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Full Description
Eunuchs tend to be associated with eastern courts, popularly perceived as harem personnel. However, the Roman empire was also distinguished by eunuchs - they existed as slaves, court officials, religious figures and free men. This book is the first to be devoted to the range of Roman eunuchs. Across seven chapters (spanning the third century BC to the sixth century AD), Shaun Tougher examines the history of Roman eunuchs, focusing on key texts and specific individuals. Subjects met include the Galli (the self-castrating devotees of the goddess the Great Mother), Terence's comedy The Eunuch (the earliest surviving Latin text to use the word 'eunuch'), Sporus and Earinus the eunuch favourites of the emperors Nero and Domitian, the 'Ethiopian eunuch' of the Acts of the Apostles (an early convert to Christianity), Favorinus of Arles (a superstar intersex philosopher), the Grand Chamberlain Eutropius (the only eunuch ever to be consul), and Narses the eunuch general who defeated the Ostrogoths and restored Italy to Roman rule. A key theme of the chapters is gender, inescapable when studying castrated males. Ultimately this book is as much about the eunuch in the Roman imagination as it is the reality of the eunuch in the Roman empire.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire
1. Eunuchs of the Great Mother: The Galli in Rome
2. Greeks Bearing Gifts: Terence's The Eunuch
3. Of Seed and Spring: Eunuch Slaves of Imperial Rome
4. Born Eunuchs: The Case of Favorinus of Arles
5. Eusebius and His Kind: Court Eunuchs of the Later Roman Empire
6. 'Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven': Self-Castration and Eunuchs in Early Christianity
7. Military Eunuchs: The Case of Narses
Bibliography
Index
