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Sporus. 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 ...
- Emperor Nero’s Lusty Reign
- Sporus’S Life as A Eunuch
- Homosexuality Under Nero’s Rule
- Eunuchs in Ancient Rome
- Nero’s Death Leads to Sporus’S Tragic End
Long before he set eyes on Sporus, the name Nero was synonymous with unrestrained power and unbridled perversion. His reputed taste for aberrant sexual behavior still echoes through the centuries. Ancient Roman historian Suetonius recorded: “Besides abusing freeborn boys and seducing married women, he debauched the vestal virgin Rubria.” This was a...
Not much is known about Sporus’s early life, not even his true name. “Sporus” comes from the Greek word for “seed” or “sowing.” The name is likely a cruel epithet bestowed by Nero, meant to mock Sporus’s inability to produce heirs. Nero is also saidto have called the boy “Sabina.” Even Sporus’s status is unclear. Some sources claim he was a slave b...
The mores surrounding homosexuality in ancient Rome were distinct from those found in much of the contemporary world. As Julius Caesar could attest, same-sex attraction was less about gender and more about position, in both the physical and societal sense of the word. Socially, slaves were fair game: to bottom was to give away power, and that was u...
While the position robbed Sporus of social power, eunuchs could be very influential in Rome and abroad. Without their own legacy or progeny, they were considered neutral actors, often put in positions of power or in female households, according to The Routledge History of the Renaissanceby William Caferro. Some famous examples in the ancient world ...
The Roman populace was generally dissatisfied with the leadership of Nero. He’s notoriously blamed for the Great Fire of 64 A.D., though that likely wasn’t the emperor’s doing. Eventually, Nero made a run for it to escape Rome, after being declared a public enemy by the Senate. Sporus accompaniedhim. Nero was informed by a courier that the senate p...
Jun 7, 2021 · The statue, on loan from the Louvre, depicts Nero on the cusp of manhood, his status indicated by what would at the time have been legible symbols: a bulla, an amulet worn like a locket, confirms ...
Jun 2, 2021 · With Sporus, historians have recently suggested that the scandalous liaison stemmed not from nostalgic attachment to the dead Poppaea, still less the conventional lust of an upper-class Roman male for a puer delicatus (“boy toy”), but the need to control a potential rival whom Nero believed to be of imperial descent. Hence, in the ...
- Boyd Tonkin
May 4, 2021 · The exact date of both this statue and an accompanying one of Nero is uncertain, but it's vaguely estimated to be from the "2nd half of the 1st century", which includes the wedding of Nero and Sporus in Athens in AD67. The statue may have been commissioned by Athens to gain favour with Nero by depicting his new wife.
Feb 29, 2024 · After Nero’s death, the prefect of the Praetorians Nymphidius Sabinus treated the young man as a wife in order to shore up his position. “To sleep with Sporus, the wretched boy transformed into the image of the most beautiful empress in Rome, was to sleep with [the Empress] Poppaea Sabina,” explains Holland. The forcibly castrated young ...
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Mar 10, 2023 · A revolt broke out, with the senate and Praetorian Guard treating Nero as an enemy of the state. The emperor fled the city, bringing only a freedman and Sporus with him to a countryside hideout ...
