AGAINST EUTROPIUS BY CLAUDIAN
Against Eutropius is a two-book panegyric poem and invective by Claudius Claudianus (ca. 370-ca. 404), a pagan Latin poet born in Alexandria. The subject, still living at the time of writing, 399, was Eutropius (ca. 353-99), a eunuch of Assyrian origin and the imperial chamberlain in Constantinople. He had just risen to be consul in the east, much to Claudian’s disgust, but fell from power between the writing of the two books and was soon afterwards put to death.
Presented here is everything of Greek love interest, which mostly concerns Eutropius’s childhood. The translation is by M. Platnauer in the Loeb Classical Library volume 135, published by the Harvard University Press in 1922.
I 44-80
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He is destined from his very cradle to bloody tortures; straight from his mother’s womb he is hurried away to be made a eunuch; no sooner born than he becomes a prey to suffering. Up hastens the Armenian, skilled by operating with unerring knife to make males womanish and to increase their loathly value by such loss. He drains the body’s life-giving fluid from its double source and with one blow deprives his victim of a father’s function and the name of husband. Eutropius lay doubtful of life, and the severed sinews drew a numbness deep down into his furthest brain. Are we to praise the hand that robbed an enemy of his strength? Or shall we rather blame the fates? It would have been better had he remained a man; his very disgrace has proved a blessing to him. Had he had his full manly vigour he would still have been a slave. |
Cunabula prima cruentis [45] debet suppliciis; rapitur castrandus ab ipso ubere; suscipiunt matris post viscera poenae. advolat Armenius certo mucrone recisos edoctus mollire mares damnoque nefandum aucturus pretium; fecundum corporis imbrem [50] sedibus exhaurit geminis unoque sub ictu eripit officium patris nomenque mariti. ambiguus vitae iacuit, penitusque supremum in cerebrum secti traxerunt frigora nervi. Laudemusne manum, quae vires abstulit hosti, [55] an potius fato causam tribuisse queramur? profuerat mansisse virum; felicior extat opprobrio; serviret adhuc, si fortior esset. |
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After this he is dragged from one Assyrian mart to another; next in the train of a Galatian slave-merchant he stands for sale in many a market and knows many diverse houses. Who could tell the names of all his buyers? Among these Ptolemy, servant of the post-house,[1] was one of the better known. Then Ptolemy, tired of Eutropius’ long service to his lusts, gives him to Arinthaeus;—gives, for he is no longer worth keeping nor old enough to be bought. How the scorned minion wept at his departure, with what grief did he lament that divorce! “Was this thy fidelity, Ptolemy? Is this my reward for a youth lived in thine arms, for the bed of marriage and those many nights spent together in the inn? Must I lose my promised liberty? Leav’st thou Eutropius a widow, cruel wretch, forgetful of such wonderful nights of love? How hard is the lot of my kind! When a woman grows old her children cement the marriage tie and a mother’s dignity compensates for the lost charms of a wife. Me Lucina, goddess of childbirth, will not come near; I have no children on whom to rely. Love perishes with my beauty; the roses of my cheeks are faded. What wits can save my wretched back from blows? How can I, an old man, please?” So saying he entered upon the skilled profession of a pander. His whole heart was in his work; he knew his business well and was master of every stratagem for the undoing of chastity. |
Inde per Assyriae trahitur commercia ripae; hinc fora venalis Galata ductore frequentat [60] permutatque domos varias; quis nomina possit tanta sequi? miles stabuli Ptolomaeus in illis notior: hic longo lassatus paelicis usu donat Arinthaeo; neque enim iam dignus haberi nec maturus emi. cum fastiditus abiret, [65] quam gemuit, quanto planxit divortia luctu! “haec erat, heu, Ptolomaee, fides? hoc profuit aetas in gremio consumpta tuo lectusque iugalis et ducti totiens inter praesaepia somni? libertas promissa perit? viduumne relinquis [70] Eutropium tantasque premunt oblivia noctes, crudelis? generis pro sors durissima nostri! femina, cum senuit, retinet conubia partu, uxorisque decus matris reverentia pensat. nos Lucina fugit, nec pignore nitimur ullo. [75] cum forma dilapsus amor; defloruit oris gratia: qua miseri scapulas tutabimur arte? qua placeam ratione senex?” Sic fatus acutum adgreditur lenonis opus, nec segnis ad artem mens erat officiique capax omnesque pudoris [80] hauserat insidias. |
I 336-345
| What noble deed did a eunuch ever do? What wars did such an one fight, what cities did he found? Moreover, nature created the former [women], the hand of man the latter [eunuchs], whether it was from fear of being betrayed by her shrill woman’s voice and her hairless cheeks that clever Semiramis[2], to disguise her sex from the Assyrians, first surrounded herself with beings like her, or the Parthians employed the knife to stop the growth of the first down of manhood and forced their boys, kept boys by artifice, to serve their lusts by thus lengthening the years of youthful charm. | quid nobile gessit eunuchus? quae bella tulit? quas condidit urbes? illas praeterea rerum natura creavit, hos fecere manus: seu prima Semiramis astu [340] Assyriis mentita virum, ne vocis acutae mollities levesve genae se prodere possent, hos sibi coniunxit similes; seu Parthica ferro luxuries vetuit nasci lanuginis umbram servatoque diu puerili flore coegit [345] arte retardatam Veneri servire iuventam. |
[1] I take Ptolemy to have been a stationarius, i.e. a servant in a public post-house, but there is possibly some covert allusion to stabulum in the sense of prostibulum, a brothel. [Translator’s footnote]
[2] Semiramis was a semi-legendary Assyrian queen of the 9th century BC who disguised her sex in order to be ruler. [Website footnote]
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