Controlling Desire Chapter 2 Summary

Kirk Ormand is a classics professor at Oberlin University who specializes in sexuality in the ancient world. Throughout chapters eight, ten, and thirteen of his book Controlling Desires, Ormand looks at many aspects pertaining to Roman sexuality. An overarching theme of the three chapters looks at what was considered normal sexual behavior in Rome, with a focusing at times on homosexuality in Rome. Over the course of the chapters, Ormand looks at Rome’s origins and interrelation to Greece with regards to sexuality, how each gender was supposed to act, and how laws and others may use language of sexuality against one another. Lastly Ormand looks at how the imperials, specifically the infamous Nero, went about different sexual escapades. Ormand …show more content…
As a prosecutor, Cicero’s main job was to attack the character of the accused, which was usually accomplished through making jests at their lives, and more specifically their sexual escapades. In his prosecution of ex-Sicilian governor, Verres, and politician, Antony, Cicero focuses on how these men were extremely lustful. Due to these urges, they essentially lacked control over their bodies, a trait which the Romans disapproved. In his prosecution of Verres, Cicero notes how he was “a woman among men.” Cicero implies that Verres was penetrated by others, and therefore attacks Verres’ manhood. In his prosecution of noblewoman Clodia, Cicero’s berates Clodia for essentially being free with her body, and in control of her own life. Romans believed women should not be “voracious” for this out of control nature “would spread through all registers of society—social, economic, cultural, military—and destroy the boundaries by which that society defines itself”. In all, Ormand notes that in Cicero’s accusations, he believes Clodia is acting more like a man in society; but as a woman in Rome, her freedom and sexual promiscuity is a factor that could destroy the very fabric of Roman