Thursday, January 7, 2010

A House of Ill Repute?

Again ploughing through the Suda for the scant references to Antioch we came upon this juicy piece of gossip on the famous poet Juvenal and one of Domitian's dalliances...

"A Roman poet. This man lived when Domitian was emperor of Rome. Domitian was friendly with the dancer of the Green faction, known as Paris, concerning whom there was slander from the senate and Juvenal the poet. The emperor exiled Juvenal to Pentapolis in Libya, but enriched the dancer and sent him to Antioch; he established a house and baths outside the city and died there".

Ἰουβενάλιος, ποιητὴς Ῥωμαῖος. οὗτος ἦν ἐπὶ Δομετιανοῦ βασιλέως Ῥωμαίων. ὁ δὲ Δομετιανὸς ἐφίλει τὸν ὀρχηστὴν τοῦ πρασίνου μέρους, τὸν λεγόμενον Πάριν, περὶ οὗ καὶ ἐλοιδορεῖτο ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου καὶ Ἰουβεναλίου τοῦ ποιητοῦ. ὅστις βασιλεὺς ἐξώρισε τὸν Ἰουβενάλιον ἐν Πενταπόλει ἐπὶ τὴν Λιβύην, τὸν δὲ ὀρχηστὴν πλουτίσας ἔπεμψεν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ: ὃς κτίσας οἶκον καὶ λουτρὸν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἐκεῖ τελευτᾷ.

It sounds like one of the establishments the Antiochenes would have frequented!

4 comments:

washer said...

is that a typo, or is the dancer that Domitian dallied with a man?

Antiochian said...

I had some trouble working that out too... when in Rome...

Antiochian said...

and they criticised the Antiochenes for decadence!

Kalinides said...

Paris was a male name in ancient times... Yes, yes; he did him. Male dancers had a fame...