Pueri delicati in the household of Pliny the Younger: slaves' strategies of resistance to sexual abuse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7203/SPhV.25.25960Keywords:
children, slaves, sexual abuse, Pliny the Younger
Abstract
This paper aims to reconstruct the presence of pueri delicati in the household of Pliny the Younger. Although Pliny makes no explicit reference to the issue in his epistolary, an analysis of some of his letters shows that, probably, he, like many wealthy Romans of his time, did not refrain from the pleasure afforded by his impubescent slaves. In connection with this issue, the present study reveals some possible strategies of resistance that these children might have used against a reality that, presumably, was not as pleasant to them as it was to their master.
Downloads
Author Biography
Gonzalo Fontana Elboj, Universidad de Zaragoza
References
5. Bibliography
Aarne, A. y Thompson, S., 1973, The Types of the Folktale. A Classification and Bibliography, Helsinki.
Akgoz, R., 2020, «Boyhood Sexuality in Ancient Rome», in:
https://www.coursehero.com/file/75585488/Boyhood-Sexuality-in-Ancient-Romepdf/
Alvar Nuño, A., 2017, Cadenas invisibles. Los usos de la magia entre los esclavos en el Imperio romano, Besançon.
Baraz, Y., 2012, «Pliny’s Epistolary Dreams and the Ghost of Domitian», Transactions of The American Philological Association, 142.1, 105-132.
Bernstein, N. W., 2005, «Mourning the Puer Delicatus: Status inconsistency and the ethical value of fostering in Statius, Silvae 2.1», American Journal of Philology 126, 257-280.
Bradley, K., 1994, «Resisting Slavery», in: K. Bradley (ed.), Slavery and Society at Rome, Cambridge, 107-131.
—, 2011, «Resisting Slavery at Rome», en: K. Bradley y P. Cartledge (eds.), The Cambridge World History of Slavery, vol. 1: The Ancient Mediterranean World, Cambridge, 362-384.
Caldera de Castro, M. P., 1986, «Un balsamario de vidrio camafeo procedente de Ostippo (Estepa, Sevilla)», Archivo español de arqueología 59, 211-218.
Carcopino, J., 1941, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, London.
Coelho dos Santos, A., 2018, «O banquete romano e os pueri delicati: uma convivialidade privada», in: C. Soares & C. da Silva Gomes (eds.), Mesas luso-brasileiras: alimentação, saúde & cultura, Universidade de Coimbra, vol. II, 53-69.
Cohen, E. E., 2013, «Sexual Abuse and Sexual Rights: Slaves' Erotic Experience at Athens and Rome», in: Th. Hubbard, A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, New York, 184-198.
Duport, F., 1981, «Rome: des enfants pour le plaisir», Raison présente 59, 63-76.
Eidinow, E., 2012, «‘What Will Happen to Me If I Leave?’ Ancient Greek Oracles, Slaves and Slave Owners», en: St. Hodkinson y D. Geary (eds.), Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Modern Brazil, Newcastle upon Tyne, 244-278.
Felton, D., 1999, Haunted Greece and Rome, Austin.
Fontana Elboj, G., forthcoming, «Barberos misteriosos y esclavos malmandados: una nota a Plinio el Joven (Epist. VII 27, 12-14)».
Galán Vioque, G., 2002, Martial, Book VII: A Commentary, Leiden.
Garrido-Hory, M., 2005, «Sexe, amour et dépendance à Rome», Dialogues d’Histoire ancienne (supp. 1), 125-137.
Gonfroy, F., 1978, «Homosexualité et idéologie esclavagiste chez Cicéron», Dialogues d’Histoire ancienne 4, 219-262.
Gonzales, A., 2017, «Et haec quidem adfirmantibus credo. Une histoire de fantômes pour échapper à la critique», en: D. Pérez, M. J. Rodríguez et al. (eds.), Poder y heterodoxia en el mundo greco-romano: Estudios en homenaje a la profesora M.ª José Hidalgo de la Vega, Salamanca, 99-117.
Harvey, E. G. 2017, Roman Pederastic Poetry: The Problem of the Puer Delicatus, Ph. D., in:
https://repository.arizona.edu › bitstream › handle
Kamen, D., 2011, «Slave Agency and Resistance in Martial», in: R. Alston, E. Hall & L. Proffitt, (eds.), Reading Ancient Slavery, London, 192-203.
Kamen, D. and Marshall, C. W. (eds.), 2021, Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity, Madison.
Kay, N. M., 1985, Martial Book XI: A Commentary, Oxford.
Keegan, P., 2013, «Reading the ‘Pages’ of the Domus Caesaris: Pueri Delicati, Slave Education, and the Graffiti of the Palatine Paedagogium», in: M. George (ed.), Roman Slavery and Roman Material Culture, Toronto, 69-98.
Kudlien, F., 1991, Sklaven-Mentalität im Spiegel antiker Wahrsagerei, Stuttgart.
Laes, C., 2003, «Desperately different? Delicia children in the Roman household», in: D. L. Balch and C. Osiek (eds.), Early Christian Families in Context. An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Grand Rapids, 298-324.
La Monaca 2007, «Festius: un caso emblematico di delicatus?», Epigraphica 69, 169-180.
La Monaca, V. 2008, «I delicati nella Cisalpina», in: P. Basso et al. (eds.), Est enim ille flos Italiae... Vita economica e sociale nella Cisalpina romana. Atti delle Giornate di studi in onore di Ezio Buchi (Verona 30 novembre – 1 dicembre 2006), Verona, 211-217.
Leao, D. F., 2006, «Petrónio e a inconstáncia dos ‘pueri delicati’», Humanitas 58, 2006, 119-132.
Manwell, E., 2007, «Gender and Masculinity», in: M. B. Skinner (dir.), A Companion to Catullus, Malden (MA), 111-128.
Martens, J. W., 2015, «‘I Renounce the Sexual Abuse of Children’: Renegotiating the Boundaries of Sexual Behaviour in Late Antiquity by Jews and Christians», in: C. Laes, K. Mustakallio & V. Vuolanto (eds.), Children and Family in Late Antiquity: Life, Death and Interaction, Leuven, 169-213.
McDermott, W. C., 1972, «M. Cicero and M. Tiro», Historia 21, 259-286.
McKeown, N., 2007, «Had they no shame? Martial, Statius and Roman sexual attitudes towards slave children», in S. Crawford and G. Shepherd (eds.), Children, Childhood and Society, Oxford, 57-62.
Ogden, D., 2014, «Fantasmas romanos», in: M. Aguirre et al. (eds.), Fantasmas, aparecidos y muertos sin descanso, Madrid, 101-117.
Ormand, K., 2013., «Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Discipline of Classics», in: Th. K. Hubbard, A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, New York, 54-68.
Nikoloutsos, K. P., 2007, «Beyond Sex: The Poetics and Politics of Pederasty in Tibullus 1.4», Phoenix 61, 55-82.
Nielsen, H. S., 1990, «Delicia in Roman literature and in the urban inscriptions», Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 19, 79-88.
Pelling, C., 1997, «Tragical Dreamer: Some Dreams in the Roman Historians», Greece&Rome 44, 197-213.
Pollini, J., 2003, «Slave-Boys for Sexual and Religious Service: Images of Pleasure and Devotion», in: A. Boyle and W. J. Dominik (eds.), Flavian Rome: Culture, Image, Text, Leiden, 149-166.
Romano, D., 1980, «Il Lascivus lusus di Cicerone», Orpheus (N.S.) 1, 441-447.
Roth, U., 2021, «Speaking Out? Child Sexual Abuse and the Enslaved Voice in the Cena Trimalchionis», in: D. Kamen y C. W. Marshall (eds.), Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity, Madison, 211-237.
Sherwin-White, A. N., 1966, The Letters of Pliny. A Historical and Social Commentary, Oxford.
Stramaglia, A., 1999, Res inauditae, incredulae: storie di fantasmi nel mondo greco-latino, Bari.
Sullivan, J. P., 1991, «Martial’s sexual attitudes», in: J. P. Sullivan (ed.), Martial, the unexpected classic: a literary and historical study, New York, 185-210.
Verstraete, B. C., 1980, «Slavery and the social dynamics of homosexual relations in ancient Rome», Journal of Homosexuality 5, 227-236.
Verstraete, B. C. 2012, «Reassessing Roman Pederasty in Relation to Roman Slavery: The Portrayal of Pueri Delicati in the Love-Poetry of Catullus, Tibullus and Horace», The Journal of International Social Research 20, 157-166.
Vlassopoulos, K., 2018, «Hope and Slavery», in: G. Kazantzidis y D. Spatharas (eds.), Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art: Ancient Emotions I, Berlin-Boston, 235-258.
Watson, P., 1992, «Erotion: Puella Delicata?» The Classical Quarterly 42(1), 253-268.
Williams, C. A., 1999, Roman Homosexuality, Oxford-New York.
Williams, D., 2006, The Warren Cup, London.
Wolff, E., 2003, Pline le jeune, ou le refus de pessimisme, Rennes.
English translations of ancient sources:
Anonymous translator, 1897, Martial. Epigrams, London. In:
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/martial_epigrams_00eintro.htm.
Firebaugh, W. C., 1922, The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter, New York.
Firth, J. B., 1900, The letters of the Younger Pliny, London.
Gummere, R. M., 1925, Seneca the Younger. Moral Letters to Lucilius, Cambridge (Ma).
Harris-McCoy, D. E., 2012, Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica. Text, Translation, and Commentary, Oxford.
Kline, A. S., 2005, Satires of Horace, in: https://topostext.org/work/680.
Martín Iglesias, J. C., 2007, Plinio el Joven. Epistolario (Libros I-X). Panegírico de Trajano, Madrid.
Nagle, B. R., 2004, The Silvae of Statius, Bloomington.
Nixon, P., 1917, Plautus: Curculio, London.
Rackham, H., 1932, Aristotle: Politics, Cambridge (Ma).
Shackleton Bailey, D. R., 1993, Martial. Epigrams, Cambridge (Ma).
Slater, D. A., 1908, Silvae of Statius, Oxford.
Wilson-Okamura, D., 2014, Aelius Donatus: Life of Virgil, in: http://www.virgil.org/vitae/a-donatus.htm.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
-
Abstract226
-
PDF126
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Make a Submission
Language
Information
Keywords
