A saucy time in ancient RomeGOOD grief, those Romans were rude. You think the pornography that floods the internet these days is strong? It’s nothing compared to some of the wall paintings from Pompeii. Sex very definitely wasn’t invented in the 1960s. The Romans were masters of it.

Local author Paul Chrystal has great fun investigating the sex lives of the Romans in his latest book. It’s catchily entitled In Bed With The Romans. And it does exactly what is says on the tin...

Paul is best known in York for a string of local history books, with titles such as York In The 1950s and York Industries Through Time.

But he’s also got a degree in classics and a masters degree in Roman love poetry: and he’s long been fascinated by the Romans themselves. Reading this book, you can kind of see why.

Paul’s theme is really about masculinity and femininity in ancient Rome. Roman men had to be virile: Roman women had to

produce children. “Some Romans spent a lot of time in bed,” he writes. “Illness or hangover apart, they were often busy procreating or, in the case of women, pro-creating and giving birth. Serial childbirth was an expected duty of Roman women... just as virility was expected of men.”

The production of children, Paul notes, was the whole point of marriage.

But while their wives were giv-ing birth, the husbands – deter-mined, seemingly, to go on proving how manly they were – often spent a lot of time in bed with “mis-tresses, whores or catamites.” This was frequently with the full knowledge and consent of their wives, Paul writes. “Where else was a Roman to go when his wife was indisposed home-spinning, running the house or giving birth to another son or daughter? (And) what else do you do when your posting takes you to the edge of empire for years on end?” What, indeed?

Over 19 chapters and 230 pages, Paul aims to give a “balanced account of sex and sexuality in ancient Rome”: from sex in mar-riage to prostitution, homosexu-ality, sexual graffiti and Roman aphrodisiacs.

He also – in chapters with titles such as Theodosia: Slut or Saint– introduces us to some of the Roman men and women who have come down through the ages as famous adulterers or nyphoma-niacs. So you’ll meet the emperor Elagabalus, who led an ‘unspeak-ably disgusting life’; Caligula, who committed incest with his sisters; Hadrian, who was besotted with a young man named Antinous; and, of course, Cleopatra, lover to both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony.

The book is illustrated with a se-ries of plates that will make your eyes water. So do be warned: this is one romp through history that is not for the faint-hearted.l In Bed With The Romans by

Paul Chrystal is published by Amberley, priced £20

HOT STUFF: Author Paul Chrystal, whose latest book In Bed With The Romans, above, is out now

Books

The Little Yorkshire Quiz Book, Handstand Press, £4.99

WHICH river is the longest in Yorkshire?

How many stained glass windows does York Minster have?

When was the Great York-shire Show first held? And what is the county’s highest mountain?

The answers, in case you didn’t know them, are: the

River Ure (73miles long); 128; 1838 (and in York, not Har-rogate); and Mickle Fell (at 2,585ft, it is higher than any of the more famous ‘three peaks’).

All these questions, and many, many more – 600 of them altogether, if anyone is counting – can be found in The Little Yorkshire Quiz Book: 60 pages of questions (with the answers overleaf) about God’s Own County.

The book covers everything from Yorkshire locations for famous films and TV pro-grammes to history, sport and famous Yorkshire say-ings.

It would be the ideal sour-cebook for a Christmas quiz – or perfect for annoying visi-tors from down south who don’t know their Ouse from their elbow.

Great fun. Stephen Lewis

County quiz challenge

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/thepressyork Life&Times23SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015 The Press

York historian Paul Chrystal’s latest book is a steamy account of the sexual habits of the Romans. It’s pretty strong stuff, says STEPHEN LEWIS. You have been warned...