- cross-posted to:
- historymemes@piefed.social
- cross-posted to:
- historymemes@piefed.social
Explanation: At the island of Capri (‘Capreis Insula’), the Roman Emperor Tiberius semi-retired for a good third of his reign, refusing contact with the outside world. During this period, he was rumored to engage in… debauched sex acts, including pedophilia. Despite the Roman predilection for younger boys, typically in their teens (which is also when girls tended to marry - the past is shitty), having sex with children younger than 12-14 was considered deeply concerning (though not illegal if they weren’t freeborn - see: past, shitty).
This, however, may have just been rumor or slander - certainly Tiberius was not previously known as any kind of debauched party animal. Indeed, he was commonly called tristissimus hominum - ‘The gloomiest of men’ - because he was a joyless, bitter bureaucrat. He may have engaged in those sex acts as well on the island of Capri - it wouldn’t be the first time an unsuspected figure turned out to be debauched - but it’s best regarded as ‘real’ insofar as it was real gossip at the time (Roman historians are notoriously gossipy and catty, it’s fantastic and hilarious).
This meme references the ongoing redactions of the Epstein files by the administration of the current US President (fuck me), Donald Trump, who, on the other hand, is almost certainly a fucking pedophile, evidenced in no small part by needing to fucking redact himself from the evidence released of a noted pedophile human trafficker
But what about Cicero’s Epistulae? Checkmate, res publicans!


