[1217] Ibid., vi, 62. Plutarch tells us that he fined the Athenians £70,000, which he handed over to Lamia and the rest of his harem to buy soap!
[1218] A licentia stupri was issued to each woman by the aediles; Tacitus, Ann., ii, 85.
[1219] Plutarch, Sulla.
[1220] Ibid., Pompey.
[1221] Plutarch, Lucullus.
[1222] In the year 19 Rome was shocked by Vistilia, a married woman of noble birth, applying for a licence. She was banished, and a law passed to prevent the repetition of such an occurrence; Tacitus, Ann., ii, 85. Half a century later probably no notice would have been taken, but the ethics of the day varied regularly with the character of the reigning emperor.
[1223] Dion Cass., lxvi, 14. As a proof of the meanness of Vespasian, he relates that Titus expostulated with his father on the unseemliness of maintaining a tax on the collection of urine, whereupon the Emperor, drawing a handful of gold from his pocket, tendered it to his son, saying, “Smell, does it stink?” cf. Suetonius, 23.
[1224] Socrates, v, 18. The punishment of an adultress at this epoch took the ridiculous form of impounding her in a narrow cabinet next the street, where she was forced to prostitute herself to all comers. Every time she received a companion a jingling of little bells was kept up to publish the circumstance to passers by. At the same period immense underground bakeries were run by contractors for the supply of the Steps (see [p. 81]), and they hit on a remarkable expedient for procuring slaves to work in them. Taverns served by prostitutes were set up contiguous to the vaults; and customers, chiefly strangers, were lured into a compartment, from which they were suddenly lowered into the cavity beneath, by a sinking floor. There they ended their days in enforced labour, being never again allowed to see the light. A bold soldier of Theodosius, however, being thus entrapped, drew a dagger and fought his way out. He then laid information, which brought about the destruction of all such infamous dungeons; ibid.
[1225] In the Middle Ages the absence of judicious and uniform legislation is one of the most marked features, and in every province the extremes of sociological phenomena are commonly to be observed. Side by side with measures for the total abolition of prostitution we find brothels tolerated as a regular department of royal palaces. In 1546, for example, prostitution was suppressed at Strasbourg, and at Toulouse in 1587. On the other hand, from the eleventh century onwards, a community of courtesans was maintained as part of the establishment of the kings of France. They were placed in the charge of an officer, named le Roi des Ribauds. His position, however, was low, and his right to eat at the same board with the other members of the household was disputed; see Rabutaux, La Prostitution (au moyen âge), Paris, 1851, ff. 16, 21, 32, 33. Again, it is well authenticated, though almost incredible, that in the sixteenth century nobles and generals of the south of Europe kept in the camp elegantly caparisoned goats for amatory purposes; see Bayle, sb. Bathyllus.