Nero
Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fifth emperor of Rome and the last
of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which fell due to the sheer incompetence and
outrageous behavior of their emperor. His treatment of Christians is the basis
for being named the Beast of the Apocalpyse in the Book of Revelations (if you
add up all the roman numerals in his full, it add up to 666). Having ruled for thirteen
years and eight months, his obscene activities have cemented his infamy nearly
two thousand years later.
The
boy Sporus mentioned here may have been what is called a “puer delicates”. That
is, child-slave chosen by his master for his beauty as a "boy toy"
and castrated to preserve that beauty. Which was an understood, if not
standard, tradition in Roman society. Thus Nero’s action were not totally without
precedent, but one did not marry such people.
This
text comes from Suetonius’s 12 Caesars,
written in 121 BCE. One criticism of this work is that the author did focus on
rumor and old gossip as much as he did on historical facts. On the other hand,
much of the material on Nero’s scandal ridden reign has been backed up by many,
many other contemporary sources. So we may assume most of what is written below
is true.
“Having
tried to turn the boy Sporus into a girl by castration, he went through a
wedding ceremony with him- dowry, bridal veil, and all- took him to his palace
with a great crowd in attendance, and treated him as a wife. A rather amusing
joke is still going the rounds: the world would have been a happier place had
Nero’s father, Domitius, married that sort of wife. He dressed Sporus in fine
clothes normally worn by an empress, and took him his own litter not only to
every Greek assize [judicial court] and fair but actually through the Street of
the Sigillaria at Rome, kissing him amorously now and then.
“The
lecherous passion he felt for his mother, Agrippina, was notorious, but her enemies
would not let him consummate it, fearing that if he did she would become even
more powerful and ruthless than hitherto. So he found a new mistress said to be
her spitting image; some say that he did in fact commit incest with Agrippina
every time they rode in the same litter - the stains on the clothes proved it.
“Nero
practiced every kind of obscenity, and after defiling almost every part of his
body finally invented a novel game: He was released from a cage dressed in the
skins of wild animals, and attacked the private parts of men and women who
stood bound by the stakes. After working up sufficient excitement by this
means, he was dispatched –shall we say? - by his freedman Doryphorus.
Doryphorus now married him - just as he himself had been married to Sporus. And
on the wedding night, [Nero] imitated the screams and moans of a girl being
deflowered.”
2019 has ended! Another long year of pandering to my reading addiction. But my folly can be your joy. For this installment I decided to list all of the books that I've read this year that I have deemed worthwhile. Again, these are just the good ones. There have been just as many that were terrible, which I will spare you. For more suggestions look at my What I've Been Reading page. Enjoy and Caveat Emptor! 
