Huc iuvenes aequum est descendere; non alienas
Permolere uxores.
(When a certain well-known citizen came out of a brothel, “Bravo! go on and prosper!” was the word of Cato, great and wise. For when fierce desire has swollen the veins, right it is that young men should resort hither, and not grind their neighbours’ wives),—a passage that involuntarily reminds us of the fragment of Philemon quoted above.
[168] They had indiscriminate intercourse with the women, who did not hold it disgraceful to appear half-naked (γυμναὶ) and to practise both among themselves and in common with the men gymnastic exercises, and this in the presence of spectators, even in that of young men. These were actually enjoined to practise copulation, and to have the whole body polished and freed from hair by professional male artistes). Athenaeus, Deipnos., bk. XII. pp. 517, 518.
[169] The law was in the first instance made only with a view to the future, in order to ensure the state a sufficiently large number of citizens; Sozomenes, Histor. Eccles., I. 9., Vetus lex fuit apud Romanos, quae vetabat coelibes ab anno aetatis quinto et vigesimo pari iure essent cum maritis.—Tulerant hanc legem veteres Romani, cum sperarent, futurum hac ratione, ut urbs Roma et reliquae provinciae imperii Romani hominum multitudine abundarent. (There was an old law among the Romans, which forbad bachelors after the age of 25 to enjoy equal political rights with married men.—The old Romans had passed this law in the hopes that in this way the city of Rome, and the provinces of the Roman empire as well, might be ensured an abundant population). For the same reason Caesar, after the African War when the city was much depopulated through the great number of the slain, established prizes for such citizens as had the most children).—Dio Cassius, Bk. XLIII. 226.—All this availed little. The Censors Camillus and Posthumius were soon obliged to introduce a tax on celibacy,—the “old-bachelors’ tax” (Aes uxorium).—Festus, p. 161., L. Valerius Maximus, bk. II. ch. 9.—Augustus endeavoured in vain by the Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (Julian Law concerning marriage in the different classes) to counteract the tendency; till the Lex Papia Poppaea originating with the Senate (B.C. 9.) was ratified; (Tacitus, Annal. III. 25.—Dio Cassius, (LIV. 16., LVI. 10.), though even this did not long remain in force. Comp. Lipsius, Excurs. ad Tacit. Annal. III. 25.—Heineccius, Antiquit. Roman. Jurispr. (Antiquities of Roman Law), I. 25. 6. p. 209.—Hugo, “Geschichte des römischen Rechts,” (History of Roman Law), I. p. 237., II. p. 861.
[170] Instit Divin., I. 20. 6., Flora cum magnas opes ex arte meretricia quaesivisset, populum scripsit haeredem, certamque pecuniam reliquit, cuius ex annuo foenere suus natalis dies celebraretur editione Ludorum, quos appelant Floralia. (Flora having acquired great riches by the harlot’s calling made the people her heir, and left a certain sum of money, the interest of which was to be applied to celebrating her birth-day by the exhibition of the games which are called Floralia.—I. 20. 10., Celebrantur cum omni lascivia. Nam praeter verborum licentiam, quibus obscoenitas omnis effunditur, exuuntur etiam vestibus populo flagitante meretrices, quae tunc mimarum funguntur officio et in conspectu populi, usque ad satietatem impudicorum hominum cum pudendis motibus detinentur. (They are solemnized with every form of licentiousness. For over and above the looseness of speech that pours forth every obscenity, harlots strip themselves of their clothing at the importunities of the mob, and then act as mimes,—pantomimic actors,—and in full view of the crowd indulge in indecent posturings, till their shameless audience is satisfied). It may be noted that scarcely 40 years after the introduction of the Floralia, P. Scipio Africanus in his Speech in defence of Tib. Asellus could say: Si nequitiam defendere vis, licet: sed tu in uno scorto maiorem pecuniam absumsisti, quam quanti omne instrumentum fundi Sabini in censum dedicavisti. Ni hoc ita est: qui spondet mille nummum? Sed tu plus tertia parte pecuniae perdidisti atque absumsisti in flagitiis. (If you choose to defend your profligacy, well and good! but as a matter of fact you have wasted on one strumpet more money than the total value, as you declared it to the Census commissioners, of all the plenishing of your Sabine farm. If you deny my assertion, I ask who dare wager a thousand sesterces on its untruth? You have squandered more than a third of the property you inherited from your father, and thrown it away in debauchery).—Gellius, Noct. Attic., VII. 11.—As not only did hetaerae build a temple to Aphrodité, but a similar one was also erected in their honour at Abydos (Athenaeus, XIII. p. 573.), and Phryné wished to rebuild Thebes at her own cost, on the condition that an inscription should be set up to the effect, “Alexander destroyed it; Phryné the hetaera restored it”, there is not the slightest reason for counting the above story as merely one of the ridiculous inventions common in the Fathers.
[171] Valerius Maximus, II. 10. 8.—Seneca, Epist 97.—Martial, Epigr. I. 1 and 36.
[172] Read the Speech of Cato in Livy, Hist., bk. XXXIV. 4., where the following passage is found amongst others: Haec ego, quo melior lactiorque in dies fortuna rei publicae est, imperiumque crescit, et iam in Graeciam Asiamque transcendimus, omnibus libidinum illecebris repletas, et regias etiam attrectamus gazas, eo plus horreo, ne illae magis res nos ceperint, quam nos illas. (All these changes, as day by day the fortune of the State is higher and more prosperous and her Empire grows greater, and our conquests extend over Greece and Asia, lands replete with every allurement of the senses, and we appropriate treasures that may well be called royal,—all this I dread the more from my fear that such high fortune may rather master us than we master it). Scarcely 10 years later the same author says (bk. XXXIX. 6.): Luxuriae enim peregrinae origo ab exercitu Asiatico invecta in urbem est. (For the beginnings of foreign luxury were brought into the city by the Asiatic army). Juvenal, Sat. VI. 299.:
Prima peregrinos obscoena pecunia mores
Intulit et turpi fregerunt secula luxu