Is it true that in ancient Rome they were always indulging in debauchery and orgies?

Who among us has not heard of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire constantly having orgies in their mansions, bathing in wealth, and entertaining themselves by beating their slaves to death? Has the most powerful state of Antiquity really become a tangle of debauchery and adultery, or has the truth been deliberately distorted?

If you were hoping to see colorful descriptions of antique orgies in this article, we hasten to disappoint you. Simply because there were none. Not a single ancient source mentions any indecency on the part of the Romans. And, judging by the stories of their promiscuity, there should have been! But no, in the records the Romans appear to us as abstemious and modest. For example, it is known that while having sex, it was considered obscene to take off one's clothes completely. And among the laws of the empire was one that forbade making love during daylight hours (applied to everyone except newlyweds).

As for the love of luxury and the beating of slaves, of course, like all other peoples, there were people among the Romans to whom power, as they say, "blew the roof off. But, first, they only began to appear in the later days of the Roman Empire, when wealth from all over the Mediterranean flowed into the Eternal City in an endless stream. Second, could the Romans have conquered half the world if they were so pampered?

The first records of the wild orgies and debauchery of the pampered Latins date back to the early Dark Ages, when the Roman Empire was collapsing due to internal contradictions and the invasion of barbarian hordes. Here is where we should look for those who benefited from denigrating the Roman system before their descendants. It was the early Christians, who did everything they could to discredit Roman culture in front of their followers. And, as we know, piquant topics always arouse the public's strongest interest.

And of course, modern filmmakers and writers have saturated their works with all kinds of erotic details of antique life to increase interest in their works, thanks to which our view of the Roman era has become distorted.