Crni Vuk said:
by the way for those which think the Roman or ancient Greek culture was "open" in sexuality. That is only half of the truth. Homosexuality if I remember correctly was not openly tolerated. Not among the usual citizens. The difference is just that the ancient cultures had a different understanding of ownership. Meaning slaves had often enough obviously not the same status and have been seen rather as objects then "human beings" or even citizens - One should not forget even a Roman citizen could become a slave which was not rare if he for example could not pay his debts so he would remain a slave for example till he payed them off. So in other words. It is left to the owner what he is doing with his slaves. Which might as well include anything regarding like harsh punishment or solicit sex. The Romans and Greek made also a difference between physical and mental love. Anal sex was seen as wrong but a simple "bond" or "love relation" between males was not seen as something wrong or rare a very strong bond in friends or something which one would call a soul mate. Something that was very common among warriors for example. The Samurai in Japan have been very similar regarding such bonds and relations particularly between the teacher and student as the elder warrior would not only teach the student in matters of fighting and social manners but as well in sexuality. And it was not really a taboo. It was common knowledge. Changed a lot though with the influence of christian missionaries and "reformation" of the Japanese society to get closer with the western definition of morale which has been a lot more strict regarding sexual positions for example. Many western/modern nations today are lot more liberal regarding clear homosexuality then many cultures of the past.
Even the way a slave was treated by the romans are somewhat misleading. Sure, slaves were subjected to harsh punishments and abuse, but the last thing a slave owner did was kill them.
And even regarding slaves you had different hierarchical classes, there was the ones only for hard labor, house gardening, fighting, etc (Cannyon Runner is not joking when states being a slave master, those decided in wich function a slave could perform better).
Slaves to keep a house were a luxury that only the rich and powerfull could afford, since the owners had to pay everything for them, like clothes, food, habitation, etc.
A recurring misbehave slave was usually sold for another function, not killed unless was too old or commited a serious crime against the patrons.
Slaves (and vassals by the way) were sometimes more expensive to maintain than a today's worker.
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