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Dildos and other sexual aids are frequently mentioned in ancient literature and depicted on pottery, while didactic sex manuals were popular, as were more general advice books such as the Ars Amatoria
I am confused by "as were", I guess this is a kind of inverted sentence, maybe a regular order would be
as more general advice books such as the Ars Amatoria were
but I am not sure about my guess, can anybody help me parse this sentence?
This is an inversion, triggered by the word "as". The same inversion can also be triggered by "so".
Italy produces many excellent wines, as does Spain.
(= and Spain does too) (example online)
This is fairly formal. The phrase following "as" is the subject, and would take the subject form of the verb and pronoun: "He is happy, as am I".
So in your example the phrase "more general books...Ars Amatoria" is the subject of the clause, "were" is the verb and heads the clause, the complement is implied from the previous phrase to be "popular". The meaning is, "Sex manuals were popular and more general books were popular too."
