Women in Ancient Rome - Prostitution

Prostitution

Women could turn to prostitution to support themselves, but not all prostitutes had freedom to decide. There is some evidence that even slave prostitutes could benefit from their labor. Although rape was a crime, the law only punished the rape of a slave if it "damaged the goods," because a slave had no legal standing. The penalty was aimed at providing her owner compensation for the "damage" of his property. Because a slave woman was considered property under Roman law, forcing her to be a prostitute was not considered a crime. Prior to Septimius Severus, women who engaged in acts that brought infamia to them as slaves also suffered infamia when freed. Sometimes sellers of female slaves attached a ne serva clause to the slave to prevent her from being prostituted. The Ne Serva clause meant that if the new owner or any owner after him or her used the slave as a prostitute she would be free. Later on the ne serva agreements became enforceable by law Prostitution was not limited to slaves or poor citizens; according to Suetonius (albeit in a possible exaggeration), Caligula when converting his palace into a brothel employed upper class "matrons and youths" as prostitutes. Although another possible exaggeration, Tacitus records that during one of Nero's feasts the prefect Tigellinus had brothels filled with upper class women. Prostitution could also be a punishment instead of an occupation, and women being sentenced to a spell working in a brothel is known.