Three Lovers and a Funeral
About this episode
Mary Beard explores the intriguing story of Allia Potestas and her unique domestic arrangement through a funerary monument in Rome.
Allia Potestas is a woman remembered in one of the most intriguing and affecting funeral orations of the ancient world. Her lover remembers her diligent application to housework before praising to the skies her beauty and her erotic skills. But he didn’t have Allia to himself. She was shared in a ménage à trois with his male friend. It’s an unusual domestic arrangement and a surprising one to advertise on a tombstone. The lines themselves reveal an enormous amount about Roman morality and the sexual politics of the time, but the story between the lines is even more fascinating. Can we dig beneath the emotional turmoil of the man and guess what Allia herself thought about the arrangement? Mary Beard is joined in Rome by Allison Emmerson of Tulane University to examine this extraordinary funerary monument at the Baths of Diocletian. Producer: Alasdair Cross Expert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University; Helen King, Open University; Mairead McAuley, University College London Cast: Tyler Cameron as Allius Special thanks to Museo Nazionale Romano
People in this episode
Host: Mary Beard
Guest: Allison Emmerson
Topics covered
- funeral orations
- Roman morality
- sexual politics
- domestic arrangements
- emotional turmoil
Keywords
- Allia Potestas
- funeral oration
- Roman history
- ménage à trois
- emotional turmoil
- Baths of Diocletian
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Tulane University, Open University, University College London
Places: Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano
More episodes of Ancient Lives with Mary Beard
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- Martin Scorsese and the Godfather of Athens
- The Greengrocer Who Saved Democracy
- The Odyssey of Gamma 58
- Courtroom Drama
- Trailer
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