ABSTRACT
The depravity of loving boys was nowhere so widespread as among the ancient Greeks and Romans. Catullus and Tibullus sang the praises of their beloved boys with an intimacy which only a poet could express in order to arouse his beloved maiden. According to Catullus, pederasty was quite general ill his time in Rome, and particularly in the army. Xenophon relates that to be sure, they forbade the soldiers the companio~ ship of slaves and booty, as it made the march more difficult; but they could not help permit each soldier a boy. The source of the depravity can easily be sought in the Orient. The original stories of 1001 Nights IS a conglomeration of pederastic and sodomistic practices.
