Attitudes towards Nudity at Rome

Romans, like all the other peoples of the ancient world apart from the Greeks, had a strong taboo against being seen naked in public, and this seems to have persisted throughout their long history. Under the empire, with the increasing popularity of the public baths, nudity gradually became more acceptable—at least for men, although probably only while they were actually bathing. Outside the baths, on the other hand, to appear nude in public remained as unthinkable as ever for a respectable Roman man or woman. From the Roman perspective, to be stripped and exposed to public view was something that was inflicted on condemned criminals, or on slaves being displayed for purchase. Accordingly in Roman society the first and most obvious connotation of public nudity was with punishment and humiliation. But even in the case of criminals and slaves, persons morally beyond the pale, Roman feelings of modesty were so strong that, as we shall see, those described in our ancient sources as ‘stripped’ (nudus) will mostly have retained an undergarment which at least kept their sexual organs covered. Thus to avoid misunderstanding, we must begin with a word about the terminology which we find used in our ancient sources.

Ancient history · Ancient Rome · Art · Connotation · Criminology · Feeling · Greeks · Humiliation · Political science · Popularity · Punishment (psychology) · Sociology · Taboo · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology