The History of Sex: Pompeii -- 'We Also Accept Virgins' -- (Chap. I, Pt. 10)

I ask him about a theory I've come across in a US paper that suggests the brothel had a distinct division of labor, with sexual specializations for the prostitutes.

'Promus the Fellator'

According to academics who have the time to count these things, one room in the brothel contains half a dozen mentions of fellatio, but no references to pedicatio (male-on-male action), whereas the graffiti in another cell mentions pedicatio but is tight-lipped on oral sex.

Having rigorously analyzed the graffiti, the doctoral candidate in question hypothesized that certain cubicles were reserved for specific acts. Not for nothing did whores get nicknames like 'Myrtis Who Sucks' and 'Mola Who Gets Fucked.'

Dr. Varone pinches his fingers together and touches them to his temples to indicate that the author—and I—must be crazy for even considering such a thing.

'If I'm with a beautiful woman, I'm going to do everything with her that I can—I'm not going to go into one room for a blow job and then go with her in the next room to have sex!'

He's got the whole room cackling now.

'The inscriptions were in praise of women for doing great blow jobs, or, "Oh boy, you really lick well." But that doesn't mean that that particular person only did that particular act. It doesn't mean that she didn't do other things—or that they weren't appreciated—but perhaps she was particularly good at that one thing.'

He leans back to let rip with some Latin, the lingua franca of sex lingo to this day:

'GLYCO CVNNVM LINGIT, ASSIBVS II, VIRGINIS AMMITTIT.'

He then translates it into Italian to Angela's embarrassment—and the amusement of his two assistants.

They sit and grin at her, as if to say, so how are you gonna translate that? 

'If you wanna talk about art, we can talk about art! But we're talking about erotica!' Dr. Varone jokes to her, tapping out the syllables on his desk as he translates: cunnum is "cunt," lingit is "lick," and so forth.

So what does that mean? That means that I'm a male prostitute, I'm a puttano'-- the guys at the back are snickering helplessly--'and I'm available "to lick cunt for two asses. We also accept virgins."'

He guffaws and slaps the table.

'We think the last bit's ironic. It's really unthinkable that a virgin, thirteen or fourteen, would go to a prostitute to get licked.'