceremony.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: By the end of the 1st century AD, bans against castration had been enacted by the emperors Domitian and Nerva in the face of a burgeoning trade in eunuch slaves. Sometime between 128 and 132 AD, Hadrian seems to have temporarily banned circumcision, on pain of death. Antoninus Pius exempted Jews from the ban, as well as Egyptian priests, and Origen says that in his time only Jews were permitted to practice circumcision. Legislation under Constantine, the first Christian emperor, freed any slave who was subjected to circumcision; in 339 AD, circumcising a slave became punishable by death.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: A medical procedure known as epispasm, which consisted of both surgical and non-surgical methods, existed in ancient Rome and Greece to restore the foreskin and cover the glans "for the sake of decorum". Both were described in detail by the Greek physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus in his comprehensive encyclopedic work "De Medicina", written during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 CE). The surgical method involved freeing the skin covering the penis by dissection, and then pulling it forward over the glans; he also described a simpler surgical technique used on men whose prepuce is naturally insufficient to cover their glans. The second approach was non-surgical: a restoration device which consisted of a special weight made of bronze, copper, or leather, was affixed to the penis, pulling its skin downward. Overtime a new foreskin was generated, or a short prepuce was lengthened, by means of tissue expansion; Martial also mentioned the restoration device in "Epigrammaton" (Book 7:35). Hellenized or Romanized Jews resorted to epispasm to better integrate into the Greco-Roman society, and also to make themselves less conspicuous at the baths or during athletics. Of these, some had themselves circumcised again later.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Too-frequent ejaculation was thought to weaken men. Greek medical theories based on the classical elements and humors recommended limiting the production of semen by means of cooling, drying, and astringent therapies, including cold baths and the avoidance of flatulence-causing foods. In the 2nd century AD, the medical writer Galen explains semen as a concoction of blood (conceived of as a humor) and "pneuma" (the "vital air" required by organs to function) formed within the man's coiled spermatic vessels, with the humor turning white through heat as it enters into the testicles. In his treatise "On Semen", Galen warns that immoderate sexual activity results in a loss of "pneuma" and hence vitality:


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: It is not at all surprising that those who are less moderate sexually turn out to be weaker, since the whole body loses the purest part of both substances, and there is besides an accession of pleasure, which by itself is enough to dissolve the vital tone, so that before now some persons have died from excess of pleasure.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The uncontrolled dispersing of "pneuma" in semen could lead to loss of physical vigor, mental acuity, masculinity, and a strong manly voice, a complaint registered also in the "Priapea". Sexual activity was thought particularly to affect the voice: singers and actors might be infibulated to preserve their voices. Quintilian advises that the orator who wished to cultivate a deep masculine voice for court should abstain from sexual relations. This concern was felt intensely by Catullus's friend Calvus, the 1st-century BC avant-garde poet and orator, who slept with lead plates over his kidneys to control wet dreams. Pliny reports that:


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: When plates of lead are bound to the area of the loins and kidneys, it is used, owing to its rather cooling nature, to check the attacks of sexual desire and sexual dreams in one's sleep that cause spontaneous eruptions to the point of becoming a sort of disease. With these plates the orator Calvus is reported to have restrained himself and to have preserved his body's strength for the labor of his studies.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Lead plates, cupping therapy, and hair removal were prescribed for three sexual disorders thought to be related to nocturnal emissions: satyriasis, or hypersexuality; priapism, a chronic erection without an accompanying desire for sex; and the involuntary discharge of semen ("seminis lapsus" or "seminis effusio").


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Effeminacy was a favorite accusation in Roman political invective, and was aimed particularly at "populares", the politicians of the faction who represented themselves as champions of the people, sometimes called Rome's "democratic" party in contrast to the "optimates", a conservative elite of nobles. In the last years of the Republic, the popularists Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), and Clodius Pulcher, as well as the Catilinarian conspirators, were all derided as effeminate, overly-groomed, too-good-looking men who might be on the receiving end of sex from other males; at the same time, they were supposed to be womanizers or possessed of devastating sex appeal.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Perhaps the most notorious incident of cross-dressing in ancient Rome occurred in 62 BC, when Clodius Pulcher intruded on annual rites of the Bona Dea that were restricted to women only. The rites were held at a senior magistrate's home, in this year that of Julius Caesar, nearing the end of his term as praetor and only recently invested as Pontifex Maximus. Clodius disguised himself as a female musician to gain entrance, as described in a "verbal striptease" by Cicero, who prosecuted him for sacrilege "(incestum)":


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Take away his saffron dress, his tiara, his girly shoes and purple laces, his bra, his Greek harp, take away his shameless behavior and his sex crime, and Clodius is suddenly revealed as a democrat.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The actions of Clodius, who had just been elected quaestor and was probably about to turn thirty, are often regarded as a last juvenile prank. The all-female nature of these nocturnal rites attracted much prurient speculation from men; they were fantasized as drunken lesbian orgies that might be fun to watch. Clodius is supposed to have intended to seduce Caesar's wife, but his masculine voice gave him away before he got a chance. The scandal prompted Caesar to seek an immediate divorce to control the damage to his own reputation, giving rise to the famous line "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". The incident "summed up the disorder of the final years of the republic".


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In addition to political invective, cross-dressing appears in Roman literature and art as a mythological trope (as in the story of Hercules and Omphale exchanging roles and attire), religious investiture, and rarely or ambiguously as transvestic fetishism. A section of the "Digest" by Ulpian categorizes Roman clothing on the basis of who may appropriately wear it; a man who wore women's clothes, Ulpian notes, would risk making himself the object of scorn. A fragment from the playwright Accius (170–86 BC) seems to refer to a father who secretly wore "virgin's finery". An instance of transvestism is noted in a legal case, in which "a certain senator accustomed to wear women's evening clothes" was disposing of the garments in his will. In a "mock trial" exercise presented by the elder Seneca, a young man "(adulescens)" is gang-raped while wearing women's clothes in public, but his attire is explained as his acting on a dare by his friends, not as a choice based on gender identity or the pursuit of erotic pleasure.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Gender ambiguity was a characteristic of the priests of the goddess Cybele known as "Galli", whose ritual attire included items of women's clothing. They are sometimes considered a transgender priesthood, since they were required to be castrated in imitation of Attis. The complexities of gender identity in the religion of Cybele and the Attis myth are explored by Catullus in one of his longest poems, "Carmen" 63.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Roman men were free to have sex with males of lower status without a perceived loss of masculinity, or even as an enhancement of it. However, those who took the receiving role in sex acts, sometimes referred to as the "passive" or "submissive" role, were disparaged as weak and effeminate, regardless of the sex of their partner (see the section below on cunnilungus and fellatio), while having sex with males in the active position was proof of one's masculinity. Mastery of one's own body was an aspect of the citizen's "libertas", political liberty, while the use of one's body to give pleasure to others, whether in homosexual or heterosexual relations, was servile. Laws such as the poorly understood "Lex Scantinia" and various pieces of Augustan moral legislation were meant to restrict same-sex activity among freeborn males, viewed as threatening a man's status and independence as a citizen.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Latin had such a wealth of words for men outside the masculine norm that some scholars argue for the existence of a homosexual subculture at Rome; that is, although the noun "homosexual" has no straightforward equivalent in Latin, literary sources reveal a pattern of behaviors among a minority of free men that indicate same-sex preference or orientation. Some terms, such as "exoletus", specifically refer to an adult; Romans who were socially marked as "masculine" did not confine their same-sex penetration of male prostitutes or slaves to those who were "boys" under the age of 20. The "Satyricon", for example, includes many descriptions of adult, free men showing sexual interest in one another. And some older men may have at times preferred the passive role with a same age or younger partner, though this was socially frowned upon.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Homoerotic Latin literature includes the "Juventius" poems of Catullus, elegies by Tibullus and Propertius, the second "Eclogue" of Vergil, and several poems by Horace. Lucretius addresses the love of boys in "De rerum natura" (4.1052–1056). The poet Martial, despite being married to a woman, often derides women as sexual partners, and celebrates the charms of "pueri" (boys). The "Satyricon" of Petronius is so permeated with the culture of male–male sexuality that in 18th-century European literary circles, his name became "a byword for homosexuality". Although Ovid includes mythological treatments of homoeroticism in the "Metamorphoses", he is unusual among Latin love poets, and indeed among Romans in general, for his aggressively heterosexual stance, though even he did not claim exclusive heterosexuality.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Although Roman law did not recognize marriage between men, in the early Imperial period some male couples were celebrating traditional marriage rites. Same-sex weddings are reported by sources that mock them; the feelings of the participants are not recorded.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Apart from measures to protect the liberty of citizens, the prosecution of homosexuality as a general crime began in the 3rd century when male prostitution was banned by Philip the Arab, a sympathizer of the Christian faith. By the end of the 4th century, passive homosexuality under the Christian Empire was punishable by burning. "Death by sword" was the punishment for a "man coupling like a woman" under the Theodosian Code. Under Justinian, all same-sex acts, passive or active, no matter who the partners, were declared contrary to nature and punishable by death. Homosexual behaviors were pointed to as causes for God's wrath following a series of disasters around 542 and 559. Justinian also demanded the penalty of death for anyone who enslaved a castrated Roman, although he permitted the buying and selling of foreign-born eunuchs as long as they were castrated outside the boundaries of the Roman Empire ("Codex Justinianus," 4.42.2).


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Men who had been raped were exempt from the loss of legal or social standing "(infamia)" suffered by males who prostituted themselves or willingly took the receiving role in sex. According to the jurist Pomponius, "whatever man has been raped by the force of robbers or the enemy in wartime "(vi praedonum vel hostium)"" ought to bear no stigma. Fears of mass rape following a military defeat extended equally to male and female potential victims.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Roman law addressed the rape of a male citizen as early as the 2nd century BC, when a ruling was issued in a case that may have involved a male of same-sex orientation. Although a man who had worked as a prostitute could not be raped as a matter of law, it was ruled that even a man who was "disreputable "(famosus)" and questionable "(suspiciosus)"" had the same right as other free men not to have his body subjected to forced sex. In a book on rhetoric from the early 1st century BC, the rape of a freeborn male "(ingenuus)" is equated with that of a "materfamilias" as a capital crime. The "Lex Julia de vi publica", recorded in the early 3rd century AD but "probably dating from the dictatorship of Julius Caesar", defined rape as forced sex against "boy, woman, or anyone"; the rapist was subject to execution, a rare penalty in Roman law. It was a capital crime for a man to abduct a free-born boy for sexual purposes, or to bribe the boy's chaperone "(comes)" for the opportunity. Negligent chaperones could be prosecuted under various laws, placing the blame on those who failed in their responsibilities as guardians rather than on the victim. Although the law recognized the victim's blamelessness, rhetoric used by the defense indicates that attitudes of blame among jurors could be exploited.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: In his collection of twelve anecdotes dealing with assaults on chastity, the historian Valerius Maximus features male victims in equal number to female. In the "mock trial" case described by the elder Seneca, an "adulescens" (a man young enough not to have begun his formal career) was gang-raped by ten of his peers; although the case is imaginary, Seneca assumes that the law permitted the successful prosecution of the rapists. Another hypothetical case imagines the extremity to which a rape victim could be driven: the free-born male who was raped commits suicide. The rape of an "ingenuus" is among the worst crimes that could be committed in Rome, along with parricide, the rape of a female virgin, and robbing a temple. Rape was nevertheless one of the traditional punishments inflicted on a male adulterer by the wronged husband, though perhaps more in revenge fantasy than in practice. The threat of one man to subject another to anal or oral rape "(irrumatio)" is a theme of invective poetry, most notably in Catullus's notorious "Carmen" 16, and was a form of masculine braggadocio.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: The Roman soldier, like any free and respectable Roman male of status, was expected to show self-discipline in matters of sex. Soldiers convicted of adultery were given a dishonorable discharge; convicted adulterers were barred from enlisting. Strict commanders might ban prostitutes and pimps from camp, though in general the Roman army, whether on the march or at a permanent fort "(castrum)", was attended by a number of camp followers who might include prostitutes. Their presence seems to have been taken for granted, and mentioned mainly when it became a problem; for instance, when Scipio Aemilianus was setting out for Numantia in 133 BC, he dismissed the camp followers as one of his measures for restoring discipline.


title: Sexuality in ancient Rome

text: Perhaps most peculiar is the prohibition against marriage in the Imperial army. In the early period, Rome had an army of citizens who left their families and took up arms as the need arose. During the expansionism of the Middle Republic, Rome began acquiring vast territories to be defended as provinces, and during the time of Gaius Marius (d. 86 BC), the army had been professionalized. The ban on marriage began under Augustus (ruled 27 BC–14 AD), perhaps to discourage families from following the army and impairing its mobility. The marriage ban applied to all ranks up to the centurionate; men of the governing classes were exempt. By the 2nd century AD, the stability of the Empire kept most units in permanent forts, where attachments with local women often developed. Although legally these unions could not be formalized as marriages, their value in providing emotional support for the soldiers was recognized. After a soldier was discharged, the couple were granted the right of legal marriage as citizens "(conubium)", and any children they already had were considered to have been born to citizens. Septimius Severus rescinded the ban in 197 AD.