Meretrix

For the clam species, see Meretrix lusoria.

A meretrix (plural: meretrices) was a registered prostitute in ancient Rome. Unregistered prostitutes fell under the broad category prostibulae.

Roman conditions

Legal status

In Roman law, the status of meretrices was specifically and closely regulated. They were obliged to register with the aediles, and (from Caligula's day onwards) to pay imperial tax. Because of the social stigma associated with the profession, they could not give evidence in court, and Roman freeborn were legally forbidden from marrying them.

Clothing

Since the times of Emperor Augustus they were required to wear distinctive togas, typically dyed in yellow, to distinguish themselves from respected matrons. Bright colors – "Colores meretricii" – and jewelled anklets also marked them out from respectable women.

Brothels

Because intercourse with a meretrix was almost normative for the adolescent male of the period, and permitted for the married man as long as the prostitute was properly registered, brothels were commonly dispersed around Roman cities, often found between houses of respected families. These included both large brothels and one-room cellae meretriciae, or "prostitute's cots". However, ancient authors often made distinctions between "good faith" meretrices who truly loved their clients, and "bad faith" prostitutes, who only lured them in for their money.

Medieval condition

In Medieval Europe, a meretrix was understood as any woman held in common, who “turned no one away”. It was generally understood that money would be involved in this transaction, but it did not have to be: it was rather promiscuousness that defined the meretrix.

Medieval Christian authors often discouraged prostitution, but did not consider it a serious offence and under some circumstances even considered marrying a harlot to be an act of piety. Every woman was considered to contain a latent meretrix, so that it was possible to both rise out of and fall into the category, as with tales of prostitutes repenting to become saints.

Modern professors of feminism have argued that a meretrix in the medieval mindset is closer to our modern understanding of a sexual identity or orientation.

See also

• Heloise
• Petronius Arbiter
• Propertius
• Prostitution in ancient Rome

Further reading

• Kim M. Phillips, Barry Reay, "Sexualities in history: a reader", Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0-415-92935-0
• P Austin Nuttall, "A classical and archæological dictionary of the manners, customs, laws, institutions, arts, &c. of the celebrated nations of antiquity, and of the middle ages. To which is prefixed, A synoptical and chronological view of ancient history", 1840, pp. 267–268 [1]
• Giacomo Biffi. "Casta Meretrix: „The Chaste Whore” : an Essay on the Ecclesiology of St. Ambrose". Saint Austin Press, 2000.
• (Polish) Andrzej Sokala. Meretrix i jej pozycja w prawie rzymskim. Wydawnictwo UMK, 1998.