Where do you want to begin? When it comes to sex and sleaze, Rome has got the lot, starting right at the top ...

Augustus: public virtue, private vice?
The emperor Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC to AD 14, may have lamented the decline in standards in Roman family life and been keen to legislate on public morals, but his private life was a rather different matter. Although married from his mid-20s until his death to Livia Drusilla, whom Suetonius says he 'loved and esteemed ... to the end without a rival', he also had a string of lovers. He is even said have moved from Rome to Gaul in 16 BC because he wanted to live openly with his lover Terentia. Livia herself was his third wife. Although she was married when he met her, he used his position to persuade her husband to consent to a divorce.

Tiberius: young boys and babies
Tiberius, who spends most of the later years of his reign as emperor – from AD 26 to 37 – on the island of Capri, is said to have a special penchant for his spintriae (groups of young boys), with whom he surrounds himself and indulges in all manner of promiscuous behaviour. The walls of his bedrooms at Capri are reported to be decorated with various sexual acts and positions 'in case a performer should need an illustration of what [is] required'. Suetonius even accuses him of putting 'unweaned babies ... to his organ as though to the breast', but many of these reports may be put down to propaganda by his numerous opponents.

Nero: seduced by his mother
Nero's reported sexual activities range from being seduced by his mother Agrippina to forcing his unwanted attentions on married women and boys. Famously, he takes two homosexual lovers, Pythagoras and Sporus, in 'marriage'. Nero is said to behave as the wife to Pythagoras and husband to Sporus, whom he has had castrated. Taken together with his 'artistic' performances (see The arts), when he will often take on a female part and dress accordingly, Nero's behaviour scandalises Rome and plays an important part in his downfall.

Elagabalus: appetite of a god
There seems to be barely a Roman emperor whose reign is not coloured in some way by his sexual appetites – which are often prodigious in the extreme. Commodus, for example, emperor from AD 180 to 192, is said to have a harem of 300 girls and the same number of boys and to put on great orgies. But for sheer shock value, none can compare with the Syrian, Elagabalus, emperor from 218 to 222, who believes himself to be a living god.

Elagabalus is remarkable not only for being only 14 years old when he becomes absolute ruler of the Roman empire but also for his sexual activities while holding that office. In less than four years, he goes through three wives, including a Vestal Virgin – a heinous crime against Roman law, which states that any Vestal breaking her vows of chastity should be buried alive.

But even more shocking in the eyes of respectable Roman society is his 'marriage' to a slave named Hierocles. Elagabalus likes nothing better than to dress as a woman and go around with his 'husband', who is even encouraged to beat the emperor as if he is his real wife. Sometimes Elagabalus plays out scenes in which Hierocles finds him with another man and punishes him for his 'infidelity'.

'For he wished to have the reputation of committing adultery, so that in this respect, too, he might imitate the most lewd women; and he would often allow himself to be caught in the very act, in consequence of which he used to be violently upbraided by his "husband" and beaten, so that he had black eyes.'
Cassius Dio

Elagabalus is also known to frequent the brothels of Rome, where he delights in performing the duties of the prostitutes. A confirmed transvestite, he is said to 'send out agents to search for those who [have] particularly large organs and bring them to the palace in order that he might enjoy their vigour'. He is also reported to have 'asked the physicians to contrive a woman's vagina in his body by means of an incision, promising them large sums for doing so'. It is hardly surprising that the Praetorian Guard finally runs out of patience and kills him.

Not only the men
Nor is it only the men who test the boundaries of public taste and decency. Many of the earlier emperor's wives, sisters and even mothers were highly promiscuous. A number were exiled for their behaviour; some were killed.

Claudius's wife Messalina, 34 years his junior, is even said to have created a state within a state – a 'pornocracy' – in which her lovers were accorded high office and her enemies killed. The satirist Juvenal and the letter-writer Pliny the Younger both recount extravagant tales of her activities, including her attendance at brothels where she would serve the customers as if a prostitute herself.

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