Entre imaginaire et réalité : l’iconographie « homosexuelle » masculine au début de l’Empire romain

The Warren Cup, a famous Roman silver cup decorated on each side with an image of explicit sexual intercourse between two men, has often occupied the discourse of Roman homosexual imagery, to the detriment of other productions on cameo glass, spintriae and aretine ceramics. This article will focus on these serially produced images, with little variation from their heterosexual counterparts, exclusively during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Following the idea that the image is situated in a blurred zone between reality and imagination, this study will attempt to propose a reflexive discussion towards a new interpretation of Roman male homosexual imagery, multiplying the elements of "Greekness", by refocusing the discourse on the object and its image, its context of production, ideological and artistic. By noting the Hellenistic influence of Pergamon ceramics, and the insertion of atticising elements, typical of the neo-attic style of the early days of the Roman Empire, Roman homosexual imagery seems to offer a ready-made image of the impossible pederasty that tormented the Romans..