Hostius Quadra
sexually depraved Roman killed by his own slaves
Hostius Quadra was a Roman slave-owner famed for his sexual licentiousness. He was murdered by his own slaves, supposedly on account of his sexual appetites.
Life
Hostius Quadra lived during the reign of the emperor Augustus. ″The profligate nature of Hostius Quadra's sexual enthusiasm was such that it led to his murder at the hands of his disgusted slaves.″
References in Seneca's Naturales Quaestiones
Hostius Quadra is known through references made by Seneca in his Naturales quaestiones.
Hostius fuit Quadra, obscenitatis in scaenam usque productae. Hunc diuitem auarum, sestertii milies seruum, diuus Augustus indignum uindicta iudicauit, cum a seruis occisus esset, et tantum non pronuntiauit iure caesum videri. Non erat ille ab uno tantummodo sexu impurus, sed tam uirorum quam feminarum auidus fuit, fecitque specula huius notae, cuius modo rettuli, imagines longe maiores reddentia, in quibus digitus brachii mensuram et crassitudinem excederet. Haec autem ita disponebat, ut cum uirum ipse pateretur, auersus omnes admissarii sui motus in speculo uideret ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tamquam uera gaudebat.
There was one Hostius Quadra whose obscenity formed a model for everything that was lewd on the stage. He was rich and avaricious, a very slave to his millions.
“Hostius Quadra” enters the record as sexually depraved Roman killed by his own slaves. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hostius, Quadra and sexually can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hostius Quadra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.