Ancient Rome

Unlike the Greeks, Romans never institutionalized pederasty. Man-boy relationships were driven primarily by lustful sex, and there was no educating or civil pursuit involved. Furthermore, whereas the Greek erastes was charged with protecting the young eromenos, no such obligation existed in Rome. Roman boylove though influenced by the Greeks slaves brought to Rome often was as violent and brutal as the Romans themselves. The Romans tended to value sexual conquest above romance and love. However that is not to say that Roman men never fell in love with boys which of course they did and sometimes formed lifelong relationships. Pederasty came in and out of fashion during different periods of both the republic and the empire. Roman patricians frequently condemned the practice of Greek love publicly while privately complaining that “a pretty boy cost more than a plot of land ….” Many politicians and other affluent and influential Romans often kept young slave boys as lovers. Much romantic poetry written by older men to the boys who's beauty they admired last to this day from around the time of Augustus

Roman Law

Lex Scantinia

See also

• Roman Emperors
• Historical boylove relationships in ancient Rome