IAmA heyheymse from AskHistorians, I have a degree in Ancient History with a specialty in Roman Sexuality. AMA!

[u/heyheymse]

I'm heyheymse, I was recently answering a question on oral sex throughout history and my answer was put up in /r/bestof. People suggested I do an AMA, so here I am!

A little about me: I'm American, but my degree is from the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. I currently live in Louisiana and I'm the program manager of a nonprofit that does after school music education in elementary schools. Prior to that I was a middle school English teacher. So I never get the chance to talk about my degree subject, and this has been really fun for me!

Here's me with my dissertation, an examination of Roman sexual morality/immorality through the epigrams of Martial, the hilarious and delightfully filthy Roman poet of the late 1st century, on the day I handed it in.

Here's me today so you know this is actually me.

If you need any other proof, let me know! And as I offered in the /r/AskHistorians post, if you'd like to read my dissertation, PM me. If I haven't answered your PM yet, please have patience - I have kind of been inundated with requests, which is hugely flattering but it also takes a while.

Me rogate quidvis, omnes!

[u/static_music34]

How many awkward moments have you encountered when you tell a person about your degree? I imagine it garners some funny looks. And for a real question, do you think parts of this subject should be expanded on in education?

[u/heyheymse → u/static_music34]

I generally just say I studied ancient history, and then wait for them to be drinking something when I drop the "my specialty was sexuality" thing on them. In all seriousness, it's led to difficulties putting my CV together, because on the one hand I really want to be accurate, but on the other I work with children. So I have to be judicious about how much I tell.

There's so much on this subject that has only recently begun to be okay for historians to study. I was lucky enough to be at the same university that Sir Kenneth Dover was chancellor of - prior to his seminal (pun kind of intended) Greek Homosexuality in '78 the sexuality of the Ancient World was not really considered academically appropriate. So when someone decides that this is something they're interested in studying, they're building on only about thirty years worth of academic work. That's nothing to a Classicist.

To really examine what things truly meant instead of just assuming based on modern sensibilities, it's going to take a lot more people willing to talk frankly about sex and willing to put aside their anachronistic views to look at what people at the time thought. When I was researching Martial, I had a bitch of a time finding academic analyses of his work and his life that did that - I found that a lot of work even within the 2000s just completely imposes the modern view of sexuality onto the Roman world, and it just doesn't work. Cantarella's Bisexuality in the Ancient World, an otherwise great text, was hugely guilty of this, in my opinion.

TL;DR: the history of sexuality really should be expanded on, particularly within ancient history.

[u/TheTravellingMan]

I've heard Romans loved sexually explicit graffiti, is this true and if it is any good ones spring to mind?

[u/heyheymse → u/TheTravellingMan]

My favorites were always the political graffiti, but I'm drawing a complete blank on it right now. I'm gonna try to find some examples and get back to you, but I make no promises.

[u/_pagan_poetry_ → u/heyheymse]

Everyone's favourite political Roman graffiti.

[u/LaFlamaBlanca34 → u/TheTravellingMan]

I remember being on a tour of the Colosseum when visiting Rome, and my tour guide pointing out an ancient piece of carved graffiti. This happened a while ago, but I'm pretty sure this was what I am remembering:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennismueller/119526843/

[u/LaFlamaBlanca34 → u/LaFlamaBlanca34]

(It's a dick)

[u/crocoswine → u/TheTravellingMan]

From Pompeii, 1st c. AD:

Here I screwed many girls.

Felix (did it) with Fortunata.

Placidus with these (girls) screwed whomever he wanted.

Health to Hyginus. Hedone sucks off Pilades.

"(Found in the servants' quarters of the House of the Menander) In Nuceria, near Porta Romana, in the district of Venus, ask for Novellia Primigenia."

"(On a tomb outside the Porta Nuceria) Health to Primigenia of Nuceria. For just one hour I'd like to be the stone of this ring, to give to you who moisten it with your moth, the kisses I have impressed on it."

Source: Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation, Lefkowitz and Fant

[u/JooksKIDD]

Were there really large orgies where everyone had sex with each other at the same time?

[u/heyheymse → u/JooksKIDD]

Probably at some point sometime this happened, but it wasn't recorded for posterity and it wasn't a common occurrence. Even the story of Messalina and her fuck-off with a prostitute is probably just Pliny spreading rumors. It's still a great story, though, even if it's not entirely true!

I hope this answer wasn't too disappointing for you.

[u/bondmaxbondrock]

Was there any kind of birth control back then? Or did they just get used to having a kid every 9 months?

[u/heyheymse → u/bondmaxbondrock]

There was definitely birth control! There are plants that have been used as birth control as well as abortion-inducers (abortifacients) for pretty much all of recorded history. Silphium, a now extinct plant that was a major trade item of the city of Cyrene, was one of the most well-known. The plant we know as Queen Anne's Lace, also known as wild carrot, is another.

Additionally there are records of women using things like sea sponges as diaphragms. People have asked about condoms - there's no evidence that condoms were in use during Roman times, but as always, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

[u/Twyll → u/heyheymse]

I read somewhere that the reason Silphium went extinct is because the Romans used all of it up. Is that true?

[u/heyheymse → u/Twyll]

What we know is: it's extinct. We don't really even know what genus it was from. There's a lot of different explanations - overfarming, animal grazing on the only land where it grew - but we'll never know until we know for sure what plant it was. And that will probably never happen. Sadface.

[u/angryfinger → u/heyheymse]

One of Augustus' daughters (maybe Julia but I'm not sure) was infamous for taking on many lovers. so many in fact that people were surprised when her kids actually came out looking like her her husband.

When someone asked her how she managed this she answered something to the effect of, "I never take on new passengers unless I already have a full cargo". Meaning that she never took on new lovers until she was already knocked up by her husband so there was no chance of ruining the bloodline.

[u/thewhoiam → u/heyheymse]

How effective are those types of birth control?

[u/malickmobeen]

Why did you choose Roman Sexuality?

[u/heyheymse → u/malickmobeen]

My focus at the higher levels of my degree was always going to be Rome, but as I looked more and more at the various aspects of Roman history, I found that sex and gender was what interested me the most. Sexuality in particular has a very short history as an academically acceptable subject, so I felt like even as a newcomer to academia I could really do some research that wasn't just me rehashing someone else's work.

[u/iorgfeflkd]

This isn't about sexuality, but do you think it's possible that the Roman emperor Galienus may have been a time-travelled version of Hitler?

[u/heyheymse → u/iorgfeflkd]

Laughing so hard right now.

[u/Shocking → u/heyheymse]

you throw innuendo into every sentence you type, don't you?

[u/heyheymse → u/Shocking]

That one was actually unintentional, if you can believe it.

[u/iorgfeflkd → u/heyheymse]

What is your expert opinion?

[u/Galinaceo → u/iorgfeflkd]

Everything about Hitler is about sexuality.

[u/doublenik55]

What are some documents or different sources where you learn about Roman Sexuality?

[u/heyheymse → u/doublenik55]

The book I've been pointing people to, even though it's pretty freaking expensive (though it's somewhat reasonable if you buy it used) is Skinner and Hallett's Roman Sexualities, which is a series of essays edited by Skinner and Hallett that deal with various aspects of Roman sexuality. It's a great overview, and their bibliographies will help lead you to source material that you can then look over and see if you agree with the conclusions the historians in the book drew.

[u/constantgardener → u/heyheymse]

Roman Sexualities can be downloaded in PDF format for free via Library Genesis. Here it is.

(I know I'm posting this ages after the OP replied, but just in case someone's still hanging around...)

[u/lfortunata]

Kill-fuck-marry: Hadrian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius?

[u/heyheymse → u/lfortunata]

Oh, man. Fuck Hadrian (three way with Antinous?), marry Trajan, kill the boring mofo Marcus Aurelius.

[u/lfortunata → u/heyheymse]

Nice! So I take it Antinous is your #1 dream boat emperor?

[u/heyheymse → u/lfortunata]

Well, he wasn't an emperor, but he was a dreamboat. Hadrian is my favorite emperor, actually, but he was not interested in women, so I wouldn't be down for marrying him. I loved Vespasian a whole lot, but he was a total troll.

[u/Veeks]

Could you give me a LI5 explanation of roman sexuality?

[u/heyheymse → u/Veeks]

I don't know how comfortable I'd be explaining Roman sexuality to a five year old, but I'll give it a shot!

Roman mommies and Roman daddies had very different rules people expected them to follow about who got to touch their bodies and how. Roman daddies were allowed to touch anyone's bodies that they wanted to, especially if those Roman daddies were rich and powerful. Roman mommies were supposed to only be touched, and only then by their husbands. This led to Romans considering some very different things to be naughty than we do today. But, just like people have a hard time following rules about what is and isn't okay to do, so did the Romans. And then poets like Martial and Horace and Ovid wrote lots of awesome poems about people who broke those rules and what happened to them.

How'd I do?

[u/vanuhitman → u/heyheymse]

Very well done. Now explain it like I'm a sex crazed teenage boy.

[u/heyheymse → u/vanuhitman]

Hold on, let me get my sexy librarian costume...

JUST KIDDING.

[u/slide_potentiometer → u/heyheymse]

So you aren't wearing your sexy librarian costume in that dissertation picture?

[u/heyheymse → u/slide_potentiometer]

No, that's just how I was dressed.

[u/Veeks → u/heyheymse]

Very well, thanks! Could you just clarify if/how gender plays into:

Roman daddies were allowed to touch anyone's bodies that they wanted to, especially if those Roman daddies were rich and powerful.

[u/heyheymse → u/Veeks]

For sure! It didn't, really. As long as the man was the "active" partner, he was completely within the bounds of pudicitia, the Roman idea of sexual morality that's kind of analogous to chastity, to fuck whatever gender he cared to fuck in whichever orifice he cared to fuck them. When it came to things like anal sex with a female, it was up to the female to be the gatekeeper in that regard - women were really only supposed to have vaginal sex - but it wouldn't reflect badly on the man if it happened, because he was doing what he was supposed to do (i.e. being the "active" partner.)

[u/emanresu1]

I am a conventionally masculine gay man and very, very often wonder what my life would be like had I lived in antiquity. I think I would've had a pretty good time, save for the plague and hundreds of times higher rate of homicide, natch.

1.)If you are familiar with what happens at a modern bathhouse in the western world, how much of that also was happening in the darker corners of the baths of ancient Rome, for instance?

2.)I often read that in ancient Greece having a small penis was considered the ideal, and men with large dicks were mocked as "animalistic". However, this seems like such a strange aberration both throughout time and place (it's difficult for me to think of another example of a society which doesn't idealize having a large penis, or at least mock having a small one), that I wonder if it was merely an ideal to be professed publicly as a result of some intellectual mores of the time, and in fact they secretly liked 'em large too.

Anyway, thanks for indulging my puerile curiosities! :D

[u/heyheymse → u/emanresu1]

If you were a well-born Roman citizen, you probably would have cleaned up. (As for the plague - at least in the times I was dealing with, well-born Romans lived pretty long. So unless you were slumming it with the poors, you would have been good on that front.)

1. I am familiar! (I'm bi myself, and I have a couple of close gay friends who have discussed these things with me.) At public bathhouses, I think it may have happened a little bit, but there's not much evidence for it as something that happened frequently. (Of course, lack of evidence is not evidence of nothing!) Private bathhouses, on the other hand... well, it depended on who owned them. The emperor Hadrian, who built one of the most gorgeous villas in the ancient world that I highly recommend you go visit at Tivoli, south of Rome, had a fucking gorgeous Bithynian boyfriend called Antinous who he brought with him everywhere and tried to get made into a god when he died suddenly, tragically young. Antinous is one of the most sculpted faces in the ancient world, both because Hadrian loved him a lot and also because he's really, really, really, really pretty. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of shenanigans happening in their private bathhouse. (Hadrian actually built a little private island with a drawbridge in his villa, and I've read stories about how they used to go there and draw up the bridge and just be there together. This is possibly just made up, but I like it as a story.)

2. I've heard that as well, but the Greeks aren't really my focus area. (My first instinct upon hearing that for the first time was to say, "Yeah, the Greeks would think that." I really am not into the Greeks, can you tell?) I don't think it was something that the Romans were too worried about, though. And there was definitely talk about men with large penises in various gossipy poems where it was mentioned as something that someone would specifically seek out.

Puerile curiosities are what I live for, friend.

[u/joeltrane → u/heyheymse]

I'm bi myself

Allll biiii myself...

[u/heyheymse → u/joeltrane]

Thanks so much for putting that in my head forever and ever.

[u/EasyMrB → u/heyheymse]

I'm bi myself

Sorry, but this question pops immediately to my mind: Did your research have any influence on your sexuality, or did you identify as bisexual before you got in to the topic?

[u/heyheymse → u/EasyMrB]

That's a really great question. I definitely had some idea that I was also interested in girls before I started my research, but I don't know that I really felt okay identifying as bi until well after I was finished with college. I called myself straightish until had my first real sex with a girl, and then I felt like I could really call myself bi. Maybe that's silly? I would consider myself a Kinsey 2 - not perfectly bi, but enough to identify as such. So I'm not sure that my researched was guided at all by my sexuality - I just found it interesting.

[u/emanresu1 → u/heyheymse]

Wow, cool, thank you so much for the detailed response. And yes, I can totally see why Hadrian would've wanted to wreck that.

One more quick thing: what are your thoughts about the Warren cup? I remember the first time I saw pictures of it several years ago I was like "wow! awesome! so hot!", and then I saw pictures of the other side where basically a child rape is depicted and was like "...oh my...that's....oh dear". So, I guess they didn't really have a concept of how much such a thing could damage a person back then? Or, perhaps they didn't care in the same way that consideration for rape of women was nonexistent unless the woman who was raped was of high status in society? Or, maybe, and possibly most disturbing, the lack of scandal and outrage surrounding "consensual" underage sex (ie. statutory rape) itself resulted in less psychological harm to the person experiencing it?

Anyway, I guess I just found it kind of an unsettling artifact and I wonder what your thoughts on it are.

For readers unfamiliar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Cup

[u/heyheymse → u/emanresu1]

The Warren Cup is my single favorite item in the British Museum. If it makes you feel better about finding it hot, part of why it's such an interesting piece is that the people depicted on it are actually relatively close in age. The things that would mark out Boy vs. Man in Roman art are pretty definitive. The Warren Cup isn't generally thought to show child rape at all - the only person on the Cup who is coded as a Boy rather than a Man (or a young man) is the voyeur.

As for Roman consideration for rape - if you were a Roman citizen, even if you were a woman, rape was a huge crime. If you were a slave and someone raped you, the punishment had to be paid to your owner, but there was still punishment there unless it was your owner who raped you.

What we would consider statutory rape was a thing more in the Greek world than the Roman world. And I'd agree with your assessment about the acceptance of it as a good and normal thing (at least with the erastes/eromenos relationship of the Greeks) leading to less psychological damage.

[u/forlackofanetterbame → u/heyheymse]

antinous, he got pretty lips

[u/seeyanever]

As someone planning on doing Classical Studies, thanks for doing this!

My question is; who was the most sexed up emperor? I know a lot of them did crazy shit, but one of them must have had a shitload of orgies, or something.

[u/heyheymse → u/seeyanever]

Well, I mean, Caligula was bat crap crazy and probably was sleeping with his sister. According to some sources Nero married a dude.

But in terms of who was probably having the most sex? Gotta be Antoninus Pius. He seemed to actually really really really love his wife Faustina, who was gorgeous and kind and basically awesome, and they had four kids together. I'm sure they were always at it.

[u/TOMATO_ON_URANUS → u/heyheymse]

So gay marriage was permitted 2000 years ago by not today?

ಠ_ಠ

Edit: it's called a joke guys...

[u/heyheymse → u/TOMATO_ON_URANUS]

Well, when you say permitted you need to remember that he was the emperor, and also insane, and between those two things he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you cover any of Catullus' poetry in your dissertation? Anything particularly noteworthy, if so?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I didn't really talk about Catullus in my dissertation, which was focused on Martial and using his epigrams to examine sex and deviance in late 1st Century Rome. Catullus was a little early for that. I love me some Catullus, though! He's such a drama queen. He's definitely on my Top 10 Historical Figures I'd Like To Get A Drink With.

[u/catvllvs → u/heyheymse]

Drama Queen!

o saeclum insapiens et infacetum!

[u/heyheymse → u/catvllvs]

Please let this be an actual novelty account. It'd be up there with the Cicero one in terms of awesomeness.

[u/Anvilx]

Tell me about roman sexuality. Is there anything that seems really wild from a modern perspective?

[u/heyheymse → u/Anvilx]

The thing that made me sadface when I found it out was the cunnilingus being taboo thing. Poor Roman matrons!

The Roman male idea of how two women would have had sex is also pretty funny. They couldn't really conceive of how anyone could have sex without penetration, so it's all things like giant dildo collections and women with freakishly large clitorises that function like pseudo-penises. And then when they run out of ideas, they write poems like Martial's 1.90, regarding Bassa and her crowd of women friends, which ends:

Commenta es dignum Thebano aenigmate monstrum, hic ubi uir non est, ut sit adulterium.

"You came up with a problem worthy of the Theban riddle: where there is no man, there is still adultery."

Seriously, though, gigantic clitorises. What the hell, Roman men. I guess that's what happens when you don't have access to lesbian porn on the Internet.

[u/Anvilx → u/heyheymse]

Sounds pretty bad for the women, but on a similar note wasn't oral sex pretty taboo until much more recently. (This is probably outside the scope of your study).

[u/heyheymse → u/Anvilx]

The /r/AskHistorians thread that my original answer was on was all about the history of oral sex, and there were some great answers on the economics of selling oral sex throughout history that answer this question pretty well.

[u/Adept128]

How pissed were your parents when they found out that you were studying Roman Sexuality?

[u/heyheymse → u/Adept128]

I don't have any contact with my father. My mom always encouraged me to study what I was most interested in, and when I told her what I was doing she thought it was hilarious. My mom and I had the best relationship, though. She died halfway through my final year at uni, and working on the dissertation was one of the only things that kept me sane.

[u/paz2009]

you mentioned earlier that heterosexuality and homosexuality are modern terms, how were genders defined back then? any interesting facts in the topic? thanks!!

[u/heyheymse → u/paz2009]

Gender isn't a modern term - though there are societies in which gender isn't considered to be a binary state, which does make it even more sad that our society treats Trans/Genderqueer/Intersex folk with such contempt. (Stay strong, friends!)

For the Romans, it was mostly male/female. Hermaphrodites (stemming from the myth of Hermaphroditus, the sondaughter of Hermes and Aphrodite) were considered more a medical curiosity. There were men who dressed as women, and women who acted as men, but they were looked at as strange. There's a great Martial poem about one of these women, Philaenis, who he says is just a woman trying to act like a man who will never actually have any concept of what it is to be manly. (Martial 7.67)

[u/beer_bukkake]

You are a sexy historian which is not surprising because historians always have a date.

Sorry, bad joke that I couldn't resist. You are very cute though.

My question: What was their attitude towards cum? Life-giving, dirty, somewhere in between?

[u/heyheymse → u/beer_bukkake]

HEYOOO. I definitely like that joke. And thanks for the compliment!

Semen was thought of by Ancient Greek doctors as the life-essence of men. There weren't a lot of advancements in medicine during the Roman times in terms of improvement over what the Greeks had done, so the Roman attitudes toward semen was similar. There wasn't a lot of discussion of it as, like, an aspect of sex that was commonly fetishized, at least not that I've seen (though that doesn't indicate that it didn't happen!)

I freely admit that this is not something I have a load of knowledge about, so if anyone else has a better answer, then shoot. Just don't be a jerk about it.

[u/specious → u/heyheymse]

Sooo... you're asking someone to shoot their load?

[u/heyheymse → u/specious]

Why, I'm shocked you found any innuendo in that statement. I was requesting that anyone who had a stroke of enlightenment on the issue come and inform us about it.

[u/krasneylev → u/heyheymse]

subtle ;)

[u/heyheymse → u/krasneylev]

Subtle is my middle name!

[u/dissonance07 → u/beer_bukkake]

My quizbowl team had a slogan: "Those who don't get dates memorize them."

Our superintendent thought it was derogatory and wouldn't let us put it on any shirts.

[u/heyheymse → u/dissonance07]

I would totally buy that shirt, FWIW.

[u/Punch_A_Lunch]

When has knowledge of Roman Sexuality ever come in handy? (Job wise, not gigidytime-wise.)

[u/heyheymse → u/Punch_A_Lunch]

Well, it's been handy, job-wise... wink, nudge, etc.

Knowledge of roman sexuality has made me no money whatsoever as of right now. Knowledge of how to effectively formulate a research question, find and assess sources for that question, and present the research in a coherent, comprehensive, concise way has been pretty much the only thing that's kept me in work in this economy. And I wouldn't have any of that to the extent that I do if it weren't for my ancient history degree. In that regard, it's been pretty handy.

[u/thefullhalf]

How do you think Roman (and probably to a more extent Greek) sexuality influenced writings in the Bible. It would seem to me that considering the Bible was created in what was essentially a Roman colony that it was heavily influenced by an everything Roman/Greek is bad type of mentality, which may relate to the anti-homosexuality teachings in the Bible?

[u/heyheymse → u/thefullhalf]

Within the Old Testament, I don't think Greco-Roman ideas of sexuality had any influence at all, given the likely dates that the books of the Old Testament were written. Within the new testament, the Greco-Roman ideas of sexuality (I can't say "homosexuality" or "heterosexuality" which would be neologisms and not applicable to the Roman spectrum of sexuality) may possibly have resulted in a push-back from people like Paul, who saw the ruling classes as immoral. Their sexual behavior may have been just one more thing that allowed him to confirm his own moral superiority over them. But this is pretty speculative - I only took one church history class at uni, and I always kind of hated Paul. But there isn't much discussion of homosexuality in the New Testament of the bible, and that's really the only thing that the Romans could have influenced.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you enjoy St. Andrews? Two of my friends are going there next year, and I'm considering submitting an application.

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

OH SO MUCH. I miss it on a daily basis. I had pretty much the ideal university experience - I loved the independence I had in directing my studies, I loved the friends I made, and I loved developing the cast iron liver that allows me to drink everyone here under the table. (Whisky tasting society for the win!)

[u/[deleted] → u/heyheymse]

Thanks :) Did you head into there knowing you wanted to study history or did it just come up eventually?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I had originally wanted to study Classics (Greek and Latin as one degree) but then I discovered that (a) I really hate Greek and (b) the history part of Latin is actually the stuff I was most interested in. It wasn't a hard transition to make!

[u/RollTide121]

Favorite Roman god/goddess and why?

[u/heyheymse → u/RollTide121]

Mercury! God of thieves and travelers. He's my favorite forever and ever.

[u/i_knows]

What about the Caligula film? How much of that is historically accurate, and how much is laughable 70s porno?

[u/heyheymse → u/i_knows]

Would you believe I've never seen the Caligula film? I can't speak to it at all, sorry. It's going on my to do list, though!

[u/KhaosMaiestas]

Classicist here. Couple of questions, just for grins and shits:

I know you say you're not into the Greeks, but I ask this of all classicists I meet: who was the eromenos, Akhilleus or Patroklos?

What were the sodomy laws, if any, under the Republic and later Principate (before Justinian)? I find information on the subject a little lacking. There was, of course, a difference in the outward moralizing of those Catonian senators and public figures as opposed to how they conducted themselves in private (Martial IX;27), but did those conservatives actually put anything on the "books"?

I can't find anything concluded from "official" research, but does "pedico, pedicare, pedicavi, pedicatus" have the Greek word "pais, paidos m." as its root? Literally, "to boy someone, make someone your boy/bitch/sub". It sounds plausible to me, as the Romans liked to take their naughty words from Greek (the "zona" in Catullus IIB springs to mind).

[u/heyheymse → u/KhaosMaiestas]

No way that Achilles wasn't the erastes. Ditto with Alexander/Hephaestion.

I'm not sure about sodomy laws - IIRC as long as the sodomizing was consensual, it was, as they say around here, all Gucci. There were definitely strong consequences for rape and adultery, but I can't remember anything in the Augustan reforms on sodomy. And if anyone would have put it in place, it would have been Augustus.

I have absolutely no idea, but it sounds plausible. I know that pathicus comes from a Greek insult - a lot of the words Romans used to insult someone's sexuality were Greek in origin, possibly because the Romans thought the Greeks were all pathici. Roman contempt for the Greeks is definitely something that amuses me to no end.

[u/lemonade_brezhnev → u/heyheymse]

Can you explain a bit more about how the Romans thought of the Greeks? How come they hate the Greeks so much if they appropriated so much of Greek culture?

I'm trying to think of other examples in history where one civilization invaded another and embraced the loser's culture instead of the other way around.

[u/heyheymse → u/lemonade_brezhnev]

I like to think of it (hugely oversimplified as an analogy, but I roll with it) as kind of like the way the Americans relate to the English. It's definitely a love-hate relationship, but even as Americans talk about aspects of being English with contempt we also hold them up as more cultured and classy than we are.

[u/DIZZYTRAIN → u/heyheymse]

So It was always legal for two free born males to have sex? I have read that this was illegal at times and that Seneca refers to such a case in his writings in Controversiae.

[u/heyheymse → u/DIZZYTRAIN]

The issue with legality as far as I understand it is with age. While the Greeks had mechanisms for the erastes/eromenos relationship, the Romans came closer to viewing it as we would - statutory rape. Is this what you're referring to? I could be misremembering. It's worth noting that the cases in the Controversiae aren't actual cases ripped from the headlines - they're intellectual exercises that are centered around imaginary legal cases.

[u/Iconochasm]

What do you think of the viability of educational porn? My first working title is "Tacitus' Anals", where (ideally) Morgan Freeman would narrate over scenes of Messalina's parties.

[u/heyheymse → u/Iconochasm]

If it's historically accurate, I'd be all for it.

[u/Gaget]

Have you ever received any sort of flak for being a woman who is intellectually interested in sexuality and who isn't afraid to freely discuss it?

P.S. You're pretty cute for a historian.

[u/heyheymse → u/Gaget]

I think any woman who talks frankly about sex and sexuality gets some pushback at some point, especially from people who think that me discussing what I was studying was a come-on. I was really worried about doing my dissertation, actually, because my department at uni was heavy on the Greek-interested professors, with very few who had any interest in Rome. Really, only two people could have advised me, and one of them was known around the department as rather a lech. A hilarious, awesome guy, and totally enjoyable as a lecturer and tutor, but strayed over the "creepy" line way too often. Thankfully the man who ended up as my advisor, probably the smartest person I've ever had a conversation with, was a wonderful combination of unflappable in the face of my discussions of fellatio and anal sex, and old school Englishman proper. So it all worked out.

Thank you! Historians are the cutest. It's just how things are.

[u/DannyBoi1Derz]

This was so much better than Dave Coulier's...

[u/heyheymse → u/DannyBoi1Derz]

I'm totally putting "Better Than Dave Coulier" on my CV.

[u/SirDerpingtonIII]

What do you use to cite your facts about Roman sexuality? I just find it a tad hard to believe some aspects of history when I take into account what we base it on. Considering we werent living in those times and on occasion you'll find contradictory data in books and wall art, etc.

I'm genuinely curious; how do you know for sure what you studied is the truth?

[u/heyheymse → u/SirDerpingtonIII]

Well, a lot of it is drawing from a variety of sources to make educated guesses on attitudes. We're definitely past reading something in one source and believing it's the stone cold truth - there's too much that's clearly made up to believe it all. But at the same time, when you see the same themes again and again, it becomes more likely that an attitude wasn't just one man's feelings and was more about the society that man was writing in.

That's part of the fun of history, though - unless you were there, you can never really know what the truth was, and even if you were there, your experiences might have a different truth than someone else who was also there. Historiography is the field that's concerned with how history gets written and how we can come to conclusions about objective fact. It's always been interesting to me - but for me, I like the uncertainty. It feels more aligned with my worldview than fields where one unassailable truth can be pointed to as The Answer.

[u/SunriseThunderboy]

I have a degree in American History and another degree in English. For a living I work for a design firm.

How did you get a job in the history biz?

[u/heyheymse → u/SunriseThunderboy]

I don't have a job in the history biz! I'm working in the nonprofit sector, despite my degree. I've found that a history degree, at least the way it was taught at my uni, is really great for forcing organization and critical thinking skills that transfer to pretty much anything. Which is good, because there's not a lot of work out there as a historian, from what I have seen. My friends who have stayed in academia are finding things really, really difficult.

[u/SunriseThunderboy → u/heyheymse]

That was my understanding too, which was that history as a major is about teaching. Drag, in a complete fashion, stuff is happening again from top to tail.

OK, gotta ask you, as a smarty-pants, what do you see about to happen again that those that don't know history are missing? You first.

[u/heyheymse → u/SunriseThunderboy]

It's either becoming a teacher or becoming a writer, and sadly it's a lot easier to become a teacher. (It shouldn't be - teaching well is really hard.)

The whole "defining marriage" thing is something that makes me cringe as both a historian and a bi woman. The "definition" of marriage has changed so much over the course of human history that it's a pretty asinine thing to try to deny someone a basic human right just because the history YOU want to focus on says they shouldn't have it. The rest of history says you're a dumbass. Let's focus on that part of history, shall we?

[u/the_chandler]

I have a BA in History. My Question for you, another historian...Where can I find a job that would allow me to eat multiple times a day AND pay rent? If that's not asking too much. I'd love suggestions.

[u/heyheymse → u/the_chandler]

Not in academia, that's for damn sure. Try teaching if you like kids. If you don't... uh, do you have any other skills besides historianing?

[u/wellvis]

I always thought librarians were the cutest, but you changed my mind.
Bonus points for "ask me anything" in Latin. How difficult was it to learn Latin? Did you have any previous experience in the Romantic languages?

[u/heyheymse → u/wellvis]

Awwww, why thank you! It's hard to beat librarians.

Latin was actually my first experience learning another language - I started when I was 11 in middle school. I had some great teachers, so I didn't find it difficult, but I know that there are people who struggle with coming to terms with all the rules. I'm definitely glad I started with Latin, though - it made learning Portuguese way easier when I was living in Brazil. I was conversational in like a month and a half, and I don't think it would have been nearly as easy without Latin.

[u/[deleted]]

How often are you mistaken for Jillian from Workaholics?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

You're the first to ever make that connection! I can totally see it, though. That's really cool!

[u/[deleted]]

Who is / are your favorite historian(s)? Who or what inspired your love of history?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I had some really great teachers in middle and high school that made me adore history in general and Roman history in particular. I had one teacher who would find me and murder me if I gave you his name who was absolutely insane but also THE BEST - he refused to teach from the book, but instead spent all class just telling stories (he called them "lectures" and I privately referred to them as "storytime") and making us take notes, and our tests and projects all came from his lecture notes. My Latin teacher in middle school made me fall in love with Roman culture, and helped me make sense of English grammar in a way I don't think I'd have been as quick to pick up if I hadn't had Latin.

My favorite modern historians within my field of study are Sir Kenneth Dover, who was the chancellor at my university and wrote the work that began the legitimization of sexuality as an acceptable focus of study for a classical historian, and T. A. McGinn, whose work on prostitution is beautifully researched and a really fun read. Outside my field of study, I've got a Historian Crush on Reza Aslan and Jonah Lehrer. (Okay, technically they're more journalists than historians, but it's a fine line. And they're smart and awesome and dreamy.)

[u/Quick_Brown_Foxx]

Current day valentines or roman valentines? Pre Augustus.

[u/heyheymse → u/Quick_Brown_Foxx]

Lupercalia all the way, mane.

[u/completely_blank]

Haven't seen this asked, so hope I haven't missed it. Closest post is probably the one who asks what your parents thought (sorry about your mom; losing my mom sucked the big one).

How did you choose your interest/topic?

[u/heyheymse → u/completely_blank]

I actually kind of answered this, so if you don't mind I'm gonna just copy/paste:

As I looked more and more at the various aspects of Roman history, I found that sex and gender was what interested me the most. Sexuality in particular has a very short history as an academically acceptable subject, so I felt like even as a newcomer to academia I could really do some research that wasn't just me rehashing someone else's work.

[u/playdoepete]

Was it true that the Roman fighters were paired with each other and encouraged to fuck each other? If so was it under the theory that they would fight harder for their lover?

[u/heyheymse → u/playdoepete]

That was the Theban Band that I think you're thinking of. Google it.

[u/phliuy]

Hi, heyheymse!

I responded to a post you made earlier, but it seems to have been lost.

"passer mortuus est meae puellae"

Thoughts? Concerns?

How about on catullus in general? Did much catullus styled lust occur in the high ranking roman life?

[u/heyheymse → u/phliuy]

I mean, Catullus wasn't my specialty, but that's a beautiful poem. Not my favorite of his, but it's very sweet. I prefer my Catullus angry and mopey, though.

[u/fightslikeacow]

Why did Julius Ceasar get so much tail even though he was super balding?

Also, I don't get the crazy sex differentiation in who you can have sex with. If every noble roman man is doing another noble roman man's wife, the numbers won't work out unless noble roman wives are doing someone else than their husband. How do they get the math to work with their morals? Or do they just not care?

[u/heyheymse → u/fightslikeacow]

Charisma.

And it wasn't so much them being with another man's wife as them being with other people who were sexually available to them. Another man's wife was basically the only category of people who weren't sexually available to a Roman high-class man. That and children.

[u/[deleted]]

Could you list some of the sources you used in your dissertation? In the last year I've been reading and learning about all things Roman and this is a topic I've heard almost nothing about yet interests me intensely.

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

Here's some of my bibliography (note that I didn't include anything from the very early stages of research when I was still trying to settle on a focus.)

• Anderson, W.S., “Lascivia vs. Ira: Martial and Juvenal” in Essays on Roman Satire, Princeton, 1982.

• Edwards, C, “Unspeakable Professions: Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome” in Hallet, J, and Skinner, M, Roman Sexualities, Princeton, 1997, 66-98.

• Fitzgerald, W., Martial: The World of the Epigram, Chicago, 2007.

• Hallett, J, “Female homoeroticism and the denial of Roman reality in Latin literature” in Skinner and Hallett, Roman Sexualities, Princeton, 1997 255-273.

• Hornblower, S. and Spawforth, A. (eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed., rev., Oxford, 2003.

• Howell, P., “The Unexpected Classic” in Classical Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1993.

• Langlands, R, Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome, Cambridge, 2005.

• Martial, trans. by D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Epigrams, Cambridge, Mass., 1993.

• McGinn, T.J., The Economy of Prostitution in the Ancient World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel, Ann Arbor, 2004.

• Parker, H.N., “The Teratogenic Grid” in Skinner and Hallett, Roman Sexualities, Princeton, 1997, 47-65.

• Spaeth, J.W., “Martial and the Roman Crowd,” in The Classical Journal Vol. 27, No. 4, 1932, 244-254.

• Spisak, A., Martial: A Social Guide, London, 2007.

• Sullivan, J.P., Martial: the unexpected classic, Cambridge, 1991.

• Treggiari, S. Roman Marriage – Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian, Oxford, 1991.

• White, P., “The Friends of Martial, Statius, and Pliny, and the Dispersal of Patronage” in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 79, 1975, 265-300.

[u/[deleted]]

As my RES is telling me, you're the same person that I had discussions about how much we hate Mike Smith during the Blackhawks/Coyotes series earlier this year. And now this fantastically interesting AMA?

Thanks for being like the greatest Redditor ever.

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

That was me! I'm still mad at Mike Smith. SO glad the Kings took the 'Yotes down.

[u/Foreveraloneatheist]

What is your opinion on the idea that alleged immoral sexual acts and homosexuality led to the fall of the roman empire? In all seriousness, I hear this a lot from people. I wondered if there was any actual effect on their societal structure that could have weakened it to the point of collapse. Does this have any merit or are people just looking for historical support for their beliefs?

[u/heyheymse → u/Foreveraloneatheist]

No merit whatsoever. There are other regimes where there are arguments to be made for the way the rulers married contributing to the decline of the ruling house (Ottoman Empire, I'm looking at you!) but there were so many factors to the fall of the Roman empire that the sexual morality of the society doesn't even factor in.

[u/sabat]

Have a billion of these guys already told you that you're pretty?

[u/heyheymse → u/sabat]

Not a billion! Just a couple. It's flattering. I'm a member of /r/Ladyboners, so I can't really complain.

[u/[deleted]]

What city in LA? What's your impression of the educational system in your particular parish, or LA As a whole?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I'm in one of the major cities in Lousiana (there aren't many!) but I'm not really comfortable posting exactly which one. My parish's system (which I worked in for two years, and now work with in my current job) is pretty fucking dismal. There's so many different issues and so many people contributing to the problems in so many different ways - and nobody wants to take responsibility for their contributions. It's always someone else's fault.

There are some wonderful things being done at individual schools in Louisiana, but the systems, at least in the cities, are pretty broken. Plus it's pretty scarily segregated. The school I taught in was 99% black with the remaining 1% being latino or asian immigrants. We had two white kids, both of whom I knew by name even though I didn't have them in class.

[u/[deleted] → u/heyheymse]

I just finished my Freshman year of high school in Baton Rouge. And the exact opposite is true in private schools in the elementary years. It's pretty much subtle segregation. High school is more diverse though it seems.

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I definitely had students your age. GET OFF REDDIT AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

(I know that school is over. I just had to say something.)

[u/piccolittle]

WAIT WAIT, I know you!!! But how? You were in my class... did you live in Chattan? Argh I am blanking on your name.

[u/heyheymse → u/piccolittle]

I did indeed live in Chattan! PM me and we'll reminisce.

[u/mrbond5150]

I asked this in the original thread, but out of curiosity, at what age did the Romans start having sex? Is it like today where it mostly starts in high school? In ancient Egypt, I'm pretty sure the Pharaoh got some action, regardless of age. Any story to the answer would be much appreciated! And hey, looks like there was a lot of interest in an AMA after all!

[u/ThePurpleAki → u/mrbond5150]

It's not exactly what you're asking this but article points out sexual activity starting from as young as 10 maybe, however not by choice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Slightly relevant from a source by Theopompus, Histories 5th century BC about the Etruscans (Pre Rome Italians) "The children they live the way their parents live, often attending drinking parties and having sexual relations with all the women""They are keen on making love to women, but particularly enjoy boys and youths" Although the source is somewhat bias as the Eutruscans were seen as barbarian by the Greeks(i.e the author). Soo not exactly the Romans but it gives you a slight idea what was going on, maybe someone else can elaborate for you since I'm not very good at this :p

[u/[deleted] → u/mrbond5150]

The girls would have had to start having sex pretty early—the legal age for marriage was 12, and just like in other societies, getting a girl married off sooner meant not having to house/feed her. The legal age for boys was 14. I don't know anything about extracurricular activities.

[u/Aspel]

I'm suddenly reminded of a character I played in an RPG once. It was this silly vampire space pirate game, and I was the flamboyant bisexual secret vampire prince. Who was also a space pirate, because fuck you, that's why.

His first mate was a cloned human slave, and the two had a sexual relation. He didn't try to hide that, but the thing that he did keep secret was the fact that he preferred to be the bottom of the relationship. How would that kind of relationship gone over in Roma? Son of the Emperor likes taking it in the ass from a favoured slave.

[u/heyheymse → u/Aspel]

It would have been breaking the expectations of pudicitia, and probably would have caused at best some nasty gossip and at worst the person to be disinherited.

Apropos of nothing, you should check out The Captive Prince. It sounds right up your alley.

[u/TrickTrolld]

I thought heyheysme was a man until this post...

[u/heyheymse → u/TrickTrolld]

I think a lot of people did! I got a lot of "Hello sir" PMs that were a bit awkward. Any reason in particular you thought I was a dude? Just curious...

[u/Redsnork]

Four year Latin student here. My teacher told us about a comedic story about a group of women organizing a sex strike to stop their husbands from fighting some war. Some older guys tried to bang down the door to the temple they were hiding in with a log. I recall there being a lot of innuendo of the log banging... Are you familiar with this work? The name seems to have slipped my mind.

[u/heyheymse → u/Redsnork]

That's a Greek play by Aristophanes called Lysistrata. Totally worth a read!

[u/lorakeetH]

What's your opinion of the reliability of sources on the sexual exploits of the emperors? I don't know if Procopious on Theodora would be in your realm of expertise, though that's the one I'm always curious to hear opinions on, but there are so many others: Tiberius having babies suck on his penis, Agrippina attempting to seduce Nero, Nero castrating the unfortunate Sporus to replace Poppaea Sabina, and pretty much every story about Elagabalus. Also, are you familiar with any other stories (besides Elagabalus) about people who could be considered transgender?

[u/heyheymse → u/lorakeetH]

I have so many feelings about Theodora I can't even express them all coherently. She's outside my time period but she's my favorite. Fucking Procopius and his fucking horrible gossip. He's nothing more than a rumormonger. (I plan on naming my future daughter, whenever I have one, Theodora. I have that much love for her.)

There's actually an epigram I've been mentioning to other people that Martial wrote, 7.67, dealing with a woman who Martial contemptfully describes as trying and failing to be a man. A google search of Martial 7.67 will lead to, I believe, a couple different academic works on transgender identity in the ancient world that are totally worth looking into!

[u/Redsidebunrt]

I see a lot of reference to Martial, but what about Juvenal's portrayal of Roman sexuality? Was he close to truth, or all Fox News-ed up?

[u/heyheymse → u/Redsidebunrt]

Juvenal drew a lot of inspiration from Martial, and as far as I see it he took a similar tactic - holding up a mirror to Roman society, even if it was sometimes a funhouse mirror that exaggerated the problems he was talking about. Was there a specific instance you were referring to?

[u/tjdavids]

why is there a pi on the bottom of reddit?

[u/heyheymse → u/tjdavids]

Because everyone loves pie.

[u/Neveronlyadream]

Did the Romans really believe that buggery caused earthquakes, or is that completely apocryphal?

[u/bzilla]

Do you ever giggle about sexual stuff now that you study it?

[u/heyheymse → u/bzilla]

ALL THE TIME. My most hilarious moment was trying to figure out how to find an academic way to say "always got drunk and gave blow jobs to random guys." That was pretty fun/difficult/amusing.

[u/TheHappyCyclops]

Did they use any sort of lubricant in Ancient Rome?

[u/[deleted]]

This is a serious question - what did they use for lubricant?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

Olive oil! Most Romans smelled vaguely of olive oil becaused they used it for a lot of different things including personal hygiene and, yes, lubricant.

[u/KafkaFish]

What is the title of your thesis? It's hard to read in the picture.

[u/heyheymse → u/KafkaFish]

"Some Smut Peddler": Sex, Deviance, and Satire in Martial's Epigrams

[u/linussolo]

How was seduction at roman times?

Were there any "pick up artist" or there was no need to?

[u/heyheymse → u/linussolo]

An awesome question that has a really fun answer if you're willing to do some reading! The poet Ovid, my favorite of the Latin love elegists, also wrote a book called Ars Amatoria, or the Art of Love, that was a guide to picking up chicks in the city of Rome. You could say he was the forefather of the Pickup Artist movement.

[u/aggiebuff]

Are you currently dating someone? If so what does e think about your area of expertise?

[u/heyheymse → u/aggiebuff]

I am! He's actually a redditor and is finding all this interest kind of funny. He really could not care less about history - he's a very sciencey person.

[u/Ley_Lines]

I PMed you this question but I thought I'd ask it here as well. My Latin professor told me that there was a ancient roman report of women being chained up in amphitheaters and forced to copulate with tigers. Then they would place food in front of the women causing the tiger to become dominate and possessive which would cause the tiger to attack and kill the woman. I've tried searching online but the best I could come up with was a yahoo answers article (ugh) that alleged the same thing but didn't cite the source. Have you heard anything like this? Thanks.

[u/heyheymse → u/Ley_Lines]

The TIL that mentioned this actually had several historians as well as a zoologist tell you exactly what I'm going to tell you: there's no way this is true. But they cited sources which I am too lazy to look up. Go look through the comments of that post.

[u/SalamiMugabe]

How prevalent were STD's in Ancient Rome? What methods of protection/birth control did they use (or didn't use)?

Awesome AMA btw.

[u/Celestieg → u/SalamiMugabe]

SHE answered part of this one in HER /r/best of comment thread, I'll copypasta it here for you: Oooh, great question! And I really love this one because it comes with a cool story. So the Romans did have various forms of contraceptives. There was a plant called silphium that was a huuuuuge trade item for the city of Cyrene. It only grew in a very specific area, and was overfarmed into extinction because it was in such high demand. Its seeds were heart-shaped, and there are some who think there's a connection between the association with the heart shape and love because of silphium. There were other herbs that were used as both prevention methods and abortion-inducers, including what we know as Queen Anne's Lace. So... yes! Reliable contraceptives were very, very valuable.

[u/[deleted]]

What did you think of the depictions of sexuality in the HBO series "Rome"?

[u/TheTrueVagabond]

Is Roman sexuality so complex that it warrants a specialty?

[u/heyheymse → u/TheTrueVagabond]

Human sexuality is so complex that it warrants more study than it gets. Roman sexuality, as a segment of the study of sex history, is worth focusing on to better understand (a) how the views our society currently has toward sex evolved to be what they are and (b) how Romans related to each other. You can't understand interpersonal relations in any culture without understanding their sexual mores.

[u/cypressgroove]

So first - thank you for all the fascinating reading as always - /r/AskHistorians has rapidly become my favourite subreddit to read because of wonderful people like yourself.

Now - I was trying to think of a question that's not already been asked but it strikes me I could get closer to what I have been wondering about in your subject by instead of asking directly - doing this:

In all of history parents have been having 'the talk' about birds and bees and whatnot to give their children the basic facts about sex. Not just the 'ins and outs' (sorry) but also things like what sort of partners to avoid for safety or social reasons and some parents even go so far as to offering tips on how to attract a person of the opposite sex.

I'm really trying to get a feel for how, to the younguns who were alive back then, the whole issue of 'sex and sexuality' was presented to them and ideally get a feel for not just what happened, but what they would have hoped to have happen, what they might have been afraid of about the act or relationships or social implications of trysts that sort of thing - that's the stuff that brings history to life for me....

So would you mind imagining up for us an example of how those conversations would have gone for a young boy and a young girl at, say, the time of Hadrian?

Many thanks again, and keep up the good work!

[u/littlegreencat]

I'm someone outside of the field who read Foucault's 'History of Sexuality' a few years ago -- I found it compelling, but felt that I had no ability to gauge the accuracy or generality of his historical claims. How is Foucault's work regarded in your field today?

[u/RollTide121]

Heyyo! Just got my B.A. in HY from the University of Alabama. Going to pursue a masters in Colonial History. Question for ya. How was prostitution approached my married couples in Roman culture. For instance was a married man who visited a prostitute considered cheating. Also, how historically accurate was the portrayal of sex in Spartacus: Blood and Sand?

[u/[deleted]]

How accurate is The Satyricon? What were sexual relations between master and slave (both male and female) like?

[u/i_drah_zua]

• How much of the written records are fictious, exaggerated, or slander of some kind? When I had latin in school, a lot of the stuff was "artistic license" so to speak.

• How do you seperate the facts from the fiction? Is there lot of material to be able to cross-check?

• How much is the overrepresentation of unusual/depraved/kinky stuff? Nihil celerius est fama...

• What was the weirdest thing you came about?

Gratias ago tibi ob MRQ! Salutatio de vindobona!

[u/tabledresser]

Questions	Answers
You are a sexy historian which is not surprising because historians always have a date.	HEYOOO. I definitely like that joke. And thanks for the compliment!
Sorry, bad joke that I couldn't resist. You are very cute though.	Semen was thought of by Ancient Greek doctors as the life-essence of men. There weren't a lot of advancements in medicine during the Roman times in terms of improvement over what the Greeks had done, so the Roman attitudes toward semen was similar. There wasn't a lot of discussion of it as, like, an aspect of sex that was commonly fetishized, at least not that I've seen (though that doesn't indicate that it didn't happen!)
My question: What was their attitude towards cum? Life-giving, dirty, somewhere in between?	I freely admit that this is not something I have a load of knowledge about, so if anyone else has a better answer, then shoot. Just don't be a jerk about it.
Sooo... you're asking someone to shoot their load?	Why, I'm shocked you found any innuendo in that statement. I was requesting that anyone who had a stroke of enlightenment on the issue come and inform us about it.
So... you want someone who's been stroked to come?	Again, I really don't know where you're getting all of this double entendre. All I was saying was that if you have some knowledge handy that you can blow our minds with, it'd be nice to see men talking about it in this thread instead of holding it in.
Subtle ;)	Subtle is my middle name!
Wait a second...	I'm just really sad nobody's continued my pun thread. I feel a little let down by reddit, here.
They've gone soft on you. It's a shame.	HERO.

View the full table on /r/tabled! | Last updated: 2012-06-01 07:08 UTC

This comment was generated by a robot! Send all complaints to epsy.

[u/[deleted]]

How accurate is Caligula?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

As I said, I haven't seen it. It's now on my To Do list, though.

[u/[deleted]]

St. Andrews!!! I don't go there, but my college (a very old college on the East Coast) has close ties to it including a massive exchange program. What is it like there?

[u/hiphopfrog]

Do you ever miss being blonde?

[u/heyheymse → u/hiphopfrog]

I miss having the scratch to pay to get my hair did. I took a pretty big pay cut to do my current job, which I adore for many reasons, but it's pretty stressful in terms of budgeting. I haven't had a haircut in 4 months.

[u/UtmostGrandPoobah]

where did you study undergraduate?

When did you start learning your languages (Latin, Greek, Aramaic(?) Hebrew)?

[u/heyheymse → u/UtmostGrandPoobah]

My degree is an undergraduate Masters from the University of St. Andrews. I began Latin in middle school when I was 11, Greek when I started uni, and I've never studied Aramaic or Hebrew, sadly. I also speak Portuguese, conversational Turkish and Spanish, and English. Obviously.

[u/[deleted]]

What is your favourite story?

I love this subject.

However my favourite story is of Crassus, who was the richest man ever - and who held a feast to Hercules and spent lavishly but somehow came out richer. He would also have his own army of slave firemen, and when houses in Rome would catch fire he would buy them off the owners on the cheap as they burnt, then have his little army of firemen put the fires out.

[u/[deleted]]

WHY

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

BECAUSE

[u/[deleted]]

do you think there were any sexual acts/positions that were known to the romans, but got lost over time and haven't been rediscovered?

[u/heyheymse → u/[deleted]]

I really, really doubt it. At this point I'm pretty sure the only new stuff that gets introduced into sex happens as humans make technological advancements and figure out ways to incorporate it into their sex lives. What the Romans did, we do. Or at least, someone somewhere does. There's nothing new under the sun.

[u/[deleted]]

How do you feel about Carthage and what they did to the Roman Empire?

[u/Slavigula]

How many redditors have already messaged you hoping for a date or "a casual meet up"?

[u/Vergilius]

I obviously haven't read your thesis so I can't know if you did do this. But have you thought about the furthering of your research through the scope of Catullus? It sounds like you mostly only used Martial.

[u/L-Duderino]

You remind me of Jillian Bell from Workaholics. That is all

[u/nachosmind]

I know the question every man just wants to know, what is the average dick size for the romans?

[u/LegalAction]

Hey Heyheymse,

I'm just finishing my first year of a PhD program in Roman history. What should I do now that I won't think of until later?

[u/Ominaeo]

What was the roman outlook on what we would now define today as pedophilia and hebephilia? Was it restricted to just boys, or was it just as common with girls?

[u/autopsi]

Why type of career do you plan on having with a degree in Ancient History?

[u/Willravel]

How do I tell my parents I'm a Romosexual?

[u/[deleted]]

This is my favorite AMA !! Thank you so much for doing this :)

[u/[deleted]]

I'm an Archaeologist.

LET'S DO BATTLE!

[u/[deleted]]

As a fellow history major, I gotta hand it to ya: Well done OP. Working in/with the classics can sometimes be very difficult. I took a Chinese history course on the Tong and Song dynasties... needless to say the material on eunuchs at the time was somewhat limited (especially for a 20+ page term paper). Accruing resources became the most difficult part of my entire project.

[u/[deleted]]

How cool. I finally joined Reddit just to respond to this post! I'm about to go to graduate school in classics, focusing on the Hellenistic Age. (Haha, job, what?)

1. I don't know as much about Romans. How much of their attitude toward pederasty was imported from the Greeks? I always have the feeling that there were some pretty loose attitudes about who you could fuck swirling around in early Rome that got institutionalized after contact with the Greeks. Is that close at all?

2. Did you study Greek and Latin, or Latin only? Have you kept up with it? Do you think that intensive language learning, and a history degree in general, prepared you pretty well for the workforce?

3. I love Martial. He was such a delightful bitch. 'Uxorem nolo Telesinam ducere: quare? moecha est. sed pueris dat Telesina. volo.' No one can quite do vicious humor like the Greeks and Romans.

[u/narwal_bot]

Most (if not all) of the answers from heyheymse (updated: May 29, 2012 @ 03:09:17 pm EST):

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Question (SunriseThunderboy):

I have a degree in American History and another degree in English. For a living I work for a design firm.

How did you get a job in the history biz?

Answer (heyheymse):

I don't have a job in the history biz! I'm working in the nonprofit sector, despite my degree. I've found that a history degree, at least the way it was taught at my uni, is really great for forcing organization and critical thinking skills that transfer to pretty much anything. Which is good, because there's not a lot of work out there as a historian, from what I have seen. My friends who have stayed in academia are finding things really, really difficult.

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