#spintria — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #spintria, aggregated by home.social.
-
Should coins depict sexual acts? Some did.
The British Museum has a collection of coins or tokens that Romans may have used to obtain entry to brothels, to pay prostitutes, or—if they didn't speak Latin—to indicate what they would like. The exact purpose of these coins is unclear, but they depicted sex acts between men as well as between men and women.
Today, stigma affects prostitutes and the participants alike. In ancient Rome it was more socially acceptable, though views varied. Brothels were a staple in vacation cities like Pompeii and Herculaneum—both cities were "frozen" in time, which is helpful for archaeologists studying Roman culture. Brothels used this form of coinage about 2,000 years ago. These coins, or spintriae, were not in general circulation.
Most are brass, about 2½ centimeters or 1 inch in diameter with an image on one side and a Roman numeral from I to XVI on the other side.
#BritishMuseum #spintria #coin #sex #sexuality #prostitution #SexWork #hetero #lgbt
-
Should coins depict sexual acts? Some did.
The British Museum has a collection of coins or tokens that Romans may have used to obtain entry to brothels, to pay prostitutes, or—if they didn't speak Latin—to indicate what they would like. The exact purpose of these coins is unclear, but they depicted sex acts between men as well as between men and women.
Today, stigma affects prostitutes and the participants alike. In ancient Rome it was more socially acceptable, though views varied. Brothels were a staple in vacation cities like Pompeii and Herculaneum—both cities were "frozen" in time, which is helpful for archaeologists studying Roman culture. Brothels used this form of coinage about 2,000 years ago. These coins, or spintriae, were not in general circulation.
Most are brass, about 2½ centimeters or 1 inch in diameter with an image on one side and a Roman numeral from I to XVI on the other side.
#BritishMuseum #spintria #coin #sex #sexuality #prostitution #SexWork #hetero #lgbt
-
A #spintria is a small bronze or brass Roman coin depicting a sexual act and a number on the other side. They were probably used as locker tokens in Roman baths, where there were erotic frescoes in the changing rooms depicting similar sex acts.
-
A #spintria is a small bronze or brass Roman coin depicting a sexual act and a number on the other side. They were probably used as locker tokens in Roman baths, where there were erotic frescoes in the changing rooms depicting similar sex acts.