Gaius Teutonic

I was just flipping through Cicero's Second Phillipic against Anthony. He said Mark Anthony "started as a common prostitute". Was this true or just ancient mud slinging. I know he was recorded as being in a "relationship" with a roman Noble in his youth but was the great Marcus Antonius really a gigolo?

okamido

I wouldn't be too terribly shocked if he had affairs with both men and boys, just the nature of the beast at the time. Where I am shocked, is the usage of the term "great" in connection with MA.

Chookie

^^
Seconded.

Alexander

I would assume its an insult. He wondered around a bit as a youth, even had a homosexual relationship or two, but that doesn't point to him being a prostitute.

fundamentum

It is probably nothing more then mud slinging. There was a severe hostility when it comes to the balance of power and protection of the republic in Rome that it even caused the assassination of Gavis Ivlivs Caesar. Reputation was an important thing and having a bad reputation was a strong support for the opposing parties. Let us remember that Marcvs Avrelivs also accused Gaivs Octavivs of being the lover of Ivlivs Caesar.

Salah

Homosexual prostitution was fairly common in the Roman world, but there was a negative stigma attached to it, especially if you were the younger/submissive partner. Accusations of participation therein were a common method of slandering one's political opponents; Julius Caesar, for example, was accused of being the lover to King Nikomedes of Bithynia.

avon

This is simply part of Cicero's invective. The charge isn't so much that Mark Anthony was an homosexual in as much as he was being accused of effeminacy and debauchery; that his house was impure. Cicero is accusing Mark Anthony of having delight in luxury, the adoption of women's gestures, and ostentatious effeminacy rather than homosexuality. This, of course, was a means of implying that he was not virile - a man of vir.

Tudor chick

During the series "Rome" MA was in bed, having sex, or talking about having sex, and if not doing that killing people, most of time. I always wondered if that was right?