In this chapter, Vout studies the remarkable spread of Antinous' cult throughout the empire, in the form of coinage, statuary, temples, games held in his honor for more than 170 years after his death. Except for Augustus and Hadrian, Vout comments, without citation, "we are told that more portrait sculptures of Antinous survive than of any other figure for classical antiquity" (53). Vout rightly notes that, although few people in antiquity could have read Suetonius, a great many spent time looking at statuary (8), and she is particularly strong on visual representations of the objects of imperial desire, on display throughout the empire.
These beloveds cannot provide legitimate, or any, children (213), and thus exemplify the emperor's actual sexual desire, as opposed to his obligatory procreation.
The four main chapters study artistic and literary depictions of Antinous the eunuchs Sporus (Nero) and Earinus (Domitius) and Panthea, mistress of the emperor Lucius Verus. She selects a Hellenizing prism for her specific subjects: "Greekness is a binding factor in my selection of stories" (15).
Ultimately, as Vout argues, display of the emperor's sexual desires reinforces "existing hierarchies" (25), and allows people across the empire to contemplate the emperor's private eros. Caroline Vout asks "why it is worth thinking about the sex lives of emperors," and identifies her topic as "not the sex or sexual attraction but the implications of their description," declaring that although "'sex is power' is not the subject of this book, it is the tool of its analysis" (7).
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