Having a Gay Lover Was The Norm In Ancient Rome and Greece

Kit Harrington braves the ash in bollock buster Pompeii 

Things were a lot different back in the ancient times. The Roman Empire stretched across the world, the millions of citizens believed in the theorem of multiple gods and you could bum freely without a second look. Ok maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch but it wasn't too far off!

The Roman Empire's influence can be felt and seen all over Europe with roads still remaining as the base for some of the UK's main infrastructure and ruins dotted all over the continent. No more so than in Italy and Greece where the temples and monuments to the gods are some of the most incredible feats of history and architecture in the history of humanity. 

The cast of Spartacus looking a lot like a porn film we wanna see

Anyway, back to the serious topic at hand, gay sex in olden times! Back in them days there was a thing called pedastry. This was the act of a man in a position of power or status to take a lover who was younger than him who he would basically look after and love. The position wasn’t just one of social status either. The older guy would be the top and the younger one the bottom. Yes, they even had the daddy/son fetish thousands of years ago. Except it wasn’t a fetish it was just part of society. As the younger guy got older, they would art ways and he would find a younger boyfriend.

Fluid sexuality 

There’s a lot written about whether this was by choice and were they all gay somehow but it’s more of a case of what was expected of them. As we know, sexuality is incredibly fluid. When it comes to male sexuality we know that if being gay wasn’t such a taboo in so much of the world, especially historically, gay relationships would be far more common as guys can get turned on by a variety of different things.

Russell Crowe with his sexy dad bon in Gladiator

It was only when Christianity came along and spread through the empire thanks to Julius Caesar that suddenly homosexual acts were seen as abhorrent and 'against God's will'. The more it was vilified, the easier it was for those that decried it to get away with it in secret, no matter what the cost to their very mortal souls.

Gladiators, ready!

Of course, it wasn’t some sort of homo-topia and a lot was wrong back then, especially by today’s standards. Most people had slaves and that was the norm. Looking at all the art and sculpture, physical prowess was considered extremely important and attractive.

Having a strong slave was particularly desirable and some of them were kept for sex as well. Let’s not forget that all gladiators were slaves who were basically being forced to battle to the death for entertainment. It’s comforting to know that in while some areas the ancient Romans and Greeks were quite progressive but in others, thankfully, things have moved quite considerably.