Society and the sex tradeĪt the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was a town of modest size, with a population of around 11,000, and a thriving community with sophisticated architecture and infrastructure. Similarly, it would be naïve to assume that male clients did not seek other men with whom they could participate in acts deemed socially unacceptable (essentially acts in which the citizen male would occupy a submissive role). Still, it would be naïve to discount instances of wealthy, freeborn women accessing male sex workers or household slaves. The few literary records that suggest there may have been female clients of sex workers are questionable, as they were usually written for satiric or comedic purposes. The sexual mores of ancient Rome, catered for male-to-male sexual encounters if certain protocols were maintained (a citizen could not be penetrated, for example). As freeborn women were not permitted to have intercourse with anyone but their husbands, the clients who accessed male sex workers were almost exclusively men. As with the writings concerning women, this graffiti lists specific services offered and sometimes prices. Graffiti also attests to male sex workers in Pompeii. In this case, Euplia promised her clients a fair voyage. Sex workers’ names sometimes denoted the function or physical features of the individual in question.
The name “Euplia”, for example, comes from a Greek word meaning “fair voyage”. Often the names of slaves and, by default, sex workers, had Greek origins. It includes information on specific services and prices, clients’ appraisals of certain women and their abilities (or lack thereof), and some sexual advice. The preservation of graffiti on the walls of Pompeii’s buildings also provides historians with details of the sex trade. Those who made up this percentage of workers were mostly freed slaves and poor freeborn women. In larger towns and cities, where control of the sex trade was harder to manage, some of these women may have worked without pimps.
Women who worked the streets in Pompeii often waited around archways and other standard locations such as graveyards and public baths. This rendered them vulnerable to the whims of both pimp and client alike. Confined to the premises by (usually) male pimps who provided them with only their most basic needs, the women were essentially cut off from the outside world. The sex workers fulfilled a utilitarian function and nothing else. As the ancient attitude towards slaves was one of indifference at best, and violent disdain at worst, the lives of women were no source of empathy to those outside their class.
The conditions in which the women worked were of no concern to brothel owners, clients or anyone else for that matter, as most sex workers in ancient Italy were slaves.