Comments by "" (@jmitterii2) on "LGBTQ Emperors of Ancient Rome" video.

  1. It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine in Ancient Greece. Or really any ancient peoples for gays or bi's. All the Greek nations had their own customs, laws, and government, etc. For Athens, Corinth, and Rhodes women were subservient; they were expected to cover their face and often entire body when in public. Only prostitutes would be in public places uncovered and un-escorted. Similar to the Pakistan where is considered taboo for young boys or men to be with girls in public resulting in romances involving young boys and older boys and men and boys and teens; ie Pedophilia. In ancient Athens in particular, it was considered acceptable (not desirable) for pedophilia relationship between a young teen 13 or 20 to be with a 18 to 29 year old. It was expected though, homosexual relationships would end when they reach at least 30 and which they hoped they would have eventually married a woman. Really depends on what culture. Most cultures strictly forbid homosexual behavior particularly for adults; on the practicality out of fear of not producing enough surviving offspring to help with hunting or farming. Not to mention the vast majority of people tend to be heterosexual; with very minor bisexuality, and an even more minor amount of people who are absolute homosexual. Sparta literally raised their Spartiates (soldier class) in compounds of men, with gradually older boys and then men looking after each other. The older boys and men would bugger the younger as their right. Sparta is a difficult culture to examine without ethnic centrism: their Heloc slave class which were routinely murdered for sport and as a way to train a young Spartan to their abusive training and molestation... we could argue not just culturally, but empirically/scientifically they had some harmful equitably, physically, and mentally cultural norms; ie. they weren't good. And this complicates what we think of as acceptable. In the republic of Rome, it as considered acceptable if you had homosexual relationship with a slave, but not with an ex-slave or with a full citizen. Some Celts and Saxons and Native American Tribes, Ulmec, Mayan, Aztec describe abandoning/banishing or even sacrificing or just executing homosexuals or bisexuals. Some Native American tribes today still past down having LGBT as being either a person who was born with out a soul (I can't remember the name for it) or possessed by a bad spirit. So if you ever find a time machine, you won't go back into a LGBT loving ancient world. It really depends on the context and which civilization your visiting. And beware, if don't look that tribe or civilization, they may think you some evil spirit, barbarian, etc.
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  2. Some of the stories told by contemporaries then suddenly the ruler that actually lasts longer than a few days or a few years they're golden sun shine the best ever... Leads me to be very skeptical on all these tales as just that. I think the kid emperor was considered too foreign, and turmoil at that time, others wanted to claim emperor who were more traditional Roman worshipers.... it would be like having an Islamic president being elected... somehow... in the US... the bible belt states would having diabetic comas more frequent they already have.
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  3. Actually there were lots of slurs with homosexuality, but not the same as today. Cinaedus was the slur given to those males who were passive (bottoms), it was considered humiliating or lower status (slave) to take it up the butt. Slaves in particular in Rome weren't fully humans, so their masters could have sex with any slave's gender and age. Boy or Latin, puer, was what all slave boys and even slave men would be referred to, as they were not real men. Calling a free person a Puer (boy) or messing with a freeborn actual boy was considered bad, and depending on the class (patrician, equit, or pleb) there were legal consequences for sexual contact in those cases. If you were free born and did the penetrating and it was on slaves or lower class males; it was mostly considered okay through most eras of ancient Rome. If someone insulted a free person or citizen without apologizing calling them a puer (boy) as a free Roman male, that would be grounds for a duel to keep honor. If the person didn't fight for their honor or at least argue against being called a puer, they were considered cowards and passive, often called women. Closest to what we have as today gay slurs. Which are actually fading in offense as most bi's or gays or even straight simply don't care if someone calls someone a fudge packer or flamer or lumber jack or whatever. Who cares. And some take delight in being called various former slurs like queer or faggot. Gay actually started as a slur. Now it's consider a more pleasant term than homosexual.
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  4. You have to take much of, particularly the cartoony stuff with a grain of salt. Most of it was propaganda.
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  5. Some of this was true... but some were highly elaborate rumors (lies) to justify the downfall of that emperor and the reason the new one is better. And sometimes just made up stuff... kind of how we make stuff up about all sorts of people today. Hadrian having his lover is true, and his own writings and statues reflect his love for the young man. But then there's the boy emperor, he was only Emperor for 4 years from age 14 to 18; he didn't hold traditional Roman beliefs. The competing with whores thing is sensationalism at its most absurd. You need to know the context of the stories and the actual persons to discern really insane gossip from truth.
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  6. Depends which Greek city state and other tribe and nation. Some were very strict against bisexual or homosexual activity or they were rigid when it was considered okay, or it was considered acceptable but looked down upon. Really just depends, as it does today.
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