The Roman Castrati - Book Review (Part 1)

[Doug1970 (imported)]

Shaun Tougher, The Roman Castrati: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021 [Nov 2020]) x+217 pp. ISBN 978-1-8472-5168-8 (hardback); 978-1-4411-7441-3 (ePDF); 978-1-3501-6404-8 (eBook)

This is a slim book, but one that has been eagerly awaited (I myself have been waiting several years.) It is claimed as the first monograph on the subject of eunuchs in the Roman world, although that claim is slightly misleading, as I shall explain. I also have issues with the title. The word castrati (the plural of castrato) is Italian, not Latin and a musicologist might reasonably expect a book about eunuch singers in churches and theatres in Rome from the 16th to 18th centuries. (The Papal States did not allow women on stage, so their roles in opera were taken by the castrati, some of whom dressed and lived as women.) "Roman Empire" is also misleading as the time span is actually from the first century BC to the sixth century AD, i.e. from the Late Republic to the century after the fall of the Western Empire, with much of the emphasis being on the Eastern Empire, the Greek-speaking world. That is not surprising, as the author is Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University, and author of The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (2008, pbk 2010), to which this book is claimed as a prequel. He organised a conference on eunuchs in history in 1999, and edited the proceedings, published as Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond in 2002.

Tougher writes "The original intention was to write a book that was accessible to a broad audience, not one that was just for other academics and students." I worry that this may have resulted in too much of a compromise. After a 6-page introduction, there are 7 chapters occupying 130 pages of text, 40 pages of endnotes, 25 pages of bibliography and an index. As can be seen from the contents list below, the chapters are arranged in a chronological sequence, but deal with separate aspects or case studies, rather than constituting a comprehensive history of the subject. This is why I said that to describe it as a monograph is misleading: it is rather a collection of separate (albeit linked) essays. Indeed, each chapter has its own conclusion. This does have the advantage, however, that it can be reviewed in instalments - and that is exactly what I propose to do.

Contents:

Introduction: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire

1 Eunuchs of the Great Mother: the Galli in Rome

2 Greeks Bearing Gifts: Terence's The Eunuch

3 Of Seed and Spring: Eunuch Slaves of Imperial Rome

4 Born Eunuchs: The Case of Favorinus of Arles

5 Eusebius and His Kind: Court Eunuchs of the Late Roman Empire

6 'Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven': Self-Castration and Eunuchs in Early Christianity

7 Military Eunuchs: The Case of Narses