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Christian-Georges Schwentzel, Professeur d'histoire ancienne, Université de Lorraine

Did the Romans and Greeks really enjoy orgies?

Helen Mirren playing Caesonia in Tinto Brass' 1979 historical drama film, _Caligula_ . CC BY-SA

Orgies conjure in our imagination the world of Greek and Roman Antiquity, thanks to more or less titillating films portraying debauched emperors, or maybe specifically Fellini’s Satyricon. The term is also used today to signify all sorts of excess. For us, the orgy stands for the ultimate celebration of the pleasures of the flesh, in an ancient world free from moral constraint. But what were they like in reality?

From orgia to orgies

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