Scenes of love-making were everywhere in Roman art. Were the dinner party guests offended by this? Probably not at all. The older men are watched by a peeping-tom, a young slave who spies on them from behind the door. One side of the cup shows two teenage males, while the other shows two older men, all of them caught in the act of making love. So what is so special about the decoration that made it one of the British Museum’s highest-profile and most controversial acquisitions? What kept the piece out of permanent museum collections until 1999, and ensured that its purchase by the British Museum earned it a place in all the British media? Luxuriant fabrics and musical instruments indicate a world heavily influenced by Greek culture, which the Romans admired and adopted. Their host is delighted that they admire its decoration (and its value).Īs a work of art it’s a masterpiece – its fine decoration achieved by beating the silver into shape from the inside using fine hammers and chisels. The guests talk about politics and love as they pass round the table this luxurious, tactile silver cup. Picture a dinner party, course after course of exotic food and lots of fine wine. To the Romans it was a drinking cup to be used not just admired. This Roman silver cup is a fascinating and very versatile object, combining drinking, money and sex all in one! Today such ancient images remind us that the way societies view sexuality is never fixed.ĭue to it its explicit imagery, the cup was refused entry to the USA in 1953 Relationships between men were part of Greek and Roman culture, from slaves to emperors, most famously the emperor Hadrian and his Greek lover, Antinous. Some of the boys on this cup are underage by today's standards, but the Romans tolerated relationships between older and younger men. Images like this were not unusual in the Roman world. What was the Roman attitude to relationships between men? The luxurious fabrics and musical instruments indicate that these scenes are set in a world heavily influenced by Greek culture, which the Romans admired and largely adopted. A slave-boy peers in voyeuristically from behind a door. One side shows two teenage boys making love, while the other shows a young man lowering himself onto the lap of his elder, bearded lover. The cup originally had two handles and depicts two pairs of male lovers. This luxurious silver cup was used at Roman dinner parties.