Ancient Roman Slavery and Prostitution

Slavery in the Ancient Roman Empire was an entrenched and ubiquitous part of life. Around one of every seven people in the second century was enslaved, and that fact shaped the social lives of Romans in all sorts of ways, including how they thought about sex.

This is a sketch of a fourth century CE slave collar from an ancient north African city called Bulla Regia. Made of iron, it was discovered still bound around the neck of a skeleton with her master’s brutal command inscribed in Latin saying “I am a slutty whore: retain me, I have fled Bulla Regia”. This collar highlights the way that slaves’ bodies were considered property, and how female slaves in particular were used for sex.

In fact, the role of prostitute and that of female slave often overlapped, and Ancient Romans across the social spectrum knew that one of the hallmarks of high status was the ability to keep one’s body from being sexually penetrated against one’s will. The sheer number of female slaves and prostitutes threw the agency of Roman free men into sharp relief.

And Roman matrons, whose sexuality was supposed to be open to their husbands alone, vocally defended this system, despite the fact that they realized their husbands quite well might have been sleeping with their slaves. Why would such wealthy women have put up with the sexual double-standard? Because worse than having their sexuality controlled was the idea of losing social status.