this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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History Memes

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"5'6? Good lad, we'll teach you the rest by beatings" (media.piefed.social)
submitted 2 days ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 41 points 2 days ago (2 children)

FUN FACT: There’s some limited evidence that literacy was higher in the Legions than in the general population. Not because it was a recruitment requirement, but probably due to a mixture of the low literacy of rural areas, that almost all promotion opportunities in the Legions required literacy, and the fact that bored soldiers pass skills around almost as often as STDs.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

bored soldiers pass skills around almost as often as STDs

You just gave me a mental picture of soldiers partially clad in armour, one teaching stuff to another while engaging in gay sex.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

"It's not gay if there's no penetration." - Romans, probably

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

"Its not gay if you're the top." - The Egyptians 

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Pretty sure that's the Romans, too. (And more accurate than what PugJesus said.)

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 18 hours ago

Funny enough, I actually did a deep dive on Roman sexuality not too long ago. I put the "It's not gay if there's no penetration" bit because references to intercrural sex (favored amongst the Greeks) and frottage are nonexistent, while handjobs are considered 'spicy' but not really sex - and thus not really 'gay,' since the perception of Romans of 'effeminate' sexuality was centered around sex, not romance.

For that reason, it seems intuitive to suspect that Romans probably didn't regard these acts as sex - if they did, either condemnation (especially of political enemies) or depiction would seem likely, especially with their taste for pornographic artwork.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

Well, I guess that makes everything other than lodging a Neutron into another Atom, as not-gay.

[–] socsa@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

That's why they call it a brojob.

[–] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Because you need to be able to read recruitment advertisement?