Researching hospitality from the literature alone is not without its problems. For example amongst the secondary literature, there is the general observation that women working in the hospitality trades were prostitutes. Inns and taverns were said to be ‘hardly distinguished brothels which lived in constant fear of the police’.[1] Inns were often seen as sources of seduction and prostitution[2] and often women who worked in inns were accused of working undercover as prostitutes.[3] The derogatory comments were not restricted to serving girls in the taverns; Cicero cites other occupations as sordidi (dishonourable or vulgar).

First, those means of livelihood are rejected as undesirable which incur people’s ill-will… Least respectable of all are those trades which cater for sensual pleasures: Fishmongers, butchers, cooks, and poulterers, and fishermen… Add to these, if you please, the perfumers, dancers, and the whole entertainment industry.[4]

This quote led to some authors becoming obsessed with the term and speculated that all working women were prostitutes; others even hypothesised that women who worked in butcher shops and bakeries were often prostitutes.[5] There is no other evidence in the primary sources to support this; sordidi means dishonourable or vulgar and should not be confused with ‘sordid’ in the modern sense. There is however plenty of primary literature portraying Roman bars as dens of iniquity.

Virtue is something elevated, exalted and regal, unconquered and unwary. Pleasure is something lowly, servile, weak and unsteady, whose haunt and dwelling-place are the brothel and the bar.[6]

However the clientele in bars at least seemed to be colourful and diverse:

search for him in some big bar. There he will be, lying next a cut-throat, in the company of sailors, thieves and runaway slaves, beside hangmen and coffin-makers, or beside a passed out priest:
This is liberty hall,
One cup serves for all,
No one has a bed to himself,
Nor a table apart from the rest.[7]

In Roman Law there is certainly an indication that some women working in inns were prostitutes. The law code of Justinian lays down a clear mandate in relation to slave girls who have been sold:

A female slave, who has been sold under the condition that she does not make a shameful commerce of her body, must not prostitute herself in a tavern under the pretext of serving therein, in order to avoid a fraudulent evasion of the condition prescribed.[8]

However the law code of Theodosius, which dates from the time of Constantine, clearly differentiates between the wife of the tavern owner and a servant girl: it protects serving girls from prosecution and affords them safety under the law.

Commercial hospitality in Roman times certainly included brothels (lumpanar), however, some evaluation of the culture behind brothels is necessary. It was assumed in Roman society that slaves were used as sexual partners for their masters, Seneca stated that sexual dominance was a necessity for a free man, a crime for a slave, and a duty for the freedman.[9] Cato the Censor (c. 150BC) was famed for monitoring the behaviour of public officials and had a strong desire to return the people to conservative conduct and morality. Horace notes that Cato advocates such behaviour when young men reach a certain age, it is only appropriate that they make the necessary arrangements.

When a well-known individual was making his exit from a brothel, ‘Well done! Pray continue!’ was the stirred verdict of Cato: ‘as soon as libido has swollen their members, it’s right for young men to come down here rather than drudging away with other men’s wives’.[10]

Other authors advance the observations of Horace: Prophyrio observes that libido must be kept in order, without committing crime and Pseudo-Acro notes that young men should be praised for visiting brothels, not living in them.

Cato encountering him leaving a brothel; called him back and praised him. Afterwards when he saw him leaving the same lupanar more frequently, he said: ‘Young man, I praised you for coming here, not for living here’.[11]

References

1. J P V D Balsdon Roman Women: Their history and habits (Westport, Greenwood Press 1969) p 153
2. J Carepino Daily Life in Ancient Rome (New Haven, Yale University Press 1940)
3. M D’Avino (The Women of Pompeii (Napoli Loffredo 1967)
4. Cicero, De Officii 150
5. J Lindsay The Writing on the Wall (London, Frederick Muller 1960)
6. Seneca De Vita benta 7:3
7. Juvenal Satires 8:168f
8. Codex Iustinianus IIII:lvi:3
9. Seneca Controversiae 4:10
10. Horace Satires 1.2:31–32
11. Pseudo-Arco 1:20