Welcome to Gaia! ::

Who's your favorite? wink

That wasn't particularly uncommon in Ancient Rome, or Greece for that matter. In fact, in Rome it was a socially acceptable means for a young man to set himself up for later in life. Hook up with some wealthy old senator or what have you. Let him shower you with gifts and use your position in his household to make useful social and/or political contacts. And when you decide to retire, as it were (usually by your mid-twenties), you will likely have enough to set yourself up quite comfortably, and the contacts to enter the political world if you so desire.

Hadrian's Villa is indeed awesome. I have had the pleasure of touring the archaeological site this summer--the richness of the property is beyond belief. I'll put up a topic with some pictures, and information about the site, either today or tomorrow.

As for the topic of pederasty, yes, it did happen in Rome, yes, it was considered a "greek" thing, but I doubt that the majority of the participants benefited from it through the cursus honorum, the Course of Honor of appointments through the Senate leading to the ultimate position of Consul. I'm not saying that such benefits were unheard of, but, I think that slaves were likely the ones that were victims to their master's desires. A few young patricians might participate in pederasty in order to climb the ladder, but, the number of plebeians who participated (or were coerced) and actually were adopted by a patrician in order to become eligible to hold public officer was quite small -- I can't think of any examples of this occurring off the top of my head.

Hadrian's boy lover Antinous is a total anomaly in that a young man rose from relative obscurity to become a honored consort to the Emperor. Whether Antinous himself benefited from this arrangement is up for debate. His name lives on in works of art that Hadrian commissioned, and a town named after him in the province of Bithynia, but Antinous himself died at 21 or 22, and was believed to have committed suicide.

As for arrangements like that occurring now-- they already do, it's just not exactly legal, and for good reason. As for the NAMBLA comment, you do realize that they are child molesters? They're after prepubescent boys, not consenting teenagers. Whether a teenager can actually "consent" is another question entirely, and it's probably better not to get into a discussion about it.

Anyway, to change the topic, I really liked the emperors Claudius and Vespasian. Claudius is unusual because of his physical defects (I highly recommend reading I, Claudius and/ or watching the TV series), and Vespasian built the Colosseum, probably the most famous monument in Rome.

Oh, okay. Sorry, I probably read that the wrong way.

Anyway, I don't think Antinous would ever have had a role in the government. Even if Antinous was so inclined to seek a political career, Hadrian was an unpopular figure during most of his reign, and was believed to have murdered his wife. The amount of imperial funds Hadrian lavished on Antinous, and spent on the province of Bithnyia from whence Antinous came, was already getting to be a problem.

But, that's just my opinion, from what I know about the situation.