Gay julius caesar
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For Caesar, sex was also a tool of dominance and social control, and his virility was part of the personal myth he built around himself.
A Political Issue More Than a Sexual One
Amid the fierce political struggles of the late Republic, sexuality often became a tool of rhetoric and propaganda.
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus was consul with Caesar in 59 BC, and Gaius Memmius was Praetor in 58 BC. He had tried to have Caesar’s decrees declared invalid in his year of the consulship. Despite a lack of concrete evidence, it’s been widely speculated they were lovers, with Paul Cartledge – an eminent historian of Ancient Greece – writing that, ‘rumour had it – and rumour was for once surely correct – that [Hephaestion] and Alexander had once been more than just good friends.’
It's also been speculated that Alexander had been besotted with a Persian eunuch named Bagoas.
Caesar’s political rivals ran with the theme, mocking him as ‘the Queen of Bithynia'. now Caesar rides in triumph, the one who mastered Gallic lands.
Nicomedes does not triumph, the one who mastered Caesar.”
Another of the mocking verses refers to the lustfulness of Caesar toward women:
"Urbani, servate uxores: moechum calvom adducimus.Some queer interpretations have imagined him as a fluid figure, capable of transcending gender and roles.
But perhaps the most interesting question to ask is not “Was Julius Caesar bisexual?” but rather: why do we still care so much? Maybe it’s because his body, his ambiguity, and his power still speak to us today, in an era where identities once again become a cultural battleground.
Read also: “Lucinius Sura: Trajan’s Lover and a Hidden Queer Love Story in Ancient Rome”
This dual aspect—youthful passivity and adult hypersexuality—is not uncommon in the Roman world.
In 59 BC, Caesar married Calpurnia, who remained his wife until his death in 44 BC.
Caesar had numerous love affairs and relationships with women, and tradition suggests a strong sexual interest on his part in women. This is where the biting power of the accusation against Caesar comes from: not because he would have loved a man, but because he supposedly acted as a submissive, “in the Eastern manner,” yielding to passivity.
In Caesar’s specific case, the accusation was further amplified by the fact that he was said to have had relations with a foreign king, who was socially and culturally considered inferior to Roman nobles—a true blow to his public dignity.
Caesar the Seducer: Women, Ambiguity, and Charisma
Paradoxically, Caesar is also remembered as a great seducer, involved in numerous relationships with Roman women—often married and powerful—as well as with the famous Queen Cleopatra.
Between Lovers, Power, and Rhetoric in Ancient Rome
The figure of Julius Caesar remains one of the most fascinating and debated in ancient history: a brilliant general, a ruthless politician, and a famous lover.
Intriguingly, some have theorised that Antinous may have actually been murdered on that barge – perhaps by a conspiracy of rivals in Hadrian’s entourage, or even by the emperor himself in a heated argument. Some believe they were most likely brothers. The latter sent Caesar to King Nicomedes of Bithynia to support a military enterprise against the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos by sending a fleet detachment.
With a political antagonism that had become enmity, there were few inhibitions about the accusations. He was assassinated by a group of conspirators on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC. After his death he was proclaimed a god by the Senate. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum
Living in the 25th century BC, Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were servants to a Fifth Dynasty pharaoh rather than rulers themselves.
Upon waking to realise Dong was resting on the sleeve of his robe, the emperor chose to cut off the sleeve rather than risk disturbing his lover. He also returned once more to Bityhia to collect money owed to a freed client.
Apparently, rumors arose that Caesar had a gay affair with Nicomedes. Perhaps because he considered political controversy fleeting, or maybe— as some historians suggest—because he didn’t care about anything that didn’t pose a real threat to his power.
This incident spawned a Chinese euphemism for homosexuality, ‘cut sleeve’.