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es:Historia de la homosexualidad en Alemania LGBT history in Germany
Among the first historically documented inhabitants of what today is south Germany are the Celts. Of their culture and customs only a few ancient Greek and Roman mentions remain. Due to their extension —in space, and time— it is very possible that Celtic customs varied, which those Greek and Roman stories would not reflect. On the other hand, even the reliability of these accounts, and the link to a protoindoeuropean initiatory function of homosexuality proposed by Sergent, has been questioned.[1][2]
Aristotle mentions in his book Politics (book 2, chapter 9) that the Celts practiced a form of pederasty similar to the ancient Greeks.[3][2]
In the 1st century, Diodorus Siculus was scandalized by the Celt's customs:
[...] the men are much keener on their own sex; they lie around on animal skins and enjoy themselves, with a lover on each side. The extraordinary thing is they haven't the smallest regard for their personal dignity and self-respect; they offer themselves to other men without the least compunction. Furthermore, this isn't looked down on, or regarded as in any way disgraceful: on the contrary, if one of them is rejected by another to whom he has offered himself, he takes offence. [...]
— Diodorus Siculus, cited by David F. Greenberg[4]
What was so difficult to understand for Diodorus Siculus was that Celt warriors didn't see being on the receiving end of man to man anal sex as scandalous, something that Roman society considered below the dignity of free men. Diodorus' information came from Posidonius, and was later confirmed by Strabo, and Athenaeus.[4][2]
The east and south borders of what now is Germany, along the Rhine, and south Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, belonged for 300 years to the Roman Empire, they were part of the provinces of Germania Superior, Germania Inferior, and Raetia. In fact, Treveri, present day Trier, was the capital of the Western Roman Empire during the rule of Constantine II, Valentinian I, Gratian, Magnus Maximus, and Valentinian II. As such, these areas benefited of the advantages of the Roman civilization, and were fully part of it's culture.
The Romans brought, among all the other elements of their culture, their sexual morality.[5] In Roman sexuality, the status was more important than the person. So free men could penetrate male slaves, eunuchs, and male prostitutes, just as female slaves, concubines, or female prostitutes. On the other hand, no adult citizen would endanger his reputation having sex with another man of his same status, or would let himself be penetrated by any man, no matter age or status. The biggest difference was between the active sexual partner (sometimes penetrating women, sometimes men), and the passive, viewed as inferior, and feminine. This morality was used against Julius Cesar, whose supposed amorous encounters with the king of Bithynia was the talk of the town in Rome.[6] On the other hand, a form of pederasty, very similar to it's Greek pendant, was common.
Lesbianism was also known,[5] both as feminine women that had sex with adolescent girls —a type of feminine pederasty—, and as tribadism, where masculine women took a masculine role, including fighting, hunting, and pursuing women.
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