Eunuchs have a long, brutal, and unmistakably global history.
More than 2,000 years ago, Alexander the Great took his favorite eunuch from Darius, the defeated king of Persia. At the other end of the timeline, the last imperial Chinese eunuch died only a few decades ago.
In the intervening 2,300 plus years, eunuchs served as Byzantine generals, Ottoman power brokers, imperial courtiers, celebrated Italian singers, and at times prized lovers.
They could rise astonishingly high.
Unable to sire heirs, they were often considered uniquely trustworthy. The loss of one’s private parts could, paradoxically, be a career advantage.
That doesn’t make the reality any less grim. In some cases (details of which may test your tolerance) castration wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to them.
Who were they? Let’s take a look.
Why Eunuchs Rose in Elite Courts
Bagoas
Patron: Alexander the Great, 4th century BC
Bagoas is the eunuch’s eunuch.
Originally attached to the court of Darius III, the defeated king of Persia, Bagoas entered Alexander the Great’s orbit after the conquest. Ancient sources describe him as young, trained in courtly performance, and already familiar with elite power.
Alexander and Bagoas appear to have had a close personal relationship. Some ancient writers suggest they were lovers, using the Greek term erōmenos to imply a sexually submissive male partner. This remains disputed and cannot be proven.
The clearest—and most explicit—account comes from the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus. He describes Alexander publicly kissing Bagoas at a festival, to the approval of the crowd. This suggests the relationship was widely recognized.
Curtius, however, is openly hostile to court favorites and portrays Bagoas as manipulative and effeminate, a bias that needs to be read with caution.
Plutarch is more restrained. But he still hints at intimacy, noting Alexander’s evident affection without dwelling on sexual detail.
What is clear is that Bagoas never held formal power. He commanded no troops and held no office.
But he had something more valuable: personal access to Alexander. He also functioned as an intermediary with Persian elites, a role that mattered in a court trying to govern a newly conquered empire.
Bagoas’s influence was informal, personal, and dependent. But in a world built on proximity to power, that was often enough.
Sporus
Patron: Nero, 1st century AD
Sporus’s story is one of the bleakest in Roman history.
He entered Nero’s life after the death of the emperor’s wife, Poppaea Sabina. Ancient rumor held that Nero himself killed her—kicking her while she was pregnant.
So the depth of his grief is open to question. But her absence clearly obsessed him.
Although Nero remarried, no one replaced Poppaea in his affections. In keeping with his theatrical instincts, he ordered agents to search for a beautiful young boy who resembled her. When they found one, Nero had him castrated.
He renamed the boy Sporus “Poppaea Sabina.”
Nero forced Sporus to dress in his dead wife’s clothes, wear her hairstyle, and appear publicly as his spouse. Roman sources describe a mock wedding and refer to Sporus as “wife” rather than concubine.
This was not private eccentricity. It was imperial spectacle.
After Nero’s suicide, Sporus’ situation only worsened. The new emperor, Vitellius, announced his intention to stage him in the Colosseum, where he would be publicly assaulted and killed as part of a grotesque reenactment.
Sporus took his own life before this could happen. He was about 20 years old.
Narses
Patron: Justinian, 6th century AD
By the sixth century, eunuchs were deeply embedded in the Eastern Roman Empire. Unlike the Latin West, Byzantium had centuries of experience using eunuchs as administrators, diplomats, treasurers—and, more surprisingly, military commanders.
This is where Narses comes in.
He was already a palace eunuch when he entered the service of Emperor Justinian. Narses held no hereditary power and commanded no natural faction. His authority came entirely from the emperor, which made him loyal in a way ambitious aristocratic generals often were not.
That loyalty paid off.
Narses went on to become one of the most effective generals of late antiquity. He played a decisive role in Justinian’s reconquest of Italy, defeating the Ostrogoths and later the Franks. His victories brought the Italian peninsula back under imperial control—briefly, but dramatically.
After the campaign, Narses paraded captured enemies and treasure through the streets of Rome. This ceremonial display is often described as the last Roman triumph, making him, improbably, the final general to reenact one of the empire’s oldest rituals.
Even in extreme old age (late 80s) the Lombards reportedly delayed their invasion of Italy out of respect or fear of his reputation. They moved only after his death.
Not bad for a court eunuch.
Peter Abelard
Era: early 12th century France
Peter Abelard was one of the most charismatic figures of medieval Europe. A brilliant theologian and rhetorician, he was famous for his sharp intellect and prodigious memory.
Students flocked to hear him lecture. Contemporary accounts suggest women admired him just as enthusiastically.
That popularity proved disastrous. Despite taking vows of chastity, Abelard began an affair with one of his students, Héloïse, the highly intelligent niece of a canon of Notre-Dame.
When her family discovered the relationship, they arranged a brutal punishment. Abelard was attacked in his lodgings and castrated.
Unlike Narses, this did not result in a career upgrade.
Abelard spent the rest of his life moving between monasteries, repeatedly accused of heresy and periodically silenced by church authorities. His intellectual influence endured, but his personal freedom did not.
On the brighter side, he was eventually buried with Héloïse. Their joint tomb was assembled after their deaths and later transferred to Paris. It’s now one of the most visited monuments in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Farinelli
Era: early 18th century
Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, known as Farinelli, was the most famous opera singer in Europe in the 18th century.
Although his family was reasonably comfortable, Farinelli’s father died when he was young, leaving them financially vulnerable. By the age of 12, Farinelli was already an exceptional singer. To preserve his voice, he was castrated before puberty.
This was not unusual. In 18th century Italy, an estimated 5,000 boys a year underwent the same procedure. Because castration was technically illegal, families often claimed an accident or congenital defect.
The gamble paid off. Farinelli became a sensation across Italy and later across Europe. He attracted admirers ranging from aristocrats to cultural figures such as Casanova.
Early in his career, Farinelli was tightly managed by his ambitious brother, Riccardo. But by his mid-20s, at the height of his fame, he took control of his own career.
At the request of the Spanish queen, Farinelli moved to Madrid and became the official court singer. He performed nightly for King Philip V for years and was widely credited with easing the king’s severe depression.
His role went well beyond music; he became a trusted and well-paid fixture of court life.
By the time he appeared in London in 1734, Farinelli was earning around £5,000 a year. It was an extraordinary sum, roughly equivalent to many millions today. He was rich, idolized, and professionally unrivaled.
His adult superstardom was built on childhood sacrifice. But unlike many others, Farinelli retained something rare: autonomy. He retired on his own terms, wealthy, respected, and comfortably installed in a substantial estate.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to famous historical eunuchs. You may enjoy these other history guides:
- The Battle of Hastings
- History of the War of the Roses
- History of Medieval and Tudor England
- Life of Mary Queen of Scots
- Life of Anne Boleyn
- Tudor queens of England
- Power Women of Medieval & Tudor England
- Meet the Plantagenets
- Historical Mistresses and Favorites
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