Raised in the Shade

Eunuchs were prominent figures in T&J era Byzantium, and the most notable by far was the general, Narses. But for those whose only touchstone for eunuch representation has been the character, Varys, from the HBO hit series 'Game of Thrones,' consider this a masterclass in eunuch culture and physiology.

All 12 of T&J's original, end-of-episode songs are also available in one album! Buy T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story (Original Podcast Soundtrack) on Apple Music and iTunes and/or stream on Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and wherever you listen! 

Transcript

 T&J Episode 11: Raised in the Shade

Content Warning

Some pre-emptive sourcing here: Enormous thanks to Kathryn Ringrose and her scholarship, which I relied on heavily. I highly recommend her book, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium as well as Shaun Tougher’s The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society. 

I also have some announcements! Dear listeners, this is the penultimate T&J episode! Bittersweet. I … yeah, I’ve been working so hard for the last two, three years? On this project? So, I feel a little like I don’t know where my feet are gonna go after this and what I’m gonna do with all of this free time. Um. But I’ve been thinking a lot about going to film school and trying to learn how to write and direct — developing my skills as a screenwriter and a TV show writer. So, those ‘HBO I’ve got a pilot script, call me!’s are grounded in reality. So, if you want to keep up with me and my next projects, feel free to send me an email to tandjbyz@gmail.com, and I’ll try and get you onto a listserv I’m going to make. Don’t worry, it will not be spamtastic, but it will keep you updated on new projects I have going on. Also, don’t stop following the feed! I am going to keep it live. I’m not sure what else I’m going to put onto it, but I’ve been thinking a lot about neo-feudalism. So, I might have a sort of addenda going up there, I’m not sure. But, anyway! Consider supporting the show if you haven't already. And lastly, I am going to be putting all of the end–of-episode songs into an album on Spotify that will be made available when I publish the last episode. So, yeah, that's super exciting.  

Oh, and content warning: again, there is swearing. This episode is about eunuchs, so there are some graphic descriptions of genital mutilation as well as discussions of rape. Please take care of yourselves. 

But most importantly and most of all, thank you so much for being here. 

Intro

Eunuchs have popped up in this story quite a bit, and they are an element of Byzantine society I have been really keen to address. 

The most prominent eunuch we’ve come across in the series so far is, without a doubt, Narses. Narses, if you’ll recall, emerges  — already in his 40s — as the Head of the Sacred Bedchamber. Meaning, he managed the staff of eunuchs serving Justinian in his private quarters and tended to the emperor on ceremonial occasions. 

The Nika riots, however, proved to be a major turning point for him. Not only did Narses become part of T&J’s hard core, ride-or-die inner circle, but it helped launch his career as a general. First, in Alexandria, then in Italy. Even if he and Belisarius could never be friends. We’ll pick up the rest of Narses’ story later in the episode. 

Another prominent eunuch, who came from Belisarius’ own household, was Solomon. It was Solomon who oversaw both the military and civilian government in North Africa after Belisarius’ defeat of the Vandals in 534. Only to flee to Sicily two years later. 

The last eunuch of note, Amantius, requires a bit of a trip in the T&J way back machine. A powerful eunuch from before Narses and Solomon’s time, Amantius inadvertently made this whole podcast happen by helping Justinian’s uncle, Justin, become emperor. Justin doled out Amantius’ bribes on his own behalf. And to great effect. 

There are way more eunuchs than that, of course. And one, the eunuch, Callinicus, will play a decisive role in the selection of Justinian’s own successor ...   

Proximity to power can be a mighty handy thing. But beyond knowing that and the fact that they were castrated men — the ‘eunuch’ label obviously meant so much more to those living in the T&J era then I could conjure as I researched and wrote and read about this too-crazy-to-be believed period of Roman history. 

The only cultural reference I had — the only cultural reference most of us have — was the character, Varys; the eunuch from the HBO hit series, Game of Thrones. 

Ned Stark: Varys?

Varys: I promise you. It isn’t poison. Why is it no one ever trusts the eunuch?

Catlyn Stark: How did you know I was coming? 

Varys: Knowledge is my trade, my lady … my little birds are everywhere.

Little Finger: You could ask Varys where she is. He’ll have an answer for you. Whether you believe it … Myself. I’ve always had a hard time trusting eunuchs. Who knows what they want?

Portrayed as a bald, portly, robe-wearing solo agent from the east, Varys was, to use his own words sliced both ‘root and stem’ as a boy. But did Varys, the eunuch of a very popular fantasy series, reflect reality at all?   

Did eunuchs of the T&J era look a certain way? What about the procedure of castration itself? What did that entail? And what were its lifelong effects?

And perhaps the biggest question of all: Why? 

Why were eunuchs created in the first place? How did they come to be such an important fixture of Byzantine society? And I’m not talking a blip, I mean for the entire 1,000-year history of the empire?  

I’m Christine Laskowski and this is T&J, a limited series podcast devoted to sixth century Byzantium and the greatest recorded love story on earth – that between Empress Theodora and her husband, the Emperor Justinian. This is episode 11: ‘Raised in the Shade.’  

Part I. Descriptions and Epithets

Verifiable, first-person accounts from Byzantine eunuchs themselves simply do not exist. What we do have was written by men. Non-castrated men. Now, these authors would typically not refer to a eunuch explicitly as such in their texts or in their sermons. Instead, they would allude to them using a variety of euphemisms, or signifiers, that might slip right past you and me, but would be crystal clear to the audiences of their day. 

‘Raised in the shade’ was a really common one. The assumption, of course, was that proper, quote-un-quote, ‘whole’ men were reared out-of-doors and played sports and engaged in the sorts of activities we tend to associate with masculinity even today. ‘Raised in the shade’ was pejorative, and everyone knew what it meant and to whom it was referring.  

At the same time, eunuchs were also considered to be really beautiful. Their faces were “like roses.” Their skin, a milky white.  

Eunuchs castrated before puberty didn’t have any facial hair, which led to them being referred to as “beardless men.” Or sometimes just “cut men.”  

Their bodies were seen as smooth, and soft; their movements and mannerisms, weak and delicate. Eunuchs had fleshy hips; soft and unstable knees. They had a fluid way of walking in which their entire bodies seemed to glide in motion under robes and cloaks of white. They had a habit of holding their head tilted to one side and of using a limp-wristed gesture with upturned hands. 

Eunuchs apparently did not make eye contact as they carried about their business, which was ferrying messages or participating in court ceremonial. They looked down. Their eyebrows were also said to be overly-arched. 

Eunuchs were often depicted as being emotionally volatile: criticized for crying easily, flying into rages, and being quick to anger. They were said to sometimes become depressed and sob into their food. They spoke quickly, using distinctive speech patterns. Their voices were described as high and shrill, even weepy.

Eunuchs flocked, hovered, and swarmed. 

They were seen as acting together in groups, with each group fiercely loyal to its respective household; where they had been taught by other eunuchs how to be eunuchs, and as such, how to serve.

Because eunuchs of the T&J era were the enslaved house servants of the rich and famous. 

Part II. Eunuch Categories 

In Byzantium, three categories of eunuchs existed. 

The first were men castrated as adults, either as punishment for crimes or as prisoners of war. The second were men who castrated themselves voluntarily for reasons of piety, which I talked about in Episode 2: ‘One Iota,’ either to join priestly cults or to curb lustful thoughts and tendencies.

The third category were those castrated as prepubescent boys ahead of sale as enslaved servants in royal courts and aristocratic homes. Or for sale in the sex trade. Or … both.

This third category of eunuchs – those sold into servitude in royal courts and the homes of the aristocracy – were the most prevalent. And unless I specify otherwise, when I refer to a Byzantine eunuch in this episode, they are who I mean.

Eunuchs were a foundational component of the Byzantine empire. Emperor Constantine even had them in his court. And while some western emperors did have eunuchs on their staff, they just never really took off. Eunuchs were mainstays of the eastern empire.  

But that meant there was also a lot of rule-skirting and blind eye-turning for them to exist in such numbers and for so long. Because the making of eunuchs within the empire was actually illegal. 

The law on that was clear. In the Christian world at that time, no one was supposed to be made a eunuch, and those who practiced, or arranged for, castrations could expect a range of punishments: death, confiscation of property, exile, fines ... 

But if barbarians wanted to make their own boys into eunuchs and then sell them into the Roman empire … well, that was their business. Quite literally. 

Certain areas along the frontier even developed a reputation for producing them. Like Abkhazia, a region along the eastern coast of the Black Sea, near the Caucasus Mountains. Or Khorezm, in Central Asia, where doubly-castrated eunuchs — meaning no penis or testicles — was their speciality. 

Double-castration was a rarity among eunuchs in Late Antiquity, but it was in fact the only acceptable procedure for eunuchs serving in the Ottoman court and the imperial palace of China. Which we’ll get to later.  

But for now, the eunuch’s proximity to power and wealth – in addition to their being admitted into the highest ranks of the clergy – meant that opportunistic families within the Byzantine empire occasionally made eunuchs of their own sons, in the hope that their success would elevate the rest of the family. 

This became more common after the 8th century, but it was probably also the case with Solomon. You see, Solmon still had contact with his family, which was unusual. We know this because Procopius didn’t much care for the preferential treatment Solomon gave to some of his grossly incompetent nephews.  

And the story of how Solomon came to be a eunuch in the first place is truly ‘the dog ate my homework’ of ‘how my kid came to be a eunuch’ excuses. That is, ‘my kid had a careless nurse.’ As in, the poor, enslaved woman charged with nursing Solomon had swaddled him too tightly as a baby and irrevocably damaged his testicles. 

But given what we know about how boys back then were actually castrated, the careless nurse story was so effective because it had a hint of truth to it. 

Part III. Eunuch Physiology 

In a section of his work titled ‘elective surgeries,’ the seventh century physician Paul of Aegina discloses how he did not like to perform castrations, but that powerful men sometimes insisted that he must. 

Paul of Aegina: The object of our art being to restore those parts which are in a preternatural state to their natural, the operation of castration professes just the reverse. But since we are sometimes compelled against our will by persons of high rank to perform the operation, we shall briefly describe the mode of doing it. 

Paul of Aegina proceeds to tell us that castrations performed on young children were done in one of two ways: compression or excision.

With a compression procedure, the child was soaked in a hot bath until the genitals were completely relaxed. Then, the testicles were crushed between the fingers. They remained within the scrotal sack, but were no longer attached to the body.

Paul of Aegina’s second technique for castration involved a simple incision and the removal of the testicles from the scrotal sack. He did not consider this to be a difficult or a particularly dangerous operation, so long as the child had not yet reached puberty.

Excision was his preferred method.

Paul of Aegina: For those who have had them squeezed sometimes have venereal desires, a certain part, as it would appear, of the testicles having escaped the compression. 

Because when the testicles don’t drop or are removed or are too damaged, puberty doesn’t happen. And puberty …  is a time when the testicles become activated. They begin releasing sperm, as well as hormones, into the body. And these special hormones are known as androgens. Testosterone, for example, is an androgen; one of several that give men their male characteristics by regulating the development of the male physique. 

On a metabolic level, puberty sends androgens zooming around the body. They fly aboard specific proteins that help them to reach and target cells through special androgen receptors. And once they enter, those cells respond. Collectively. With all the changes that accompany those awkward teenage years.  

Eunuchs’ bodies? They never had their cells respond to the androgen delivery that kicks off with puberty. And physically-speaking, this explains a lot of the descriptions of them we heard earlier.  

Eunuchs couldn’t grow facial hair, hence the term ‘beardless men.’ But they also never went bald. And their skin always remained smooth, like a child’s. They never grew Adam’s apples, and their voices never dropped. Eunuchs were also physically weaker because androgens help the body to retain nitrogen, a process that increases muscle mass, muscle strength and reduces body fat. Therefore, it follows that the fat on eunuchs’ bodies tended to follow a more female pattern. Eunuchs were sterile and unable to ejaculate sperm. And while it appears they could have and maintain erections during sex, their libidos suffered. Their penises were also said to remain small. Although, as we’ll learn later, plenty of straight women indeed got theirs from eunuch lovers.

Androgens also affect how bones grow. In eunuchs, the long bones of the body — think of a cartoon dog bone with the rounded ends, that’s a long bone. And the long bones, especially those of the arms, legs, and hands — those in eunuchs grew inordinately long. Because there weren’t androgens to help tell them when to stop growing. 

The result was an unusually lanky, or unusually fat, taller-than-average, individual with narrow shoulders and broader hips. The hair on their heads was thick and their faces — with flawless, poreless skin — retained all of the delicate features of a boy. Again, Byzantines considered their aesthetic to be quite beautiful. That is, until they aged, which was early. 

Although Narses, exception of exceptions, would go on to lead a very long life. Ancient even by today’s standards. More on that as well as eunuch treatment and representation … once we return from a short break.  

What you’ll be hearing is a 1925 recording of the Scheherazade Opus 35 Part One written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsaakov and performed by The Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden in London. 

Instrumental Break.

Scheherazade Op.35 Pt. 1  – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsaakov, The Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden (1925)  | 

Part IV. Vignettes from Vitae

In her book, The Perfect Servant, scholar Kathryn Ringrose offers excerpts from several Vitae, V-I-T-A-E, that include detailed eunuch encounters.

Now, vitae were basically these abbreviated biographies of the saints. While they were often composed several centuries after they were said to have taken place, they do offer us a glimpse of how eunuchs were perceived and treated. Which was … not well. 

The setting of the eunuch encounter in the tenth century Vita of St. Andrew the Fool is outside of a house, one belonging to a man named Epiphanios, who is a disciple of St. Andrew the Fool. The vita opens with Epiphanios and the saint, looking totally unhinged, which is presumably where the Fool part comes in, hanging out by the front gate, when a young eunuch, a chamberlain of one of the nobles in the neighborhood, stops by to say hello. 

This is how the narrator describes the eunuch’s entrance:

Narrator: His face was like a rose, the skin of his body white as snow. He was well shaped, fair-haired, possessing an unusual softness, and smelling of musk from afar. As Epiphanios had been brought up together with him, and was his friend, they loved each other dearly. Now, this eunuch carried with him dates, about thirty in number. When he saw the naked body of the holy man, he was alarmed, and asked Epiphanios: 

The Eunuch: My dearest and beloved Epiphanios, who is this man and why does he go naked, although it is winter and unbearably cold, being like those who have suffered shipwreck at sea? 

And Epiphanios’ response? |

Epiphanios: My dearest brother, I do not know what I shall say about his appearance … All such people tear their clothes and run about without feeling anything. 

Narrator: When the eunuch heard this he fell silent, and having pity on the blessed man … gave him all his dates. 

The Eunuch: Take these for now, for I have nothing else with me.  

Narrator: The holy man, St. Andrew the Fool, looked at him sternly and said: 

St. Andrew the Fool: Fools do not eat a gift of colophonia! 

Now, to interject for a moment: ‘colophonia’ is a play on words and an insult that translates roughly into modern English as ‘ass fruits.’ The eunuch, who is clearly very sweet, doesn’t put this together and thinks the insane saint is referring to an actual place in Greece.

The Eunuch: You truly crazy man, when you see dates, do you think they are fruit from Colophon?

St. Andrew the Fool: You deceiver, go into your master’s bedchamber and perform with him the sick practice of the sodomites, that he may give you other dates, too. You wretch … You accursed fellow, why do you do this? Woe to your youth … See that you do not go further, lest the Godhead treat you as you deserve, here burning you whole with flashes of lightning, there with the fire of hell!  

The poor eunuch. He gets no support from his “friend” in the presence of this awful saint. He simply turns bright red with shame and leaves.

Analyzing this passage, it’s interesting to note that the free man, Epiphanios, and the eunuch next door, who is given no name, are childhood friends. What’s more, when the eunuch appears, he’s described in really sensual terms: soft, smooth, smelling fantastic. The eunuch is also kind. Acting demonstrably more Christ-like than St. Andrew the Fool, or St. Andrew the Cruel, if you ask me. But that is clearly not the intended message. The intended message is that eunuchs were frequently victims of sexual abuse by the men who owned them, and Christians were right to revile them for it.  

Byzantine scholar Kathryn Ringrose notes that the language used in connection with eunuchs in Late Antiquity, the period from the second to the eighth centuries, was overwhelmingly negative.

Here’s a quote from another vita, that of St. Anna the Younger: 

St. Anna the Younger: His deed was no other than to pour out harsh and shameful verbal insults against the saint, like those spoken against a eunuch. 

In fact, it was considered noteworthy when a man had the opportunity to be verbally abusive to a eunuch and didn’t take it. Consider this exchange between founding emperor Constantine and the eunuch Euphratas, his right hand man: 

Euphratas: And see the emperor’s gentle goodwill. For when Euphratas is near at hand, Constantine does not say anything hurtful to him.

Now, I should note that Euphratas … never existed. He was completely made up. By authors in the ninth and tenth centuries when eunuchs were seen somewhat more favorably. 

But truth be told, the place where eunuchs were featured most prominently — as well as favorably — in a variety of different stories was, in fact, the Bible; in both Old and New Testaments. Although not in the manner you might think … 

Part V. Biblical Eunuchs 

In the Old Testament, Daniel — The Daniel of the lion’s den, Daniel — was a Jewish boy of noble birth. When Jerusalem was conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, Daniel was one of several Jewish boys brought to Babylon to serve in Nebudchadnezzar’s court.   

Given everything we know about eunuchs, it’s not surprising that Byzantines in T&J’s day probably saw Daniel as one, too. The earliest extant, or surviving, Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, The Septuagint, never explicitly calls Daniel a eunuch. But it didn’t have to. All of the markers were there.

The key one being that once Daniel arrived in Babylon, as an enslaved boy, King Nebuchadnezzar instructed his own chief eunuch to select those with the most beautiful bodies and the greatest potential for training and education … for his own household. Daniel was one of them. His name was changed to Balthazar, and he grew up to become the king’s trusted servant. 

Daniel also possessed magical powers, which was another well-known eunuch stereotype, as he was a renowned interpreter of both visions and dreams.

Kinda reminds me of another Old Testament figure who was sold into slavery as a boy, becomes an entrusted advisor to the pharaoh after correctly interpreting his dreams? 

Why, that would be Joseph. Of Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fame. 

And it wasn’t just prophets. You know who else shared a lot of qualities with eunuchs in the Byzantine imagination: Angels. 

And this connection makes a ton of sense, when you learn what eunuchs dressed like and what their functions were.  

For one, eunuchs were very often dressed in white robes. And at court, these robes were upgraded to elaborate costumes with distinctive jewelry that I wish I could describe, but there isn’t much detail that survives on that, unfortunately. Some, we know, donned swords. And the highest-ranking ones wore outer robes of gold or had gold collars trimmed with pearls.  

Eunuchs regulated access to the palace, controlled the palace doors, protected private areas, and supervised ceremonies. Like angels, the cherubim and the seraphim and what-have-you, eunuchs were also arranged in a hierarchy. I won’t go through all of them, but here are a few roles that only eunuchs of the T&J era could have.  

Close to the bottom was the cupbearer, who was responsible for provisioning and serving beverages to the emperor and empress. The cupbearer accompanied the emperor when he left the palace — if he left the palace LMAO — and was responsible for the emperor’s own special cup.

Above the cupbearer were the masters of the empress’ and emperor’s table. They organized imperial banquets — drawing up invitations, seating arrangements and entertainment — and when on campaign, they marched at the emperor’s side and made sure he had whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it.  

Next up in importance was the eunuch in charge of the imperial wardrobe, which included the emperor’s apparel, but also lamps, shoes, swords, uniforms for his servants, pharmaceuticals, and a large amount of silver. This eunuch also supervised the emperor’s dressers, slept in the imperial chamber, carried the holy icons of Christ in religious processions, signaled the emperor’s presence at ceremonies, gave the signal for the opening of the curtain that hid the emperor from view, and received the imperial vestments that the emperor was to wear. He was the only person allowed to touch the imperial vestments without permission.   

But the eunuch of the absolute highest rank in the palace was the Head of the Sacred Bedchamber — Narses’ position.

Now, these titles and job descriptions were written up more than two centuries after T&J’s time in the palace. But overall, the list presents a pretty accurate picture of the many visible roles eunuchs played in palace life.

And what remained absolutely consistent throughout are the endless references to eunuchs carrying and ferrying messages. A job in the Bible frequently given by God to … angels! Here’s a pretty important message from the Gospel according to Luke:  

The Apostle Luke: In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin …  and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel said unto her, ‘Fear not, Mary … thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.’ 

Part VI. Eunuchs, Generally Speaking

Generally speaking, Narses and Solomon weren’t the first Byzantine eunuchs to command an army, but it wasn’t until Justinian’s reign that eunuchs became increasingly common in prominent military roles. 

Kathryn Ringrose argues that eunuchs were more likely to be given such roles when an emperor was A. either unwilling or unable to lead his army himself, or B. when there was a really aggressive military policy to follow. 

In the case of the J in our T&J, a total homebody who … wanted to double the size of his empire. This checks. But Theodora and Justinian were also people who saw and promoted talent in the midst of great need. During the Nika Riots and that three-pronged counterattack in the Hippodrome that ultimately saved the day … Narses went first. Ahead of two trained, career generals!  And the men keeping the records at the time … noticed.

The historian Agathias described Narses as:

Agathias: A slight, frail-looking man. He had unbelievable courage and competence. 

Procopius, in Wars?

Procopius: Narses, for his part, was a man of princely generosity and extraordinarily eager to help those who needed it. 

But Narses’ abilities, his being so highly esteemed … also had the undesired effect of making it extremely difficult for Justinian to ever let Narses go.

Last episode, Narses had helped Empress Theodora oust her husband’s loathsome Finance Minister, John, John the Cappadocian. But exactly one decade later, by the early spring of 551, Narses himself was ready to embark on a brand new chapter of his life. Narses was ready to retire. He had even built a gorgeous little Monophysite monastery in Turkey to retire in. With a magnificent church as well as a hospice for travelers. The abbey, too, Narses made sure, had a hefty endowment. 

So, picture Narses, who was about 70 years old by this point, puttering around his monastery grounds, getting it all prepped for his permanent move. He probably started this April day with a bit of scripture, then offered his input on the construction of the apiary. A stroll in the garden perhaps had him thinking it would soon be time to start planting the broad beans and pruning the oleander when … 
A message arrives; delivered into Narses’ own septuagenarian hands by a panting imperial postman.  

The letter is an order from Justinian, his emperor: Narses was to resume command in Italy.  

Narses is literally too old for this shit. He is also no beleaguered Belisarius, either. So, Narses’ reply is basically:  

Narses: Find me adequate resources to defeat the Goths or give up Italy. 

And Justinian … obeys. 

Now, I’m not going to get into the military minutiae of Narses’ reprisal other than to say he joins up again with his buddy, the general John. And does very well for himself.  

But the climax is his facing off against the Gothic King Totila in a battle that is one of my favorite moments.  

This pivotal battle occurs on the plain of a site called Busta Gallorum. Each of their armies sets up opposite one another, and they wait … a while, for someone to make the first move. Totila, to lift his men’s spirits, rides out alone, into the empty space between the two armies, and performs a ritualized horseback war dance the Gothic elite had picked up from the Huns. Because remember: the Huns were fucking cool.

Here’s how Procopius describes Totila’s war dance, and it is mesmerizing. 

Procopius: [Totila] was not at all reluctant to make an exhibition to the enemy of what manner of man he was. The armor in which he was clad was abundantly plated with gold and the ample adornments which hung from his cheek-plates, as well as from his helmet, were not only of purple, but in other respects befitting a king, marvelous in their abundance. And he himself, sitting upon a very large horse, began to perform the dance under arms skilfully between the armies. For he wheeled his horse round in a circle and then turned him again to the other side and so made him run round and round. And as he rode he hurled his javelin into the air and caught it again as it quivered above him, then passed it rapidly from hand to hand, shifting it with consummate skill, and he gloried in his practice in such matters, falling back on his shoulders, spreading his legs and leaning from side to side, like one who has been instructed with precision in the art of dancing from childhood. 

Totila orders his cavalry to charge, and he’d bet big on his cavalry. Too big — at least according to Procopius — before they can reach the Roman line, they are decimated by Narses’ arrows. The Goths lose 6,000 men and so many horses … that they cannot recover. And while this was not their final battle, it was Totila’s, whose injured body was rushed from the battlefield by a small band of royal retainers before he died. 

As for Narses’ story, scholar Robert Browning summed it up this way: 

Ultimately, it was Narses […] who brought the long Gothic war to its conclusion. He had not Belisarius’ dash and style. But he was a careful architect of victory, and so on July 20th 561, he took Verona, the last Gothic stronghold, and Justinian’s dream was accomplished. At once Narses, by now nearing 80, if not older, put in hand the military reorganization of Italy. And in spite of the ‘Pragmatic Sanction,’ by which civil government was restored in the peninsula, he was in effective control until Justinian’s death. He was the only one of the men around Justinian at the beginning of his reign who outlived him. When [Narses] died in about 575, he was reportedly aged ninety-five.

Part VII. Castrati and Wagenseil 

Eunuchs never took off in Western Europe the way they did in the Eastern Empire, but eunuchs did resurface there in a slightly different way; in the 17th and 18th centuries, as castrati.

This recording of Ave Maria made in 1904 was one of several songs performed by the Italian castrato singer, Alessandro Moreschi. He is the only castrato we know of to make solo recordings. He was also the last castrato ever in the Vatican. Let me repeat that: the Vatican. 

Born in 1858, Moreschi was 46 years-old when he recorded this. 
While we can’t hear him speaking, it does offer us an example of what a trained eunuch’s singing voice sounded like. Especially since there was a period of time when castrati were all the rage.  

The quality of Moreschi’s voice … it’s missing a certain saturation present in a soprano or even a countertenor. But there is something about the jumps from the upper register to the lower that’s shaky and plangent as it travels, and I must say, it moves me deeply.

The impetus behind producing the castrato voice in Western Europe came, disturbingly, from the Vatican in the late 1500s. The development of complex polyphonic church music required many more voices in the higher register. Like Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium, performed here by The Tallis Scholars. It boasts a grand total of forty polyphonic parts.

Since there was a papal injunction against women singing in public, boys and adult falsettists were used until a decision was made at some point by some men somehow that castrating boys was the solution.

Yet, that doesn’t entirely explain the castrati phenomena. The widespread use of castrati can actually be explained by the popularity of something that arrived on the Italian musical scene in the early 17th century. And that was: Opera.

Opera arose from the festive musical entertainments of the Renaissance Florentine court. And pretty soon the new musical drama spread rapidly to other major cities in Italy. Venice opened Italy’s first opera house in 1637.

And at that point, most of the professional singers available to staff opera houses were … in the church choirs. Even when women did take to the stage, many still preferred the castrato voice. And the increasing demand for them from theater audiences meant that over time, choral church castrati and opera castrati became two separate careers. 

Now, the rise and fall of the castrati correlates closely with that of the opera seria, a style of opera oriented around a serious historical drama and the solo voice. When the opera seria reached its peak in the middle of the 18th century, so, too, did the castrati. 

A time during which they were basically international rock stars that conveniently came with their own birth control. 

In a fascinating historical sidenote: When the then US Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, was living in Paris, he had an on-again-off-again lover and her name was Maria Cosway. A 27-year-old married artist, Maria left Jefferson, her husband, Richard, and the child that she bore that year, which was 1790, to run off with Luigi Marchesi, an Italian opera singer and castrati.  

According to historian Annette Gordon-Reed:

Cosway traveled the [European] continent with Marchesi, apparently becoming, for a time, a late eighteenth-century equivalent of a groupie.

In the 20th century, the physiological effects of long-term castration were studied, although not on castrati. At least not that I’ve been able to find. We do, however, have data on the last surviving eunuchs of both the Ottoman and Qing dynasty imperial courts.

And we have that data due to the efforts of a single man. A German doctor named Ferdinand Wagenseil. 

Now, Wagenseil was an anatomist, and in a flicker of coincidence, he found himself at different points in his early career working both in Istanbul in 1927 and then in Beijing in 1933. Wagenseil thought making a record of this highly-specific, aging population would be worthwhile.

But before I go any further into his findings, I want to convey to you how incredibly nervous I was that Wagenseil was going to turn out to be some kind of Nazi eugenicist. But not only did he never join the party, Wagenseil was very vocal in his opposition to the Third Reich. Railing against them in lectures and aiding those who were persecuted. 

Now, with respect to the eunuch population Wagenseil studied, he found some things. For one, kyphosis of the spine. Which is an abnormal rounding of the upper back. A mark of severe osteoporosis in women, kyphosis was common in eunuchs.

He also found that the breast tissue in eunuchs was often enlarged, and their prostates either remained small, or had disappeared altogether. The prostate is one of the primary producers of the fluid that transports sperm in semen.

Now, the eunuchs of the Ottoman court that Wagenseil studied were Black; typically enslaved Ethiopian or Sudanese men, who were responsible for the Sultan’s harem. If you want to learn more about them, and I highly recommend that you do, Episode 369 of the Ottoman History Podcast titled ‘The Sultan’s Eunuch,’ with scholar Jane Hathaway, is both a great resource — and a listen — on Ottoman eunuchs.

Unlike the vast majority of Byzantine eunuchs, the procedure for their Ottoman and Qing dynasty counterparts, was one of double-castration. That is, both the penis and the scrotum were removed. Although it should be noted that the eunuchs of the Chinese imperial court were typically castrated after puberty. Some even already had wives and children. 

The specifics of their procedure had been recorded by a British man named George Carter Stent who’d been residing in Beijing in 1878. And it’s rough, not going to lie.

George Carter Stent: Specialists performed the operation in an establishment maintained outside one of the palace gates in the imperial city, and the trade was handed down from father to son. The subject reclined on a broad bench, and the genitalia were anesthetized with a secret agent known only to the surgeon. Two assistants held the spread legs, and a third assistant secured the arms. The surgeon stood between the legs armed with a curved knife, grasped the scrotum and penis with his left hand, and asked the candidate or his parents to consent to the procedure. If the answer was yes, the genitalia (scrotum, penis, and testes) were removed with a single cut. A plug made of pewter was introduced into the urethra to prevent stricture formation. The wound was washed three times with a solution of boiled pepper and covered with a piece of soft, moistened paper. With the support of two assistants the subject was made to walk around the room for two to three hours. For the following three days, the subject was not allowed to drink liquids or to urinate. On the fourth day, the dressing and plug were removed, and if the subject was able to urinate the operation was considered a success. Healing took approximately 100 days. 

Sadly, but perhaps, not surprisingly, urinary incontinence was said to be a common problem. The amputated genitalia, referred to as ‘the precious’ or ‘the treasures,’ were preserved in alcohol inside of a jar. Eunuchs of the Chinese imperial court were required to present them each time they received a promotion.  

Conclusion

Why did eunuchs go away? What led to, for lack of a better word, their extinction? Were they, in fact, a third gender? 

Scholar Kathryn Ringrose believes that Byzantine society classed eunuchs as a separate gender category. She argues that they were reared in patterns of behavior that were considered to be normal for them: specific body language, a certain kind of bearing, specific facial expressions, distinctive voice patterns and body ornaments, plus characteristic dress. All of these traits set them aside and marked them out as a group, separate from other men. And separate as well as safe for women. 

I don’t know if I subscribe to the whole third gender argument, although I understand why it’s attractive to some.

What I really find really incredible, though, is just how long eunuchism endured, which happens to be throughout most of recorded history. They appear as court servants in Mesopotamian texts as far back as 2000 BC and in ancient Egyptian and Chinese texts as well.

The key word here, I believe, is ‘court.’ Eunuchs were primarily a feature of court life. And court life is exclusive, out-of-touch, elite life. Which never goes away and can get really fucking weird. 

E! News anchor: Kanye West surprises Kim with a hologram of her late father …

Robert Kardashian Hologram: Look at you! You’re 40 and all grown up.

ET anchor [00:00 -00:04]: Can we talk about Barbra’s revelation last year about cloning her dogs?  |

BBC Host: Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson is spending millions trying to turn back time on his body … Bryan Johnson:  I refer to myself as a professional, rejuvenation athlete.  |

Whether it’s a hologram of a deceased person saying things they’ve never said. Or Barbra Streisand cloning her dog two times. Or undergoing invasive, experimental treatments to reduce your biological age …

While I have the capacity to imagine these things, am I likely to ever encounter them or do them? No. Because I am several orders of magnitude away from having that kind of money to burn. 

What I do think is that eunuchs were a phenomenon we can recognize today — at least on some level — as something powerful, super-wealthy people got into. And stayed into. For thousands of years.  

So, why did that stop? Powerful, super-wealthy people have not gone away … 

It could be that tastes evolve. It could also be that the idea of eunuchs simply evolved, too. Because let’s not kid ourselves. Domestic servitude is intrinsically neutered work. Once they cross their employer’s threshold, they are supposed to be sexless. Skilled and nurturing, but sexless. 

Bringing this back to T&J’s Byzantium, the story of eunuchs at that time is one of genital mutilation and enslavement. Two events that, even independent of each other, would be a huge source of trauma, but coinciding with one another in the life of a young boy who would never see his family again, I honestly lack the adjectives for that. And sure, many were fed well and dressed well. But they were not free. And you could literally say or do whatever hurtful thing you wanted to them, and they were just supposed to take it. 

Even Narses, for everything that he did for T&J on the battlefield, he was never given a formal title, like the Master of Soldiers or even Count of the Sacred Stables. Sources can only describe him in vague terms, as a commander and a general. Again, I like to think he was, but we don’t actually eve know if he was ever formally given his freedom …  

And this was all so that the nobility — emperors and empresses, especially — could engage in heavenly Cosplay; as gods, with their very own league of angels. 

And angels? Well, the thing about angels is that they were created to be the perfect servants. And perfect servants? Have no feelings. 

Outro/Wrap

Research, scripting, narration, and editing for this episode were all done by me, Christine Laskowski.

Scoring and musical arrangements for T&J were also written and performed by me in collaboration with the idyllic Jack Butler. The T&J logo was designed by Meredith Montgomery.

Procopius of Caesarea was voiced by Michael de la Bedoyere, Paul of Aegina by Till Boller, St. Anna the Younger by Rebecca Falcon-Taylor, and Euphratas by Lenny Rosen. The vitae-inspired mini-play was performed by Walt Hickey as the Narrator, Peter Lowien as the Eunuch and Matt Nolte as St. Andrew the Fool. The Apostle Luke was voiced by Alex Heinlein, Agathias by Jack Latimer, the reprisal of Narses courtesy of Mark Nelson  and George Carter Stent by Chris Doyle.

Additional sources for this episode are available in the show notes.

If you liked what you’ve heard, spread the word to  all of your friends, loved ones, neighbors, coworkers and baristas. Leave a nice note in the review section wherever you’re getting your podcasts. Follow and donate on Patreon – that’s patreon.com/tandjpodcast.

Now, enjoy the outro because I wrote it just for you.   

Raised in the Shade

There goes the whimsy Quince marmalade

He floats when you beckon He was raised in the shade
What’s the dilemma? The soil needs a spade

There’s nothing to it He was raised in the shade

I am a man …

Inquiry’s empty They’re rarely born but made

How could you do it? He was raised in the shade

Woe to Armenia,Paphlagonia and its strays

They’re boys ‘til you do it Make ‘em raised in the shade

I am a man … I am a man …