ovid

• Ovid takes on the role of praeceptor amoris (love master)
• all 3 of Ovid's ars amatoia books are mocking didactic (instructional) poetry
• Lex Scantinia, a Roman law that was created to penalise any male citizen of high status for taking a willing role in passive sexual behaviour.
• Homosexual activity in Rome was only penalised if you were the passive partner, as that was seen as relegating yourself to being the same as a woman

  this usually took place with an infames (lower class) person being the passive partner
• Same sex activity amongst soldiers of equal status was punishable by death. this shows how Romans did not like the idea of a pederastic or homosexual army like Phaedrus suggested in the symposium
•  it was considered a capital crime for one free-born to rape another, such an act carrying a sentence of death.  

  But a Roman citizen was allowed to exploit his own slaves for sex, no matter their age or circumstances of birth

  puer delicatus = young slave boys exploited for sex by their masters
• Sporus = Nero's puer delicatus
• Ovid was part of the Equites class