page_title: Homosexuality in ancient Rome
section_title: Marriage between males
hierarchical_section_title: Homosexuality in ancient Rome / Male–male sex / Marriage between males
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Nero. Marble, Roman artwork, 1st century CE. From the Augustan area on the Palatine Hill. Antiquarium of the Palatine, Inv.&#160;618. Français&#160;: Portrait de Néron. Marbre, œuvre romaine, Ier siècle ap. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: zone de l'époque d'Auguste, Palatin. Antiquarium du Palatin, Inv.&#160;618. Italiano: Ritratto di Nero. Marmo, opera romana del I sec. d.C. Dalla zona Augustea (criptoportico del tempio di Apollo) sul Palatino. Antiquario del Palatino, Inv.&#160;618.
context_page_description: Homosexuality in ancient Rome often differs markedly from the contemporary West. Latin lacks words that would precisely translate "homosexual" and "heterosexual". The primary dichotomy of ancient Roman sexuality was active/dominant/masculine and passive/submissive/feminine. Roman society was patriarchal, and the freeborn male citizen possessed political liberty and the right to rule both himself and his household. "Virtue" was seen as an active quality through which a man defined himself. The conquest mentality and "cult of virility" shaped same-sex relations. Roman men were free to enjoy sex with other males without a perceived loss of masculinity or social status, as long as they took the dominant or penetrative role. Acceptable male partners were slaves and former slaves, prostitutes, and entertainers, whose lifestyle placed them in the nebulous social realm of infamia, excluded from the normal protections accorded a citizen even if they were technically free.
context_section_description: Although in general the Romans regarded marriage as a male–female union for the purpose of producing children, a few scholars believe that in the early Imperial period some male couples were celebrating traditional marriage rites in the presence of friends. Male–male weddings are reported by sources that mock them; the feelings of the participants are not recorded. Both Martial and Juvenal refer to marriage between males as something that occurs not infrequently, although they disapprove of it. Roman law did not recognize marriage between males, but one of the grounds for disapproval expressed in Juvenal's satire is that celebrating the rites would lead to expectations for such marriages to be registered officially. As the empire was becoming Christianized in the 4th century, legal prohibitions against marriage between males began to appear.
  Various ancient sources state that the emperor Nero celebrated two public weddings with males, once taking the role of the bride (with a freedman Pythagoras), and once the groom (with Sporus); there may have been a third in which he was the bride. The ceremonies included traditional elements such as a dowry and the wearing of the Roman bridal veil. In the early 3rd century AD, the emperor Elagabalus is reported to have been the bride in a wedding to his male partner. Other mature men at his court had husbands, or said they had husbands in imitation of the emperor. Although the sources are in general hostile, Dio Cassius implies that Nero's stage performances were regarded as more scandalous than his marriages to men.
  The earliest reference in Latin literature to a marriage between males occurs in the Philippics of Cicero, who insulted Mark Antony for being promiscuous in his youth until Curio "established you in a fixed and stable marriage (matrimonium), as if he had given you a stola", the traditional garment of a married woman. Although Cicero's sexual implications are clear, the point of the passage is to cast Antony in the submissive role in the relationship and to impugn his manhood in various ways; there is no reason to think that actual marriage rites were performed.
caption: Emperor Nero
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