![]() Nero went so far as to call this newest bride by his dead wife’s name, “Poppaea Sabina.” “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. “ (Since it was 67AD, no one did.) Next, he dressed Sporus in his dead wife’s clothes and jewelry, assigning maids and servants to style him like a queen.įinally, he married Sporus, commanding everyone to refer to him as “Empress.” This wedding was not a small or secret affair, either. Though Ancient Greece is widely remembered for its acceptance of homosexuality (specifically bear-on- twink dynamics between erastes-eromenos lovers), Rome, at the time of Nero’s rule, derided gay sex even while its armies used it liberally.įixated on Sporus, Nero took three terrible steps to “normalize” their relationship in his own unhinged way. First, he commanded Sporus to be castrated, offering obscene wealth to any wizard or surgeon who could transform him fully into a woman. ![]() Feminine and smooth-faced, Sporus allegedly bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea Sabina.Īnd so Nero decided toying with the teenager was an ideal distraction from his self-inflicted suffering.Īs we’re reminded constantly today, sexual “norms” flow in and out of fashion as arbitrarily as over-tweezed eyebrows or high-waisted pants. If ancient historians Tacitus and Suetonius are correct-and there are questions about their trustworthiness as narrators-Sporus was a freedman of around 16 when the bereft Emperor Nero laid eyes on him. ![]() Which is how poor Sporus enters the story.
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