thing is can anne rice's depiction of marimand even be called a reception of roman pederasty. like ik reception indicates what the contemporary society thinks about the classics but marius is such an unroman roman character in some ways (like the long blonde hair that no self respecting roman from marius' period would've had, and his value of reason over religion is more of an enlightenment ideology than roman beliefs) (obviously his imperialist ideals are very reminiscent of the roman imperial destiny but i argue that's more of a reflection of american imperialism at the time rice was writing). it gets more complicated when we take into account armand's exoticised status and compare it to who the romans would've considered appropriate for a man to have sex with without becoming a cinnaedus...