Acceptable male partners were slaves and former slaves, prostitutes, and entertainers, whose lifestyle placed them in the nebulous social realm of infamia, excluded from the normal protections accorded to a citizen even if they were technically free. Roman men were free to enjoy sex with other males without a perceived loss of masculinity or social status, as long as they took the dominant or penetrative role. The conquest mentality and 'cult of virility' shaped same-sex relations. 'Virtue' ( virtus) was seen as an active quality through which a man ( vir) defined himself. Roman society was patriarchal, and the freeborn male citizen possessed political liberty ( libertas) and the right to rule both himself and his household ( familia). The primary dichotomy of ancient Roman sexuality was active/ dominant/masculine and passive/submissive/feminine. Latin lacks words that would precisely translate ' homosexual' and ' heterosexual'.
Homosexuality in ancient Rome often differs markedly from the contemporary West. Roman mosaic from Susa, Libya, depicting the myth of Zeus in the form of an eagle abducting the boy Ganymede
