As Tacitus relates one incident (Grant’s translation): “Nero was already corrupted by every lust, natural and unnatural. But he now refuted any surmises that no further degradation was possible for him. For…he went through a formal wedding ceremony with one of the perverted gang called Pythagoras. The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Dowry, marriage bed, wedding torches, all were there. Indeed everything was public which even in a natural union is veiled by night.”
Such was only one instance. We also have from historian Seutonius, a contemporary of Tacitus, a report of Nero’s marriage to Doryphorus (who was himself married to another man, Sporus).
Read more: Gay Marriage—Nothing New Under the Sun ~ Catholic World Report
Hi, Next month a book with the translation of the Neronis Encomium by Girolamo Cardano will be printed. First published in 1562. It is dealing also with this matter. Nero was not a gay (he had 3 wifes and countless lovers). He organized a fake wedding with a boy (Sporus) just because he looked like his dead wife Poppea Sabina, as he was still madly in love with her.
ReplyDeleteAn essay I wrote on this subject can be found here:
http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/#!
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Angelo Paratico