Super Nasty Sex Lives of Ancient Roman Slaves

The people of Ancient Rome celebrated their magnificent structures and powerful armies while ignoring the widespread abuse of human beings who built their empires.

Rome operated its economy and social activities alongside its citizens because it owned almost as many slaves. The Roman society accepted and supported sexual mistreatment of slaves as part of its normal legal and social practices.

Under Roman Ancient law, slaves did not have personal rights because they were treated as property used for work and sexual enjoyment. They had no legal rights to protect them from their owners’ sexual desires.

The surviving written and carved records show how often masters used slaves sexually and how society made this practice acceptable.

The everyday life of Roman slaves

The duties of a slave in Rome depended completely on what their owner needed and how important they were to him. Slaves had to perform duties as gladiators or miners before taking up roles as domestic helpers, including chefs, and child caregivers.

Slaves throughout Rome had to perform sexual duties along with their work tasks, especially women who could be forced into sexual acts without legal protection. The law failed to defend their rights because their owners controlled their bodies.

Female slaves who looked attractive faced increased danger of sexual assault. These women had no privacy because they needed to sleep in public areas of the house where anyone could access them.

Slaves needed to obey when their masters showed interest. The jealous feelings of the household mistress often made life unbearable for female slaves.

Juvenal used satire to tell how Peses the slave endured daily beatings from her mistress because she was accused of having sex with her master. The master did not simply use sexual power to satisfy himself but also used it to dominate and humiliate his victims.

No rights, No protection, No dignity

Under Roman laws, slaves had no rights as legal persons. Their rights included neither marriage nor property ownership and they needed to obey their owner’s commands.

The slave owners could end any informal family connections whenever they chose. A master could sell his slaves’ children or separate them from their parents at will because these offspring belonged to him by law.

Roman law failed to recognize slaves as individuals in sexual matters.

As slaves were considered possessions under Roman law, their owners could engage in sexual activities with them without breaking any rules. The slave owners made all decisions about sexual use and any refusal might result in severe consequences.

The coldhearted attitude of Roman society shows its willingness to fully exploit human beings for entertainment and money.

Brothels, prostitution, and the normalization of exploitation

Rome accepted prostitution as a regular part of its urban society and let people practice it openly. Brothels operating close to respectable neighborhoods became accepted places for men of all backgrounds to enjoy entertainment.

The majority of prostitutes in Rome were either slaves or former slaves who did not get to decide their own destinies. The government allowed sex work as a licensed activity and established clear social rankings for it.

The social status of Roman prostitutes ranked from top meretricious, who were freeborn, freedwomen, or freedmen, to bottom streetwalkers and brothel slaves.

Although these types of sex workers had different ranks, they frequently mixed and faced similar forms of exploitation. Owners of enslaved people could send these slaves to work in brothels or make them perform sexual services.

People viewed sex work and pimping as immoral but running a brothel remained a regular business with both private and state-owned establishments.

Men as commodities: The forgotten stories of male sexual slaves

Despite female slaves facing more sexual abuse than others, the male slave population still experienced sexual exploitation. Pompeii graffiti shows that male sex workers were known as exiles and scortum, and had many customers.

The facility managers assigned certain slaves to work in bathhouses where sexual activities were included in the service. Male slaves had to serve high-status clients while suffering through abusive practices because Roman men expected to dominate others.

The society tolerated this behavior when the Roman citizens maintained dominance during sex. A submissive person would be considered weak and dishonorable as well as lacking true femininity.

Roman society enforced Lex Scantinia to punish prominent men who accepted sexual submission from other men because society required men to show their dominance in all sexual encounters.

Male slaves lacked this protection which allowed their owners to demonstrate their dominance and masculinity through sexual use of their bodies.

Gender, power, and the politics of pleasure

The social rules of sexual domination in Rome depended on gender roles but not in the typical sense. Men were victimized through sexual control to prove their social position.

The issue was not about sexual preferences but about controlling others. The act of penetration demonstrated social and political dominance over both male and female victims. Freeborn women faced sexual scrutiny even though they maintained more freedom than slaves.

The number of young children taken from their families and forced into slavery exceeded the number of victims who fell into sexual exploitation during war or were sold by their parents.

The upper class used these children as their beloved toys to give them sexual pleasure and companionship because innocent victims had no protection from abuse.

Religious hypocrisy and cultural justification

When Christianity spread widely across the empire in the 4th century CE, Rome started to adopt different moral values. The private activities of citizens remained largely the same despite the public transformation.

The government allowed some brothels to stay open by converting them into entertainment sites for public enjoyment. Emperors participated in abusive relationships themselves, like Hadrian, who loved Antinous before his tragic death by drowning.

Religious leaders who spoke against same-sex relationships and promiscuity usually made exceptions for the sexual abuse of slaves. The legal system shielded their abusers from religious reforms since slaves did not have full human rights.

The double life of Romans exposed their public support for authority and order while hiding their secret behavior of extreme violence and pleasure.

Final thoughts

The sexual mistreatment of slaves formed a basic part of the Roman slavery system. Power became very important in society when people treated sexual abuse and forced sex as everyday events.

Without legal protection, slaves could not resist the sexual use of their bodies, which served masters for both pleasure and financial gain. Our view of Rome’s greatness requires us to remember the cost of lives that made it possible.

The physical wonders of Rome existed because of the people whose true stories remain hidden from history. The study of Roman slave relationships reveals both the past of Rome and the harsh realities of why societies approve of cruel actions for cultural expression and business gain.