Neil Faulkner on Rome

A very interesting lecture by Neil Faulkner, also author of "Rome:  Empire of the Eagles".  Please click on link below to listen.

Eunuchs in Byzantium

Byzantium, the medieval Eastern remnant of the ancient Roman empire, a powerful empire in its own right, dominated the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor for over 1,000 years, from the 4th c.AD to its eventual fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD.

The Byzantine empire was a melting pot of East and West, with the Eastern Orthodox church reigning supreme and influencing almost all aspects of people's lives, while the pagan elements from the time when Emperor Constantine relocated Rome to Byzantium as an intended new capital for the Roman empire, provided for an interesting and strange mixture of pious and fanatical Orthodoxy with a simultaneous exploration of ancient thought and lifestyle. As might be expected in such a situation there were many contrasts within the empire's way of life and belief-system, the Byzantine eunuch being one of these.

Over the centuries we see eunuchs, essentially castrated men, employed as guards for the mighty in many cultures including ancient Egypt, China, Japan and the Muslim Caliphate. Court eunuchs, who were viewed as exotic, highly prized for their soft skin, high-pitched voices and hairless bodies, were also seen as safe in the sense that they could not produce heirs. Crusaders from the West were amazed and horrified when they saw how plentiful and even powerful Eunuchs were in Byzantium, many times gaining powerful administrative positions in government, the church and great estates of the nobility.

Eunuchs were clearly used for sexual reasons as well, and the passive role was more than often reserved for them in particular, despite this being abhorred and condemned by the clergy.

A eunuch was "created" at a young age, typically just before reaching puberty. As the "operation" was considered humiliating and repugnant, this treatment was mainly administered to prisoners of war. They would have both their penis and testicles removed and those who survived this horrendous amputation would often be shipped to markets to provide slave labour for the Islamic countries too. (Such a famous market existed in Verdun, in northern France during the 10th c.AD.

There were certain key offices in Byzantium though, reserved especially for eunuchs. Among those we find the position of praipositos and klarissimos, who acted as chamberlain to the emperor and directed court ceremonies - clearly a position of power and influence. He would be the chief eunuch. Other important roles were that of the parakimomenos who would sleep on the floor of the emperor's bedroom and the protovestiarios who was in charge of the emperor's wardrobe. There were also eunuchs in charge of the dining room and wine cellars, to mention but a few.

Notable eunuchs in Byzantine history are Chrysaphios (5th c.AD), Euphratas under the reign of emperor Justinian and Basil Lekapenos (10th c.AD). Basil was an illegitimate son of the emperor Romanos I and was known with the nickname "Nothos", meaning 'bastard', who managed to have a particularly successful career.

Roman Banquets

In republican ancient Rome banquets where just about the only place where a respectable patrician could be fickle and indulge in sensuality without damaging his carefully cultivated reputation. Once the men had been relaxed sufficiently by the wine, in the absence of family women and children, the noble Roman could indulge in the presence of salacious dancers, good-looking flute-players, and performers of various kinds and of both sexes. These activities were not considered serious and anything that occurred during a banquet would be conveniently brushed aside by the next day.

Banquet love affairs were in fact common, even if sexual relations hardly ever took place during the actual banquet. The attendees, despite all knowing each other's identity, would assume nicknames for the evening and dress up in exotic costumes - perhaps in a further effort to highlight the fickle and non-serious nature of any subsequent activities and separate it from everyday life. The poet Catullus for example, tells us of a certain Clodia who called herself Lesbia during these occasions. He subsequently wrote of her (approximate translation):

"You ask how many kisses will please me, oh Lesbia. As many as the grains of sand in the desert of Libya....as many as the number of the stars in a quiet night witnessing stolen loves of men. So many kisses dear Lesbia, they would be enough for your insane Catullus; so many kisses that gossiping eyes cannot count them and malicious people cannot put the evil-eye on...."

The kisses Catullus was alluding are generally thought to refer to the act of fellatio, however many banquets relied on their attendees using the power of suggestive talk and poetry to excite and scandalize each other while actual physical manifestation of these sexually charged verbal outpourings, during the cena (banquet) was indeed frowned upon and perceived as weakness in most patrician circles.

Sulla: Rome’s Brutal Butcher

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) was born into a poor aristocratic family in Rome, a very unfortunate situation for an ambitious young patrician. Fortunately for him and not necessarily for the thousands who would have good reason to dread and fear him in later life, he was a man who always seemed to have luck on his side.

As a young man with golden-blond hair, piercing grey-blue eyes, striking good looks and a charming personality, Sulla managed to create such a strong and lasting impression on one of Rome’s richest courtesans that when she died she left all her money to him, thus enabling him, along with an inheritance from his step-mother, to pursue the cursus honorum, the expected but costly career path for a male member of the Roman aristocracy.

Thus, via a combination of good looks, luck and no-doubt careful cultivating of his political acquaintances, Sulla became the Consul Marius’s Quaestor in 107 BC. (The Quaestorship being the first step of the cursus honorum). After taking part in successful military campaigns in north Africa against King Jugurtha and in the northernmost parts of Italy defending against migrating Germanic tribes, Sulla was elected Praetor Urbanus. Rumour had it that he achieved this via bribery. The next year he was posted as Pro-Consul of Cilicia, one of the richest Roman provinces, offering even more potential for advancement. There, during a meeting with the Parthian ambassador Orobazus who brought along a Chaldean seer with him, Sulla was told he would die at the height of his fame, a prophecy which would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Sulla returned to Rome in 93 BC and aligned himself firmly with the Optimates, the ultra-conservative political faction in Rome, serving primarily the interests of the patricians. Shortly afterwards, in 91 BC a civil war broke out which was to solidify Sulla’s reputation as a general in the battlefield, as he won the grass crown Corona Graminea for his services. In 88 BC he was elected Consul, the most coveted magistracy in Rome and the top of the cursus honorum.

One of the most notoriously bloody and terrifying times in ancient Rome’s history came about shortly after Sulla was declared dictator by the Senate in 82/81 BC. He was granted absolute power and proceeded to proscribe around 1,500 Roman nobles (although some say the number may be larger than that). Sulla had proscription lists drafted and posted in the Roman Forum [proscriptio] and widespread butchering ensued as Sulla eradicated all his enemies or those he was suspicious of. Any man whose name appeared on the list was ipso facto stripped of his citizenship and excluded from all protection under law. Reward money was given to any informer who gave information leading to the death of a proscribed man and any person who killed a proscribed man was entitled to keep part of his estate (the remainder went to the state). No person could inherit money or property from the proscribed men, nor could any woman married to a proscribed man remarry after his death. Many victims of proscription were decapitated and their heads were displayed on spears on the Rostra in the Forum.

Cicero on the father of Emperor Tiberius

The father of emperor Tiberius, called Tiberius Claudius Nero, was a quaestor to Julius Caesar in 48 BC and Praetor in 42 BC.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Nero)
We know little about him but Cicero offers some interesting insight on the young man in a letter to Minucius Thermus, governor of Asia, in April 50 BC. The letter reads:

"My friend Nero has told me of his enormous gratitude to you in the best of terms, absolutely unbelievable...In all our patrician families there is no man I value more." [ Cicero, Letters to Friends, Letter 138 (XIII.64)]