The economy of prostitution in the Roman world : a study of social history & the brothel / Thomas A.J. McGinn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGinn, Thomas A. J.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prostitution--History--To 1500.

Prostitution.

Prostitution--Economic aspects--Rome.

History.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 359 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2004.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

This book is a study of the evidence for the business of female prostitution in the Roman world during the central part of Rome's history, a period extending from approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 250. The main focus is on the economics of venal sex, meaning precisely the manner in which it was sold, a subject that extends to the ownership, operation, staffing, and location of brothels, as well as to various aspects of nonbrothel prostitution. Though the state of the evidence discourages any and all attempts at quantification, an attempt is made by the author to recover a sense of the role, the presence, and as much as is possible, the lived experience of prostitution city. Unlike most modern societies, the Roman political and legal authorities allowed the business of venal sex to proceed virtually unregulated, with a degree of tolerance that seems strange to a modern sensibility, but with consequences that emerge as sometimes equally foreign to us. This book should appeal not only to a wide range of classicists, such as legal and social historians, archaeologists, and those interested in the status and role of women in antiquity, but also to scholars with similar specialties in other cultures and historical periods.

Contents:

1 Urban Renewal 1

Design of the Book

Brothels in History

2 Basic Economics 14

The Enterprise of Venal Sex

The Milieu of Prostitution

Ownership of Brothels

Operation of Brothels

Prices

Recruitment

Prostitution and the Roman Economy

3 Zoning Shame 78

Where the Boys Are

Bad Company

Christian Topography

Augustinian Policy

4 Honor and Erotic Art 112

Pornography as Representation

Things Seen and Heard

Women and Children First

5 The Forces of Law and Order 134

Vice versus Squad

Constructive Policy

Official Business

"Sex Clubs"

6 The Local Demographics of Venal Sex 167

Brothels per Capita

Prostitutes per Capita

Sybaris on the Sarno

7 The Great Pompeian Brothel-Gap 182

Eminent Victorians

Counting Brothels

Defining Brothel

Cribs

Adultery and Brothels

8 The Best of All Possible Brothels 220

Out of Pompeii

The Name of the Rose

Love Shack

9 The City of Venus 240

Sex and the City

Moral Geography

10 Leaving Las Vegas 256

1 A Catalog of Possible Brothels at Pompeii 267

2 A Catalog of Possible Cribs at Pompeii 291

3 A Catalog of Possible Prostitutes at Pompeii 295.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-332) and indexes.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472025824

0472113623

Publisher Number:

10.3998/mpub.17679

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.