To wonder what wives' opinions were in societies where male bisexuality was seen as a fairly common phase? *MNHQ tweaked title at requ of OP*

[Carla786]

I'm bisexual myself (female) and studying history. Historical books on gay relationships often have a lot more info on men than women (given that women had a lot less say in who they had relationships with, and often less education). Anyway, Ancient Greece & Rome, China, Japan, India to some extent & some Arab countries are all places where there was a tacit understanding that some men would have relationships and/or sex with other men, and this wasn't hugely policed, as long as the men still ended up marrying and there were dynamics like older/younger, active/passive.
What doesn't get written in the books I what women thought about this. It made me think recently, when I was reading a MN thread where most posters said they wouldn't date a bisexual man. Maybe some women accepted it as less worrying since it was meant to cease upon marriage, or not disrupt marriage. Maybe some didn't know. Maybe some were OK with it (slash fiction fans show some women don't find it instantly unattractive, but arguably that's fantasy and their rl opinions might be different). Maybe large numbers were very upset by it but didn't have much choice. I suppose the emphasis in cultures like the Romans on it being unmanly to take the passive role may have partly been because they thought women would find this less attractive (or perhaps women's opinions were totally disregarded- the Romans weren't quite as sexist as the Greeks but that's a low bar...)

Just another of those things about women in the past that we're unlikely to find out much more about..

AIBU to wonder?

This is blunt but The Roman’s didn’t have HIV. This is probably an issue with dating a bi man in this generation. I know not quite the health issue these days as it was in the 80’s but still an issue. As for the past who knows what their drivers were? Possibly avoiding pregnancy?

Yes. One issue is sadly that bi men are (on average, not all)more likely to have STDs, and there is a cohort who go on the down low, as said in the US, and use Grindr while married to women etc to find men for hookups. There was actually a Reddit sub for these lying cowards, though thankfully it was eventually shut down.
Re avoiding pregnancy, do you mean this is why some Roman men had relationships with men? Maybe. I think some relationships with men definitely were emotional (famous cases like Hadrian, one wonders about the life of his poor wife). But others more physical.

I guess a key point is some of these societies (definitely Greece and Rome) is that men exploiting slave girls was allowed, visiting brothels, in some cases polygamy. So I suppose wives may have compartmentalised it as 'just another thing I'd rather he didn't do but have to put up with, so I don't think about it'.

Eh? Is there actual evidence bi men have more STDs than straight men?

I have a few ( straight ) friends who were serial shaggers 10 years ago and they've had a large # of STDs.

Here are 2 among many articles showing that.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22002226#:~:text=Bisexual%20men%20are%20regularly%20found,and%20Latino%20men%20%5B14%5D.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3575167/#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20this%20study%20examined%20the,STI%20disparities%20by%20sexual%20orientation.

The fact is that bi men, if they have casual sex with men, are likely to have anal, and this carries an elevated risk of STD transmission intrinsically..yes, they should use condoms, but too many gay & bi men have become unecessarily reckless since the advent of prep.

There's also the fact that on average men of all sexualities are more likely to take unwise risks about sex, but if men are having sex with women, women on average being less keen on unwise risks and more vulnerable to STDs holds them back to an extent. If 2 men are in the picture, it's different .plenty are sensible but they're more likely not to be, than women are

In societies where you don't have much choice about who you marry and where STIs are not understood, it may be that a spouse who looks outside the marriage for sex is a bit of a relief, whatever the sex of who they hook up with.