Perhaps someone who has read/studied the book can answer this for me. I didn't understand Enculpio's wedding at sea. I didn't understand it at all. It was right after his fight/match, right? I assumed that he lost and then now was to become the winner's property. However, it doesn't even seem like it was the same guy.
Who did he marry?
Why?
Was that common for the era?
Who did he marry? - It was the same guy he wrestled with. Apparently the older guy felt in love with Encolpio during the fight and wanted to "bond" with him.
Why? - Are you really looking for the logic in this film? I think it was just a joke. This is part of the decadence described in the film. And if you want more practical reason - that was the only way for Encolpio to get out of the slavery. He also saved Ascilto and Gitone by doing that.
Was that common for the era? - What was common? Wedding between two men? I think it was not common. The nuclear family structure of husband and wife (man and woman) was very important in Rome, especially since the Emperor Augustus, who made many laws about that.
The homosexual relationships were not popular in lower classes at all, and only very few in upper elite were practicing this. I think weddings like that were unusual for the era. But in the movie it was shown just to take it to extreme.
Very often filmmakers show how homosexuality was popular in ancient Rome or Greece, look at Oliver Stone's Alexander for example. And also many Historians will approve that, based on many theories and facts. So the opinions may differ, depends on how you'll choose to see it. But you should remember that people back then were not different from us at all, as far as human psychology goes, they just knew less.
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Well, I agree with what you say.
But I think that morality is social norms and rules, it is not coming from psychological subconsciousness. For me the description of the ancient Rome is more accurate in HBO's series Rome than in Satyricon. I think their basic concepts of behavior and thinking process was the same as ours.
Fellini makes Romans very caricaturish and grotesque for a reason, to make a point. I don't think he actually beleived Romans were like that.
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I have not seen the HBO series, but I suspect they don't really plumb the depths of carnal activity in the period.