So - reading the book of Jude in bible study the other day it he’s frothing on a bit about immorality in the church. I started to wonder what passed for immorality compared to modern times and my brain wandered, as it is wont, to the question of strip clubs.
Could you go down the road to Old Achmed’s and watch a 1st century strip show? Prostitution existed, I know, but this is kinda middle-of-the-road immorality.
Any records survive of this?
Many of the old pagan temples had temple prostitutes and sex as part of rituals. That’s one of the reasons it is so heavily condemned in the Old Testament - sexual immorality and idolatry all in one. You also see that kind of thing in India with Tantric practices.
Given how little human nature changes over the ages, I’d be very surprised if there were not strip clubs or the like back then.
Not quite as you understand it, but yes. Greco-Roman mime was along those lines. From Encyclopedia Brittanica, “The presentation of mimes was a traditional feature of the annual Floralia festival, which, being licentious in spirit, opened the popular stage to naked mime actresses.” The internet being what it is, you can surely find more.
Of course, if you were rich, it was unnecessary. Using one’s slaves for sex was not considered immoral, well for a guy at any rate, so I’m sure you could make them strip tease.
The ancient Greeks had what were called “flute girls”. They were supposedly a musical entertainment who were hired for parties but what they essentially did was nude dancing followed by freelance prostitution. Which is pretty close to what some bachelor party strippers do.
There really weren’t anything exactly comparable to today’s strip clubs. The idea of look but never, never, never touch is a modern perversion that would have baffled them.
Cicero’s attacks on Marc Antony in his Phillipics include association with mimae, a charge that reflects their low moral status in Rome
“Volumnia” was the name of the wife of Coriolanus, a Roman hero; it would be the equivalent of a stripper using the name “Mother Teresa”. There’s more:
That same class of “flute girl”–ambubaia–was present in Rome as well. Horace beings his 2nd Satire with a mock-heroic eulogy for Tigellus, a man who was generous to (among others) Ambubaiarum collegia - “The league of flute-girls”. He must have stuffed a lot of denarii in their g-string 
I thought slave ownership was quite common, even among tradesmen.
Rob
I hate mimes, but that could certainly change my mind. 
What if they only mimed sexual encounters?
Or like, Madonna using the name…Madonna?
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
Well, it is her given name, too.
Yes, I remembered that afterward when I was trying to remember what her real name was. But since she was something of a sex symbol and has shaken things up a lot, I guess it’s sort of applicable. Kinda.
Yes, it was common, except among the poor - and the poor were always a majority until the rise of the middle class in modern times.
But. I imagine the rich did their best to buy the best looking slaves. (There was definitely a tier system for slaves. Greek slaves were the most sought after. The bottom of the pecking order depended on the time, but Gauls must have been amongst them until well into the Principate.)
There’s a letter from some medieval bishop complaining about the immorailty during the crusades, he mentions the women dancers dressed in nothing but a few strips of silk and some beads.
Pretty well shows that strip clubs in some fashion are as ageless as civilization.
Did you hear that? It was a worldwide group groan.
I trying to figure out how a nude mime would get her boobs to flatten up against the invisible wall. quite a trick
Flutes don’t have G-strings. Blowing is involved, and they have holes to finger. 
Si
One of the wonderful stories that I learned from the *Illustrated History of the Universe *was of Theodora, Byzantine empress and one-time actress, who was famed for portraying “Leda and the Swan” using a live goose. She played Leda.
She was later canonized by the Greek Orthodox Church, Wikipedia tells me. Theodora (wife of Justinian I) - Wikipedia
To the best of my knowledge, Procopius is considered a slanderer of Theodora, and his account of her is not taken as seriously. BTW, theater was of questionable morality by pretty much all Romans, well before Christianity had taken hold. Acting was one of the ways that Nero outraged the Roman upper crust.