memes

This is a common misconception of modern people. The Romans didn't value masculinity. They valued refinement. They were people who worked on farms, and did everything by hand, and fought in the legion. People like that don't idealize masculinity. They saw themselves as being superior to other people not because of their masculinity but because of their culture and way of life.

People idealizing masculinity are mostly modern affluent males who never really struggled or worked for anything. They work in offices all day, so they pretend to care about sports or hunting to appear more masculine. They are anything but. They idealize masculinity because they lack it in so many ways.

The Romans also didn't think there was anything weird if wrong with being homosexual. They had no concept of it being taboo, and just thought it was a normal thing that nearly half of humans were by nature. The Jewish worldview and their dislike of homosexuality and sexuality in general, hadnt came along until long after. Israel was just a backwater at the edge of their empire. It wasn't until Christianity and Islam took over much of the world that people started to associate homosexuality with gender and masculinity and stuff.