Calones, as I recently learnt from an article about life on the frontier at Hadrian’s Wall, were the slaves of soldiers, one of the lowest forms of life in the Roman Empire. Horace was a Roman poet responsible for many satirical poems in which he criticised and poked fun at Roman society, trying to persuade his audience to moderate their desires in order to live a happier life. He appears to have had little sympathy with those seeking sexual adventures especially of the extra-marital variety. Indeed he warned adulterers that they would not simply be condemned to eternal damnation but, in the course of their unending after-life, be forever urinated upon by calones. Yuk!
