Since the taboo of speaking about such things publicly has been lifted, the city of Pompeii is popularly cited as being home to more than thirty-five brothels. This astounding figure has been allowed to influence the current-day view of Roman sexuality and sex trade, but archaeologists are sceptical. Identifying brothels is not quite as easy as once thought.
Not Enough People for Thirty-five Brothels in Pompeii
The perhaps greatest indicator that thirty-five brothels is an all too great number for the city of Pompeii is the size of the city itself. At its destruction in 79 CE, Pompeii housed circa ten thousand inhabitants. At thirty-five brothels, the figure lands at one brothel for each 286 persons or one brothel for every 71 adult men.
The figure of thirty-five, however, is not the number of prostitutes in the city. Some brothels would have housed several prostitutes and there would have been women working as full or part time prostitutes in bars and inns, and also on the street. It stands to reason that the population of Pompeii could not support such vigorous sex trade. By contrast, the ancient city of Rome is estimated to have housed forty-five brothels for a population of over one million.
Problems in Identification of Ancient Prostitution
There has been a tendency amongst archaeologists in the past to classify as a brothel any building with erotic paintings, sculpture or graffiti. This is a problematic way of distinction. As anyone who has visited public bathrooms knows, boastful sexual scribbling does not necessarily denote sex trade.
In some cases, a location within close range of public displays of eroticism has sufficed. Three buildings now tentatively identified as shops, for example, were originally identified as brothels based on a nearby phallus marking.
Pompeii May House Only Ten Ancient Brothels
If counting only the obviously purpose-built and decorated brothels of the city, it would seem that the parts of Pompeii excavated had only ten. Only one of these brothels had multiple rooms, ten in total, whereas the other nine were single-room establishments.
The more conservative identification of ancient Roman brothels leaves the city of Pompeii with one brothel per 250 adult males. This is a more credible figure, especially as Romans wealthy enough to own slaves ought to be subtracted – they were unlikely to visit prostitutes on account of owning humans for free sexual use.
It is likely, of course, that not all buildings used as brothels were created or used for that singular purpose. Such establishments would have been taken into account in the liberal figure of thirty-five, but left out of the more conservative estimate of ten. Nor was sex trade limited to the brothels. Neither figure can give an accurate picture of ancient prostitution.
Sources
Clarke, J.R., Looking at Love-Making: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art, Berkeley 1998.
Laurence, R., Roman Pompeii: Space and Society, Abingdon 1994.
McGinn, T., "Zoning Shame in the Roman City" in Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, Madison 2006.
McGinn, T., The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel, Ann Arbour 2004.
Emma Oxenby Wohlfart - E P Wohlfart decided at age 14 that she was going to move to Scotland for university. Once there, she often sat in class thinking to ...
