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WHAT COULD MARCUS AURELIUS FEEL FOR FRONTO?

WHAT COULD MARCUS AURELIUS FEEL FOR FRONTO?

Christian Laes

Studia Humaniora Tartuensia, vol. 10 (2009)

Abstract

Were Marcus Aurelius and Fronto in love? Does the correspondence between master Fronto and prince Marcus Aurelius prove that their relationship was a fully sexual one? Were both lovers playing dangerous games? This article explores the various possibilities in a relationship which may at first sight seem like a relationship of sexual passion. Contrary to the Amy Richlin thesis, I will contend that it is not justified to interpret the letters as a correspondence between a gay master and his beloved pupil. Taking a closer look at both the literary and the socio?cultural context, one comes to understand what we can and what we cannot know about language games and bodily games of sex in antiquity.



By the middle of the fourth century, it seems as if the Roman elite got weary and somewhat suspicious of the eulogies of love between a somewhat older man and a male partner of considerably younger age. Such discourse involved abundant display of affection, tears and emotions, and could easily arouse the suspicion of weakness and effeminacy. In both Greek and Latin literature, it was well elaborated in the second half of the first century A.D. by Martial and by Statius in some of his Silvae. In the second century, several pieces of writing praised the relationship between the emperor Hadrian and his favourite Antinoüs. Herodes Atticus publicly announced his predilection for his three pet‐children or trophimoi. All of these cases have been studied in detail in recent scholarly literature.

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