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decreaseMore bad news from Bangkok! I don’t know which is more off-putting – coups, the chaos at Suvarnahumbi Airport, bombs, or bargirls who do a runner in the middle of the night. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for alternatives - Angeles City in the Philippines being the best I’ve found so far.1
However, while surfing recently, I stumbled across another sex capital that sounded really promising. It has about 26 establishments of various kinds which offer sexual services, including at least one large, purpose-built brothel. There are no laws against nudity, and several kinds of nude dancing can be seen, for example, one visitor describes:
‘Naked dancing-girls who with tremulous loins and obscene movements provoked the lust of their spectators.’2
Even more surprising is that the city fathers are not embarrassed about their city’s reputation as a sex capital, and even go so far as to encourage visitors. This sign is prominently displayed in a major public building:
‘If anyone is looking for some tender love in this town, keep in mind that here all the girls are very friendly.’3
Better still, the girls don’t expect you to use a condom, and if you think that’s irresponsible, that’s because HIV is unknown in this city.
So where is it? Not far if you’re a European. In fact, I’ve been once before and walked past some of those brothels without even realising what they were. The problem is not distance – but time, because the place I had stumbled across was the Roman city of Pompeii in the 1st century AD!4
Disappointed? – so was I. But never mind, let’s take a quick virtual tour and use our imagination to see what we’ve missed.
The first stop is the Lupanare – the brothel – and, of course, you can still visit it today, but there are no mattresses on the masonry beds – and no girls. It is a purpose-built structure with 10 rooms, five on each floor, and a latrine. Some have suggested, on the basis of wall paintings, that the downstairs rooms were used to cater for a higher-class of customer. There is also some doubt about where the girls lived. They may have lived nearby, or may have slept in the rooms in which they worked. One interesting feature of the brothel is that each room has a fresco of a different sex scene painted over its door. Again, there is doubt about the meaning of these scenes – were they merely decoration, or did they represent the specialty of the girl working within?5 Whatever they originally stood for, it seems that there were no starfishes in those days – all the girls in the pictures seem eager and adventurous – but then, when did advertising ever tell the truth?
The girls were probably slaves of foreign origin, and it is even possible to estimate how much their services cost. Records of the time state that a session with one of the girls could cost up to eight times a ‘portion’ of wine – that would come to a figure of something between £30 – 50 in today’s values. So not bad value for money – cheaper than Amsterdam, though more expensive than Bangkok when the time factor is taken into consideration.
It is likely that the purpose-built Lupanare was towards top end of the sexual services market (the very top being the rich nobleman who could afford to buy and keep his own slave girls). We know from the extensive Latin vocabulary describing brothels and working girls that a wide range was on offer. At the top end was the Lupanare, and at the bottom, the Tugurium – a ‘low den’. Similarly, the top end amongst the girls was the Delicatae – ‘kept mistresses’, the Famosae – ‘soiled doves from respectable families’, or the Doris – ‘harlots of great beauty’; and at the bottom end the Gallinae – ‘thieving prostitutes’, or, worse, the Quadrantariae – ‘the lowest class whose charms were no longer merchantable’. Our virtual tour could therefore continue in a wide range of places (though I don’t fancy the ‘low dens’ – which remind me of some of the stories I have heard about Cambodia). Among the more interesting options would be bakery shops and underneath the arches at the theatre; and among the more convenient would be hostels and taverns. A full list of all the different places where sex was available and the different kinds of working girls can be found in ‘Ancient Roman Prostitutes and Notes on Roman Prostitution’. 6
If we are lucky, we might be invited to a private party thrown by a rich nobleman. As well as his own slave girls, he would be able to afford the services of professional dancing girls. This is how Ovid describes one he fancies in his ‘Amores’:
'One pleases by her gestures, and moves her arms to time, and moves her graceful sides with languishing art in the dance; to say nothing about myself, who am excited on every occasion.’7
The next stage in the entertainment might be provided by acrobats, who mixed erotic dancing with conventional acrobatics. We can see from vase paintings that their ‘costume’ was nothing more than an embroidered band around their waist. Their movements were calculated to excite the lust of their spectators, and included ‘undulations of the loins and buttocks’.8 At the end of the dance they would ‘sink to the ground, reclining on their backs, ready for the amorous contest’.9 At this point, no doubt, the spectators would become participants and the entertainment would become an orgy.
The final stop on our virtual sex tour of ancient Pompeii takes us to the baths. There were several bath houses in Pompeii, some single sex and some mixed. We will visit the mixed baths. Some of the upstairs rooms are illustrated with scenes similar to those in the Lupanare, and their link with prostitution is corroborated by literary sources. For example, if you think a Bangkok soapy massage is something, just read this. Though it is only a list of attendants, it gives an idea of the full range of services that were available:
‘Jatraliptae (youths who wiped the bather with swansdown); unctares (perfumers); fricatores (rubbers); fractatrices (massage-girls); dropacistae (corn extractors); alipilarii (those who plucked the hair from the armpits and other parts of the body); paratiltriae (children entrusted with the cleansing of all the orifices of the body); and picatrices (young girls who attended to the symmetrical arrangement of the pubic hair).’10
No wonder the Romans became less and less inclined to take up the gladius and fight it out with those hairy, smelly barbarians. They were having too much fun!
However, if on our virtual tour we take the time to look behind the scenes, we will see that Roman prostitution has a downside. The worst aspect of this is that many of the girls were slaves – they were bought by a pimp and had to do what he said. They had no freedom, no rights and no choice. At least the girls in Thailand and the Philippines have some choices – they may not be very wide, but they are there, and they are free to choose.
Pompeii was destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. The volcano buried the city under many feet of ash and it was lost for many centuries before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. It is probably the best ‘time capsule’ of the ancient world that we have – even more so that the tombs of the pharaohs, because it encompasses the whole of everyday life. From the point of view of the 21st century visitor, it is interesting to see how sexual matters were managed in the ancient world – and the general impression is that they did a pretty good job of integrating sex into everyday life without guilt or shame. They realised that it was a basic human need and that it is dangerous to suppress it. For example, Juvenal praises a young married man whom he sees leaving a brothel, commenting that such an outlet is better than divorce.
Another interesting fact is that no contemporary Roman commentator thought that the destruction of Pompeii was a punishment by god for the sexual peccadilloes of the citizens (though some Jewish historians drew this conclusion). The reason is simple, the Romans, though sometimes lamenting the vigour wasted by young men who visited prostitutes too frequently, just didn’t see sex as sinful.
1. See my article describing a visit to Angeles City at www.thailandstories.com/article/nightlife/articles/anyone-for-angeles.html
2, 8, 9 & 10. See article at http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/priap/prp107.htm
3 & 5. See article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum
4. I doubt if any politically-correct people are reading this, but if they are, AD (Anno Domini) = ACE (After Common Era) in politically-correct speak.
6. A full list of terms can be found at
7. ‘Amores’, Ovid (10 BC). For a modern translation see
© Rob 2007
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January 12, 2007, 13:55
"At the top end was the Lupanare, and at the bottom, the Tugurium – a ‘low den’. Similarly, the top end amongst the girls was the Delicatae – ‘kept mistresses’, the Famosae – ‘soiled doves from respectable families’, or the Doris – ‘harlots of great beauty’; and at the bottom end the Gallinae – ‘thieving prostitutes’, or, worse, the Quadrantariae – ‘the lowest class whose charms were no longer merchantable’."
Let's examine these terms a little closer.
The Tugurium: Where you go for a quick tug on the pud. In other words, a hand job!
Delicatae: The delicate little flowers, kept in comfort and luxury, and hopefully emanating enough perfume to intoxicate their keepers.
The Famosae: Probably Chinese imported from Formosa (now Taiwan).
The Doris: ****! Glad I didn't name my daughter Doris. I'd never be able to look her in the eye after reading this!
The Gallinae: Similar to the Thai word for a low class hooker, Gallee
The Quadrantariae: Has to use any of her 4 major orifices as the one between her legs is stretched too far and unusable any more, except for storing amphorae of wine, which gives a whole new meaning to the term, "going down for a drink". I've seen plenty of these in Pattaya running around with besotted old men. How do they wake up in the morning next to a Quadrantariae?
I've been to Pompeii and seen the excavated city. An amazing experience. Most poignant was the mother cuddling her child as they were encased in pumice. I was 6 years old when I visited and that sight has never left me.