Clarke John R. Roman Sex, 100 BC to 250 AD

Harry N. Abrams, 2003. — 168 p.Roman Sex, 100 BC to 250 AD by John R. Clarke shows a side of Roman history most people don't know about but they should. This book clarifies the morals and mores of Roman society and makes them understandable. While the Romans didn't have the same societal restrictions that we do, they were not complete hedonists either. This book presents a balanced presentation of life as it was lived in Roman times.When, in 1968, the men in Clark's Pompeii tour group were ushered into a locked, windowless room in the Naples Archaeological Museum, Clark did not realize that he would eventually become an authority on ancient Rome's sexual iconography. The room, which women were forbidden to enter until the '70s, houses sexually explicit paintings and statues: figures with huge erections; a terra-cotta lamp of a woman making love to a man while swinging iron hand weights; a woman's hand mirror featuring "passionate lovemaking" complete with "her favorite pet." Now an art history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Clark presents some of the pieces that have inspired his last 30-plus years of study. Colorful frescoes, metal objects or ceramics are shown in 114 illustrations (95 in color), divided among nine chapters explaining ancient societal attitudes toward sex ("Woman on Top: Women's Liberation in the First Century A.D"; "Laughing at Taboo Sex in the Suburban Baths"), while subheadings like "Priapus, Protection, and Penetration" offer scholarly and personal anecdotes. A number of the works are published for the first time here. John R. Clarke is Annie Laurie Howard Regents Professor of the History of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.Roman Sex provides a fresh and provocative account of ancient Roman sexual practices. It explains, for the first time, a wealth of newly discovered sexual art, as well as the many paintings, sculptures, and vases hidden away until recently in the world's "secret museums." Many of the works shown here have been photographed in color especially for this lavishly illustrated book and a number have never before been published. Roman sex was sex before Christianity and Puritan guilt. Romans, both rich and poor, proudly displayed images in their homes that we would hide away. Clarke takes the reader into a society markedly different from ours in its attitudes toward sex. With all its quirks, it was a sexually tolerant society that encouraged the creation and open display of erotic art. Roman Sex will appeal to any reader who wants to understand this culture, which was in other ways so much the forerunner of our own.ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction
Every Home Must Have One
Woman on Top: Women’s Liberation in the First Century
Sex in Whorehouses, Sex on Stage
Gay Sex in Bi and Straight Company
The Opposite of Sex: How to Keep Away the Evil Eye
Laughing at Taboo Sex in the Suburban Baths
New Sexual Imagery from Roman France
Conclusion: Sex before Puritan GuiltGlossary
Further Reading
Index
List of IllustrationsNB! Most of the book’s page margins are cut off.