Antinous 2020

Antinous is a young man from Bithynia who lived in the 2nd century AD. J.C., better known as favorite and lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian.

It was not unusual, of course, for a Roman to have sex with young people and boys, which was not associated with any stigma. These rudimentary relationships were, as a rule, not regarded with much seriousness, but rather neutral as a natural inclination of manly men. They did not represent a distinct sexuality that would prevent marriage or sex with concubines *.

Antinous dies about 20 years old, drowned in the Nile, in circumstances that remain mysterious. Divinized by Hadrian, Antinous is represented by a large number of works of art that make it one of the most famous faces of antiquity.

* Paul Veyne explains well what it means to be a lover in the Roman age.