The Contours of Masculinity and the Public Entertainer in Rome, Hellenistic Greece, and Byzantium

T here is a tendency to conflate the Greek and the Roman worlds. Many individuals look upon Roman culture and society as an unbroken continuation from that of Greece, and, to some degree, a pale imitation of it. However, regarding the place of the public entertainer, the contours of masculinity, effeminacy, and homosexuality, especially the almost total disappearance of what I call “institutionalized” pederasty—ancient Greece and ancient Rome were two very different places, two very different societies, with two very different views of proper public behavior, the arts, and public entertainers. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.