The Roman emperor Hadrian and his young lover Antinous
It was not just female prostitution that was lived in Ancient Rome ( see https://www.pilloledistoria.it/4429/storia-antica/suburra-quartiere-luci-rosse-dellantica-roma and https://www.pilloledistoria.it/9171/storia-antica/look-prostituta-dellantica- roma-rosso):even if with different characters and rules compared to it, in fact, in the wide, variegated and decidedly uninhibited sexual panorama of the Urbe , male prostitution it found a space that was anything but marginal, even becoming a luxury for a few, that is, those who had the financial resources to be able to afford the favors of handsome young men.
Unlike their female colleagues, the men cost a lot more; according to the assertions of Cato the Censor, certain of him “ depraved fellow citizens ", In the field of male prostitution, they paid sums of money that would have been enough to buy a farm.
In fact, in Roman culture, in general, it did not make much difference whether heterosexual or homosexual relationships were consummated, since it was mainly the role that counted. assumed:nothing to say if it was of the active and dominant type, while the passive one was badly judged and the object of ridicule (it was the same for Julius Caesar about his relationship with Nicomedes of Bithynia: https://www.pilloledistoria.it/2875/storia-antica/presunta-bisessualita-giulio-cesare-storia-nicomede).
As a consequence of this, if a "good" Roman citizen wanted a partner male for fleeting love affairs, to avoid being laughed at, he necessarily had to choose a slave ( see https://www.pilloledistoria.it/2952/storia-antica/regole-dellomosessualita-nellantica-roma-strana-morale-dei-romani)