Pompeian Brothels and Social History

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Pompeian Brothels and Social History

• By Thomas A. J. McGinn

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Focus of the Study

• To examine 20th Century scholarship on Pompeian
  brothels, its methods and assumptions, and above
  all the criteria used to identify them
• Not to advance new candidates for brothels, but
  to suggest that not all brothels in Pompeii have
  been identified

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What is a Brothel?

• The broader the definition, the more the possible
  venues
• McGinn a location with sex as its principal (or
  at least a major component of its) business, that
  allows two or more prostitutes to work
  simultaneously
• According to literary sources, this definition
  applies to the Roman notion
• Pompeian brothels were relatively small, so a
  distortion brought about by a wide range in the
  size of brothels is minimized

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How to Identify Brothels in the Archaeological
Record

• Della Cortes criteria
• The design and layout of the establishment
• The presence of erotic art
• The presence of erotic graffiti

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How to Identify Brothels in the Archaeological
Record

• A. Wallace-Hadrills criteria
• The structural evidence of a masonry bed set in a
  small cell of ready access to the public
• The presence of paintings of explicit sexual
  scenes
• The cluster of graffiti lauding bene futui, good
  sexual partners

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Problems with these Criteria

• Reliance on room layout provides no effective way
  to distinguish a brothel from an inn
• Masonry beds only reveal purpose-built brothels
  prostitutes could have used wooden beds, which
  are less likely to have survived, or no bed at
  all
• Erotic art was a ubiquitous feature of Roman
  social life
• Graffiti can communicate jokes, insults, or idle
  boasting

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Public Displays of Erotic Art
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Public Displays of Erotic Art
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Public Displays of Erotic Art
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Public Displays of Erotic Art
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Erotic Art from a Purpose-Built Brothel
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Erotic Art from the Changing Room of a Suburban
Bath
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Potential Brothels

• Purpose-built brothels spaces intended,
  designed, and built to serve as brothels
• Cellae meretriciae the most likely venues for
  prostitution at Pompeii
• Cribs small, crude buildings or rooms, clustered
  in an alley or along a roadway, used by
  prostitutes who do not work in brothels
• Baths and cauponae areas where prostitution
  certainly occurred but was not a major component
  of the business
• Private dwellings parts of a house separate from
  the owners living area, such as a slaves
  quarters, often had separate entrances and many
  of the criteria found in brothels

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The Purpose-Built Brothel

• 5 simple small rooms on the ground floor, each
  with a masonry bed
• Series of erotic paintings along the hallway
  connecting the rooms
• 5 upstairs rooms accessible by a separate
  entrance-stairway and balcony
• Latrine under the stairway with 100 graffiti,
  mostly erotic
• Often the upstairs does not contain erotic
  paintings sleeping quarters for prostitutes, or
  it could be a separate operation

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Moral Zoning?

• Did the Romans keep brothels in certain areas and
  out of others?
• Did they wish to isolate prostitution from elite
  women and children?
• Were impure activities concentrated in hidden
  areas?
• Were brothels segregated to lower class
  neighborhoods?

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Moral Zoning?

• Moral zoning was not common until the rise of
  Christianity
• Roman cities tended to be fairly homogeneous
  socially
• Brothels were rarely located at great distances
  from upper-class dwellings
• Map of Pompeii shows that brothels were evenly
  distributed, except near the Forum, where
  regulation of brothels may have been successful

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Roman Perspective on Prostitution

• Prostitution seen as an alternative or antidote
  to adultery
• Prostitutes served to distract male lust away
  from respectable women
• Erotic art was commonly on display and easily
  visible to elite women and children, in dining
  rooms and gardens
• The Romans were much more open about sex than we
  are today and evidently had no concern keeping it
  out of the home and confined to a brothel
• Prostitution may have been seen as a breach of
  upper-class decorum, but indecent behavior by
  members of the lower classes was to be expected

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Roman Public Policy Toward Prostitution

• Prostitution was tolerated limited regulation
• Today, public policy involves repression of
  prostitution, which would have been foreign to
  the Romans
• What policies were initiated ultimately failed
• Although no brothels are located in the Forum,
  prostitution existed and was actually encouraged
  there
• Roman policy on prostitution tended to make the
  activity as visible as possible
• Prostitutes were meant to be humiliated

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Demographics

• Estimates of Pompeiis population 7,000 to
  20,000
• 504 domus (private dwellings)
• 34-35 brothels
• Many of the clients of prostitutes probably were
  not citizens of Pompeii
• Assuming an average of 4 prostitutes per brothel,
  and accounting for prostitutes who did not work
  at brothels, just over 100 prostitutes lived in
  Pompeii.

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Future Work

• Redefine the criteria for identifying brothels
• More detailed examination of the physical remains
• Reexamine the subtypes of brothels
  (purpose-built, caupona, and lower-class
  lodgings, etc.)
• Analyze Pompeian brothels in the context of the
  Roman world (Ostia and Rome itself)