11. Three Lovers and a Funeral
Two men, one woman. All three hopelessly devoted to each other. Apparently. Mary digs into an unconventional love story from ancient Rome.
Allia Potestas is a woman remembered in one of the most intriguing and affecting funeral orations of the ancient world. Her lover remembers her diligent application to housework before praising to the skies her beauty and her erotic skills. But he didn鈥檛 have Allia to himself. She was shared in a m茅nage 脿 trois with his male friend. It鈥檚 an unusual domestic arrangement and a surprising one to advertise on a tombstone. The lines themselves reveal an enormous amount about Roman morality and the sexual politics of the time, but the story between the lines is even more fascinating. Can we dig beneath the emotional turmoil of the man and guess what Allia herself thought about the arrangement? Mary Beard is joined in Rome by Allison Emmerson of Tulane University to examine this extraordinary funerary monument at the Baths of Diocletian.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Expert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University; Helen King, Open University; Mairead McAuley, University College London
Cast: Tyler Cameron as Allius
Special thanks to Museo Nazionale Romano
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- Tue 4 Jun 2024 09:0091热爆 Radio 4
- Wed 5 Jun 2024 21:0091热爆 Radio 4
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Being Roman with Mary Beard
From a slave to an emperor, Mary Beard reveals the real people of the Roman Empire.