Sporus
Sporus | |
---|---|
Died | 69 CE |
Cause of death | Suicide |
Occupation | Slave |
Known for | Being castrated and married to the Roman emperor Nero |
Spouse(s) | Nero (married 66 or 67 CE, died 68 CE) |
Sporus was a young slave boy whom the Roman Emperor Nero had castrated and married as his Empress during his tour of Greece in 66–67 CE, allegedly in order for him to play the role of his wife, Poppaea Sabina, who had died the previous year.[1][2][3][4]
Ancient historians generally portrayed the relationship between Nero and Sporus as an "abomination";
Name
Scholars have deduced that Sporus was likely an epithet given to him when his abuse started, considering it to be derived from the Greek word σπόρος, meaning "seed" or "semen", which may refer to his inability to have children following his castration.[7] Against this popular view, David Woods points out that the name resembles the Latin word spurius of Sabine origin, meaning "illegitimate child"; hence Woods advances the thesis that Nero himself had called the boy Spurius, or that he believed the Greek name Sporus to be related to the Latin word.[8][9]
Life
Little is known about Sporus' background except that he was a youth to whom Nero took a liking. He may have been a puer delicatus. These were sometimes castrated to preserve their youthful qualities.[10] The puer delicatus generally was a child-slave chosen by his master for his beauty and sexual attractiveness.[11] Cassius Dio identifies Sporus as the child of a freedman.[2][3]
Marriage to Nero
Nero's wife, Poppaea Sabina, died in 65 CE. This was supposedly in childbirth, although it was later rumored Nero kicked her to death. At the beginning of 66 CE, Nero married Statilia Messalina. Later that year or in 67 CE, he married Sporus, who was said to bear a remarkable resemblance to Poppaea.[3]
Nero had Sporus
Shortly before Nero's death, during the Calends festival, Sporus presented Nero with a ring bearing a gemstone depicting the Rape of Proserpina, in which the ruler of the underworld forces a young girl to become his bride. It was at the time considered one of the many bad omens of Nero's fall.[13]
Sporus was one of the four companions on the emperor's last journey in June of 68 CE,[4] along with Epaphroditus, Neophytus, and Phaon. It was Sporus, and not his wife Messalina, to whom Nero turned as he began the ritual lamentations before taking his own life.[1][3]
After Nero and death
Soon afterward, Sporus was taken to the care of the
In 69 CE, Sporus became involved with
In fiction
In 1735, Alexander Pope wrote a satirical poem that mocked the courtier Lord Hervey, who had been accused of homosexuality a few years earlier. He scoffs at using so strong a weapon as satire upon a weak and effeminate target like Sporus, "that mere white curd of ass's milk", and in a famous line Pope poses the rhetorical question: "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"[14][15][16]
The fourth episode of Season 3 of the US TV show Succession features Tom Wambsgans recounting the marriage of Nero and Sporus to Greg Hirsch. He once again refers to Greg as Sporus in the Season 3 finale.[17][18]
See also
- History of same-sex unions
- Homosexuality in ancient Rome
- Pythagoras (freedman)
- Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
Notes
- ^ SUET., Nero 28,1: "Puerum Sporum exsectis testibus etiam in muliebrem naturam transfigurare conatus cum dote et flammeo per sollemnia nuptiarum celeberrimo officio deductum ad se pro uxore habuit"
"He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife" – The expression exsectis testibus, literally "having the testicles removed", does not imply that the entire genitalia was removed.
References
- ^ a b c Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum – Nero, c. 110 C.E.
- ^ a b Cassius Dio Roman History: LXII, 28 – LXIII, 12–13
- ^ a b c d e Champlin, 2005, p. 145
- ^ a b c d Smith, 1849, p. 897
- ^ Champlin, 2005, p. 149.
- ^ Champlin, 2005, p.108-109
- ^ Champlin, 2005, p. 150.
- ^ Woods, 2009, pp. 79–80.
- ^ Milne, Andrew (25 August 2020). "How A Teenage Boy Named Sporus Became Empress Of Rome Under Nero's Rule". All That's Interesting. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
- ^ Vout, Caroline, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 136
- ^ Manwell, Elizabeth (2007). "Gender and Masculinity". A Companion to Catullus. Blackwell. p. 118.
- ^ a b c Champlin, 2005, p.146
- ^ a b c Champlin, 2005, pp. 147–148
- ISBN 9780140273649.
- ^ "The Gay Love Letters of John, Lord Hervey to Stephen Fox". Gay History and Literature – My Dear Boy. Retrieved 3 August 2012. – Excerpts from My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries (1998), Edited by Rictor Norton
- ^ Pope, Alexander. "Pope's Caricature of Lord Hervey – 1765". Gay History and Literature – Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England. Retrieved 3 August 2012. As first published the verse referred to Paris, but was changed to Sporus when republished a few months later.
- ^ "Tom and Greg and 'Succession's Bonkers Nero Reference, Explained". 9 November 2021.
- ^ @succession (9 November 2021). "Nero and Sporus" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
Bibliography
- Dion Cassius. Ixii. 28, Ixiii. 12, 13, 27, Ixiv. 8, Ixv. 10;
- Suetonius. Nero. 28, 46, 48, 49;
- Sextus Aurelius Victor. De Caesaribus. 5, Epit. 5;
- Dion Chrysostom. Oratio. xxi;
- Suidas, s. v. "Sporus”
- LCCN 07038839.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01822-8.
- Woods, David (2009). "Nero and Sporus". Latomus Revue d'etudes latines. Vol. 68 (1 ed.). Editions Latomus. pp. 73–82. ISSN 0023-8856.