Boys in our Books welcomes Kate Quinn to discuss her new release “Lady of the Eternal City”

“Homosexuality In Ancient Rome”

A world where homosexuality is accepted as natural, allowable, and moral—it’s something we dream about and strive for, one step at a time. The ancient world is often held up as an example of how much better things used to be, i.e. how did we backslide from the days of ancient Rome and ancient Greece when there was no homophobia about men sleeping with other men? But when I began researching for my novel “Lady of the Eternal City,” which features famous gay lovers Hadrian and Antinous as main characters, I found that the truth was a little more complex. Ancient Rome had its own very strict sexual standards, and homophobia was unfortunately still there to make life hell for the men who violated those rules.

In the Roman…