Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome - A Study of Imperial Representation, Court Society, and the Imperial Cult

Jul 31, 2026

Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome examines how Roman emperors’ relationships with their desires—male and female—are recorded in sources that mainstream historical inquiry often overlooks. The book treats such depictions not as gossip alone but as a framework for reading imperial identity: it analyzes how descriptions shape the relation between emperor and subject, gods and mortals, and the dynamics of East versus West and centre versus periphery, connecting these findings to imperial representation, court society, and the imperial cult.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages306

Reading Time7 h 51 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

The erotics of imperium

Anecdotal history

The main storyline

The priapic paradigm

One touch of Venus

Romancing the stone: the story of Hadrian and Antinous

Approaching Antinous: the efficacy of the image

The sculpture

Antinous and Roman religion

Compromising traditions: the case of Nero and Sporus

Prelude: making sense of Maximus

Male-male desire as marriage

Sporus and Poppaea

A match made in heaven: Earinus and the emperor

Adopting an approach

Springtime for Caesar

Cutting to the chase

Mistress as metaphor: a dialogue with Panthea

This was more than a woman

What’s in a name?

Fractured identities

And so to bed...

References

Index

Index of principal passages

# POWER and EROTICISM inIMPERIAL ROME # Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome The relationships between Romanemperors and their objectsofdesire,male and female,are well attested.The salacious nature ofthisevidencemeans that it is often omitted from mainstream historical inquiry.Yet that is to underestimate the importance of ‘gossip'and the act ofthinking about an emperor's private life.In this book Dr Vout takesthe reader from Rome,and Martial’s and Statius'poems about Domi-tian's favourite eunuch,to Antioch and dialogues in praise of LuciusVerus'mistress,to the widespread visual commemoration and cultof Hadrian's young male lover,Antinous.She explores not the rela-tionships themselves but rather the implications of their description.Such description provides a template with which to examine the rela-tionship between emperor and subject,gods and mortals,East andWest,centre and periphery.It thus contributes to the fields of imperialrepresentation,court society and the imperial cult CAROLINE VoUT is Lecturer in Classics at the University ofCambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College,having previously taughtat the University of Nottingham.She studied at Newnham College,Cambridge,and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and hasbeen a Rome Scholar at the British School at Rome.She has publishedwidely on aspects of Roman imperial culture and curated the exhibi-tion Antinous:the Face of the Antique at the Henry Moore Institute insummer 2006. Power and Eroticism inImperial Rome CAROLINE VOUT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge,New York,Melbourne,Madrid,Cape Town,Singapore,São Paulo,Delhi,Dubai,Tokyo Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building,Cambridge CB28RU,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press,New York www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title:www.cambridge.org/9780521123600 C Caroline Vout 2007 This publication is in copyright.Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2007This digitally printed version 2009 A catalogue record for this publication is availablefrom the British Library ISBN 978-0-521-86739-9 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-12360-0 Paperback | Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of | | --- | | URLs for cxternal or third-party internct websites referred to in this publication,and | | does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,or will remain,accurate or | | appropriate. | For Mum,Dad,Sue and Sandy https://archive.org/details/powereroticismin0000caro Contents List ofillustrations [page viii]Preface [xiii] 1 The erotics of imperium [1]Anecdotal history [1]The main storyline [5]The priapic paradigm [17]One touch of Venus [27] 2 Romancing the stone:the story of Hadrian and Antinous [52] Approaching Antinous:the efficacy of the image [52] The sculpture:'Schlagt die Augen nieder;hier ist Antinoos!?[71] Antinous and Roman religion:'This is the god of imperial Rome!?[113] 3 Compromising traditions:the case of Nero and Sporus [136]Greek love'made Roman [136] Prelude:making sense of Maximus [140]Male-male desire as marriage [151]Sporus and Poppaea [157] 4 A match made in heaven:Earinus and the emperor [167]Adopting an approach:the historicity of text and the textualityof history [167] Springtime for Caesar:Martial's epigrams about Earinus [175]Cutting to the chase:the impact of Earinus in Statius'Silvae 3.4 [182] 5 Mistress as metaphor:a dialogue with Panthea [213]'This was more than a woman:this was a masterpiece’[213]What's in a name?Lucian's Cyropaedia [218]Fractured identities [223]Locating Lucian [229]Gluing things back together [233] 6 And so to bed...[240] References [243]Index [272]Index of principal passages [281] # Illustrations The precise inventory numbers of any object discusse

FAQs

Why does the book focus on erotic relationships in the sources about Roman emperors?

Because the evidence is often treated as merely salacious and therefore omitted, the book argues that this underestimates the value of gossip-like material for understanding imperial life and authority.

What does the book use erotic depiction to analyze beyond personal relationships?

It examines the implications of these descriptions as a template for studying how emperor-subject relations, gods and mortals, and broader cultural divides are represented.

Which emperors and figures are central to the study?

The work moves from Martial and Statius on Domitian’s favorite eunuch, to Hadrian and Antinous, then to Nero and Sporus, and finally to Earinus and related literary dialogues.

Jul 31, 2026

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