Spintria

The scenes of couples are typical expressions of sexuality in ancient Rome as found in other explicit art, depicting both female-male[3] and male-male sex acts.

According to Bette Talvacchia, the tokens were first called spintriae in the 1559 treatise Sopra le Medaglie Antiche ("Discourse Concerning Ancient Medals") by Sebastiano Errizo, published in Venice.

[5] In antiquity, Suetonius had used the word spintria to refer to a young male prostitute offering anal sex,[6] from Greek sphinktḗr (σφιγκτήρ), sphincter.

[3][clarification needed] Some scholars, following Friedlander's (1886) suggestion that the tokens were used to obtain entry to brothels ("auf die man in Bordelle Einlass erhielt"), have argued that spintriae were used to pay prostitutes, although none offer any supporting evidence.

[8] Currently, only Simonetta and Riva are supporters of the brothel token hypothesis,[9] which is also popular with the media;[10] other scholars pursue alternate lines of enquiry (Buttrey; Campana; Duggan; Fishburn; etc.).