Watching Mary Beard's "Meet the Romans" she reads the tombstone of a woman who cohabitated with 2 male lovers. She calls it "a Roman menage a trois" but can you give me any social context for such an arrangement? Historically the Romans were quite a bit more prudish than their movie counterparts | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Watching Mary Beard's "Meet the Romans" she reads the tombstone of a woman who cohabitated with 2 male lovers. She calls it "a Roman menage a trois" but can you give me any social context for such an arrangement? Historically the Romans were quite a bit more prudish than their movie counterparts

by Dinocrocodile

Do we know of many examples of this? Is there any context or explanation for similar phenomena?

GlesgaD2018

Could you give us any more details about the tombstone / period etc?

Pomeroy, and Fant and Lefkowitz, make it clear that the virtues adhered to by the aristocracy and outlined in the laws (e.g. emphasis on pudicitia, univira etc) were not always adhered to by the lower classes. And Rome governed a number of territories that had different laws entirely.