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three pairs of lovers with space

DOMITIAN AND EARINUS, CA. 82-94 AD

 

Presented here are all three primary sources for the Pergamese eunuch slave-boy Earinus (born ca. AD 77) or Flavius Earinus as he became in AD 94 when he was manumitted (the last recorded event in his life), and took the nomen of his hitherto master and lover, the Roman Emperor Domitian (24 October 51 – 18 September 96).

Though little is known about Earinus, it is still as much as is known about any boy loved by a Roman.[1] What can probably be deduced has been set out by C. Henriksén, in An Imperial Eunuch in the Light of the Poems of Martial and Statius.[2] According to him, Earinus was probably brought to Rome, aged between three and five, early in the reign of Domitian, for whom he was already destined. Ca. 82 is thus given in the title of this article as the start of their joint story (not their sexual relationhip, as to the start of which nothing at all can be deduced). Nothing is known of Earinus after 94 but, since he was a eunuch, he could easily have remained Domitian’s beloved until the emperor’s murder, when he would have been about nineteen.

 

Papirius Statius, Silvae III

Book Three of the Silvae (occasional verse) of the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius (ca. AD 45 - ca. 96) was written and probably published in 94.

The translation is by D. A. Slater, M.A. for The Silvae of Statius published by The Clarendon Press, Oxford in 1908 except for the title and the Preface, neither of which did he translate. These are by D. R. Shackleton Bailey for the Loeb Classical Library volume 206, published by the Harvard University Press in 2003. The English and Latin are presented in succession rather than side-by-side out of respect for the long lines of verse.

[Preface] xvii-xx

Setting forth the contents of Book III:

Statius to his friend Pollio greetings […]

Further, Earinus, our Germanicus’ freedman[3], knows how
long I put off his request, when he asked me to dedicate in
verse the hair that he was sending to Pergamene Asclepius
along with a jeweled box and mirror.[4] [20]

Statius Pollio suo salute […]

Earinus praeterea, Germanici
nostri libertus, scit quam diu desiderium eius moratus sim,
cum petisset ut capillos suos, quos cum gemmata pyxide
[20] et speculo ad Pergamenum Asclepium mittebat, versibus dedicarem.

Waterhouse John Wm. A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius. 1877
A Sick Child Brought into the Temple of Aesculapius by John William Waterhouse, 1877


III 4

This poem in hexametres was written specifically to commemorate the offering to Aesclapius of Earinus’s cut hair early that year, and is the source of almost all of what is known about him.

The Hair of Flavius Earinus              

SPEED, tresses, speed: and smooth be your passage
over the sea, as softly ye lie on the garlanded gold.
Speed! for gentle Cytherea[5] shall grant you fair voyaging.
She shall still the winds and haply take you from
the fearful bark and waft you overseas in her own shell. [5]             

Honoured are these tresses, the gift of Caesar’s favourite.
Take them, son of Phoebus[6], take them with joy and show them
to thy father ever-young. Let him match with Bacchus
their bright lustre and long account them his brother’s locks.
Perchance of his grace he will cut off one of his own [10]
immortal tresses and set it for thee in another coffer of gold.             

More blessed by far art thou, Pergamus, than pine-clad Ida,
though Ida exult in the cloud wherein Jove’s favourite was snatched away.
Why, Ida gave to the gods him on whom Juno never looks but with
a frown, and shrinks from his hand and refuses the nectar; [15]
thou art beloved of heaven and renowned for thy fair fosterling.
Thou hast sent to Latium a cupbearer on whom our
Roman Jove and Roman Juno both look with
kindly brows and both approve. Not without the will of the
gods above was such joy granted to the mighty lord of earth.[7] [20]     

Poynter Edward. Venus visits Aesculapius to ask him to remove a thorn from her foot 1880        
Venus visits Aesculapius to ask him to remove a thorn from her foot by Edward Poyntor, 1880

They say that as golden Venus drawn by her gentle swans
was journeying from the peaks of Eryx to the woods of Idaly,[8]
she entered the halls of Pergamus, where the staunch helper
of the sick, he who stays the swift-ebbing fates,
the kindly god, broods over his health-giving snake. [25]
There, even in front of the god’s altars she marked
a child at play, fair as a star, with wondrous comeliness.[9]
She was duped for a moment by the form that flashed upon her
and thought him one of her own Cupids: but he had no bow,
nor any shadowy wings upon his shining shoulders. [30]
In wonder at his boyish beauty she gazed upon his curly brow
and said: ‘Shalt thou go to towered Rome?
Shall Venus slight thee and let thee bear with a mean dwelling
and the yoke of common slavery? Not so I, even I,
will find for thy beauty the master it deserves. Come now with me, [35]
come, child, and in my swift car I will bear thee through the sky
to be a Carious gift to a king. No mean thraldom shall await thee.
Thou art destined to be the favourite of the palace.[10]
Never, never, in all the world have I beheld or bred
so fair a child. Endymion and Atys,[11] unchallenged, [40]
will yield to thee, and he who died for fruitless love of a
fountain-shadow.[12] The Nymph of the blue waters had chosen thee
before Hylas,[13] and more resolutely seized thine urn and drawn thee to her.
Child, thou dost surpass all: only he, to whom I will give thee, is comelier.’  

Domitian. Aureus 87. Rev. Germania         
Gold aureus of Domitian, AD 87. On the reverse sits Germania, whom Domitian claimed to have triumphed over, whence the poets addrss him as Germanicus

So spoke Venus—and raising him with her own hands [45]
through the buxom air, bade him sit in her swan-drawn car.
Forthwith they came to the hills of Latium, and to the home
of old-world Evander,[14] which renowned Germanicus,[15] lord of the world,
now adorns with new palaces and makes fair as the stars on high.
Then ‘twas the goddess’s first thought to see, what tiring best became [50]
his locks, what raiment was fittest to make the roses burn on his cheeks,
what golden ornaments were worthy of his hands and of his neck.
She knew our Master’s piercing eye. She had herself with
bounteous hand bestowed on him his bride and knitted the bond.
So cunningly she decked those locks, so shrewdly unfolded that Tyrian [55]
purple,[16] and gave him the radiance of her own light;—the troops of slaves
and the favourites of other days gave way forthwith. He it is who now pours out
the first cup of our great ruler, and in hands fairer than the crystal bears goblets
of crystal and of ponderous fluor spar: so that the wine tastes sweeter.             

Boy, thou art beloved of heaven, in that thou art chosen [60]
to sip first of the Emperor’s nectar and to touch so often
the strong right hand that Getae and Persians, Armenians
and Indians are fain to kiss;[17] born under a gracious star
art thou and abundantly blessed by the grace of the gods.
Once, that the first down might not mar the bloom [65]
upon thy cheeks, or that fair face be darkened,
the god of thy native land came from lofty Pergamus
over the seas. None other was suffered to take away thy
manhood, but only the son of Phoebus, he of the gentle hand
and quiet skill, with never a wound and without pain [70]
unsexed thee.[18] Yet, even so, care-stricken and affrighted
was Cytherea, fearing pain for her favourite.
That was before the splendid mercy of our ruler set to preserve
all men whole from their birth. To-day it is forbidden
to change and unman our youth.[19] Nature rejoices now to see [75]
only the sex she saw at birth, and no slave-mother any longer
fears, by reason of that baleful law, to bear a man child.   

Pergamon the Akropolis of by Friedrich Thierch. 1882
The Akropolis of Pergamon (site of Earinos's dedication to Asklepios) by Friedrich Thierch, 1882

Thou too, hadst thou been born in a later year,
wert now a man; with bearded cheeks and more virile prime
thou hadst sent other gifts to the temple of Phoebus. [80]
Now to the shores of thy country the bark must bear this lock
alone: our Lady of Paphos[20] has steeped it in rich essences,
and the three Graces have combed it with their young hands.
To this the purple lock of mangled Nisus, and the tress
that proud Achilles cherished for Spercheius will yield.[21] [85]
When first it was resolved to rob that snow-white brow
and forcefully despoil those shining shoulders,
unbidden the winged boy-Loves with their mother, the Paphian
queen,[22] flew to thee, and undid thy tresses and about thee cast a robe
of silk. Then with linked arrows they severed the lock [90]
and set it in the jewelled gold. Their mother herself, Cytherea,[23] caught it
as it fell and once and again anointed it with her mysterious perfumes.
Anon one of the thronging Loves, who, as it befell, had brought
in upturned hands a fair mirror framed in jewelled gold,
cried aloud: ‘Let us give this too—what gift more welcome!—[95]
to the shrines of his land, a treasure more -precious than gold.
Only do thou gaze upon it and leave a look for ever within.’
He ceased, and caught the boyish presentment and shut the glass.             

Then the fair boy lifted up his hands to heaven and said:
‘Gentle guardian of mankind, do thou (if such is my desert) vouchsafe [100]
for this gift to make-our Master young again with never-passing youth
and keep him safe for the world. Not I alone, but the land and sea
and stars beseech thee. Grant him, I pray, as many years
as the man of Ilium and he of Pylos lived.[24] Let him see the shrine of his
house and the Tarpeian temple grow old along with him, and rejoice!’ [105]
He ceased, and Pergamus marvelled that her altars rocked.

 

Capilli Flavi Earini

Ite, comae, facilemque precor transcurrite pontum,
ite coronato recubantes molliter auro;
ite, dabit cursus mitis Cytherea secundos
placabitque notos, fors et de puppe timenda
[5] transferet inque sua ducet super aequora concha.

Popelin Gustave engraved by Celeste Chole Moutet after Sacrifice to Asklepios
Engraving by Céleste Cholé-Moutet of Gustave Popelin's Offering to Asklepios

Accipe laudatos, iuvenis Phoebeie, crines
quos tibi Caesareus donat puer, accipe laetus
intonsoque ostende patri. sine dulce nitentes
comparet atque diu fratris putet esse Lyaei.
[10] forsan et ipse comae numquam labentis honorem,          
praemetet atque alio clusum tibi ponet in auro.   

Pergame, pinifera multum felicior Ida,
illa licet sacrae placeat sibi nube rapinae
(nempe dedit superis illum quem turbida semper
[15] Iuno videt refugitque manum nectarque recusat),          
at tu grata deis pulchroque insignis alumno
misisti Latio, placida quem fronte ministrum
Iuppiter Ausonius pariter Romanaque Iuno
aspiciunt et uterque probant. nec tanta potenti
[20] terrarum domino divum sine mente voluptas.,             

Dicitur Idalios Erycis de vertice lucos
dum petit et molles agitat Venus aurea cygnos,
Pergameas intrasse domos ubi maximus aegris
auxiliator adest et festinantia sistens
[25] fata salutifero mitis deus incubat angui.,          
hic puerum egregiae praeclarum sidere formae
ipsius ante dei ludentem conspicit aras.
ac primum subita paulum decepta figura
natorum de plebe putat; sed non erat illi
[30] arcus et ex umeris nullae fulgentibus umbrae.,          
miratur puerile decus, vultumque comasque
aspiciens “tune Ausonias” ait “ibis ad arces,
neglectus Veneri? tu sordida tecta iugumque
servitii vulgare feres? procul absit: ego isti
[35] quem meruit formae dominum dabo. vade age mecum,          
vade, puer: ducam volucri per sidera curru
donum immane duci; nec te plebeia manebunt
iura: Palatino famulus deberis amori.
nil ego, nil, fateor, toto tam dulce sub orbe
[40] aut vidi aut genui. cedet tibi Latmius ultro,          
Sangariusque puer, quemque irrita fontis imago
et sterilis consumpsit amor. te caerula Nais
mallet et adprensa traxisset fortius urna.
tu puer ante omnis; solus formosior ille
[45] cui daberis.” sic orsa leves secum ipsa per auras,          
tollit olorinaque iubet considere biga.
nec mora. iam Latii montes veterisque penates
Evandri, quos mole nova pater inclitus orbis
excolit et summis aequat Germanicus astris.
[50] tunc propior iam cura deae, quae forma capillis,          
optima, quae vestis roseos accendere vultus
apta, quod in digitis, collo quod dignius aurum.
norat caelestis oculos ducis ipsaque taedas
iunxerat et plena dederat conubia dextra.
[55] sic ornat crines, Tyrios sic fundit amictus,          
dat radios ignemque suum. cessere priores
deliciae famulumque greges; hic pocula magno
prima duci murrasque graves crystallaque portat
candidiore manu: crescit nova gratia Baccho. 

Askulepios. Head found at Melos
Head of Asklepios found at Melos

[60] Care puer superis, qui praelibare verendum,          
nectar et ingentem totiens contingere dextram
electus quam nosse Getae, quam tangere Persae
Armeniique Indique petunt! o sidere dextro
edite, multa tibi divum indulgentia favit.
[65] olim etiam, ne prima genas lanugo nitentes,          
carperet et pulchrae fuscaret gratia formae,
ipse deus patriae celsam trans aequora liquit
Pergamon. haud ulli puerum mollire potestas
credita, sed tacita iuvenis Phoebeius arte
[70] leniter haud ullo concussum vulnere corpus,          
de sexu transire iubet. tamen anxia curis
mordetur puerique timet Cytherea dolores.
nondum pulchra ducis clementia coeperat ortu
intactos servare mares; nunc frangere sexum
[75] atque hominem mutare nefas, gavisaque solos,          
quos genuit natura videt, nec lege sinistra
ferre timent famulae natorum pondera matres.   

Tu quoque nunc, iuvenis, genitus si tardius esses,
umbratusque genas et adultos fortior artus
[80] non unum gaudens Phoebea ad limina munus,          
misisses; patrias nunc solus crinis ad oras
naviget. hunc multo Paphie saturabat amomo,
hunc nova tergemina pectebat Gratia dextra.
huic et purpurei cedet coma saucia Nisi,
[85] et quam Sperchio tumidus servabat Achilles.,          
ipsi, cum primum niveam praecerpere frontem
decretum est umerosque manu nudare nitentes,
adcurrunt teneri Paphia cum matre volucres
expediuntque comas et serica pectore ponunt
[90] pallia. tunc iunctis crinem incidere sagittis,          
atque auro gemmisque locant; rapit ipsa cadentem
mater et arcanos iterat Cytherea liquores.
tunc puer e turba, manibus qui forte supinis
nobile gemmato speculum portaverat auro,
[95] “hoc quoque demus” ait “patriis (nec gratius ullum,         
munus erit) templis, ipsoque potentius auro.
tu modo fige aciem et vultus hic usque relinque.”
sic ait et speculum reclusit imagine rapta. 

At puer egregius tendens ad sidera palmas,
[100] “his mihi pro donis, hominum mitissime custos,          
si merui, longa dominum renovare iuventa
atque orbi servare velis! hoc sidera mecum,
hoc undae terraeque rogant. eat, oro, per annos
Iliacos Pyliosque simul, propriosque penates
[105] gaudeat et secum Tarpeia senescere templa “,          
sic ait et motas miratur Pergamos aras.

Domitian aureus 83 with Domitia Augusta on reverse
Gold aureus of Domitian, AD 82-3: on the obverse, himself; on the reverse, his wife Domitia whom Statius says approved of his boyfriend Earinus


Martial, Epigrams
IX

The ninth of the twelve books of epigrams by M. Valerius Martialis (AD 38/41-102/4), a Roman poet from Tarragonese Spain, was published in Rome in the autumn of 94. The translation is by D. R. Shackleton Bailey for the Loeb Classical Library volumes 95, published by the Harvard University Press in 1993.

IX 11

Name[25] born together with violets and roses, by which is named the best part of the year, which has the flavor of Hybla and Attic flowers and the fragrance of the proud bird’s nest; name sweeter than blessed nectar[26], by which Cybele’s boy and he who mixes the Thunderer’s cups[27] would rather be called, to which, if you sound it in the Parrhasian palace, Venuses and Cupids answer: that noble, soft, and dainty name I wished to put into polished verse. But, contumacious syllable, you rebel. And yet poets say Eiarinos; but they are Greeks[28] to whom nothing is denied, whom it beseems to chant “Āres, Åres.” We, who cultivate more austere Muses, cannot be so clever.  Nomen cum violis rosisque natum,
quo pars otima nominatur anni,
Hyblam quod sapit Atticosque flores,
quod nidos olet alitis superbae;
nomen nectare dulcius beato,
quo mallet Cybeles puer vocari
et qui pocula temperat Tonanti,
quod si Parrhasia sones in aula,
respondent Veneres Cupidinesque;
nomen nobile, molle, delicatum
versu dicere non rudi volebam:
sed tu, syllaba contumax, rebellas.
dicunt Eiarinon tamen poetae,
sed Graeci, quibus est nihil negatum
et quos Ἆρες Ἄρες decet sonare:
nobis non licet esse tam disertis,
qui Musas colimus severiores. 

 

IX 12

You have a name that designates the tender season of the year, when Cecropian bees raid the shortlived spring,[29] a name that deserved to be painted with Acidalian reed, that Cytherea rejoices to inscribe with her own needle, a name to be traced in letters made of Erythraean pearls or the Heliads’ jewel thumb-rubbed, one that cranes might raise to the stars with scribal feather,[30] one that belongs only in Caesar’s house.  Nomen habes teneri quod tempora nuncupat anni,
     cum breve Cecropiae ver populantur apes:
nomen Acidalia meruit quod harundine pingi,
     quod Cytherea sua scribere gaudet acu;
nomen Erythraeis quod littera facta lapillis,
     gemma quod Heliadum pollice trita notet;
quod pinna scribente grues ad sidera tollant;
     quod decet in sola Caesaris esse domo. 
Domitians Palace. Rear View. By Jean Claude Golvin 
Domitian's newly-built palace in Rome by Jean-Claude Golvin

 
IX 13

If autumn gave me my name, I should be Oporinos; if the shivering stars of winter, Chimerinos; named from summer's season you would call me Therinos; who is he to whom springtime gave a name?[31]  Si daret autumnus mihi nomen, Oporinos essem,
     horrida si brumae sidera, Chimerinos;
dictus ab aestivo Therinos tibi mense vocarer:
     tempora cui nomen verna dedere, quis est?

 

IX 16

The boy, his master’s favorite in all the palace, whose name means springtime, has dedicated his mirror, beauty’s counselor,[32] and his sweet locks as hallowed offerings to the god of Pergamum.[33] Happy the land appraised by such a gift! It would not rather possess the hair of Ganymede.[34]  Consilium formae speculum dulcisque capillos
     Pergameo posuit dona sacrata deo
ille puer tota domino gratissimus aula,
     nomine qui signat tempora verna suo.
elix quae tali censetur munere tellus!
     nec Ganymedeas mallet habere comas. 

 

IX 17

Revered grandson of Latona,[35] who with gentle herbs prevail upon the threads and short distaffs of the Fates, your boy has sent you from Latium’s city these locks his master praised, a vow fulfilled. And to his dedicated tresses he has added the bright disk whose judgment made his blooming countenance secure.[36] Do you preserve his youthful loveliness; let him be no less comely now that his hair is short than when it was long.  Latonae venerande nepos, qui mitibus herbis
     Parcarum exoras pensa brevesque colos,
hos tibi laudatos domino, rata vota, capillos
     ille tuus Latia misit ab urbe puer;
addidit et nitidum sacratis crinibus orbem,
     quo felix facies iudice tuta fuit.
tu iuvenale decus serva, ne pulchrior ille
     in longa fuerit quam breviore coma. 
Asklepios. Embroidery
Asklepios

IX 36

The Phrygian boy, famed joy of the other Jupiter, had seen the Ausonian page[37] with his hair newly shorn: “What your Caesar (look!) has allowed his young man, please allow yours, greatest of rulers,” said he. “Already the first down lies hidden by my long locks; already your Juno laughs at me and calls me a man.”[38] To him said the Heavenly Father: “Sweetest boy, not I but the case itself denies you what you ask.[39] My Caesar has a thousand pages like yourself; the vast palace has scarcely room for so many star-like youths. But if shorn hair gives you a manly look, whom else shall I have to mix the nectar?  Viderat Ausonium posito modo crine ministrum
     Phryx puer, alterius gaudia nota Iovis:
‘quod tuus ecce suo Caesar permisit ephebo,
     tu permitte tuo, maxime rector’ ait;
‘iam mihi prima latet longis lanugo capillis,
     iam tua me ridet Iuno vocatque virum.’
cui pater aetherius ‘puer o dulcissime’, dixit,
     ‘non ego quod poscis, res negat ipsa tibi:
Caesar habet noster similis tibi mille ministros
     tantaque sidereos vix capit aula mares;
at tibi si dederit vultus coma tonsa viriles,
     quis mihi qui nectar misceat alter erit?’ 

 

 

Cassius Dio, Roman History LXIX 11 ii-iv

Dio, a Roman consul, wrote his 80 books of Roman history down to the year 229 in the years down to that date and after 22 years of research.

The translation is by Earnest Cary and Herbert Foster in the Loeb Classical Library volume 126 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1925).

Accordingly, though he himself entertained a passion for a eunuch named Earinus, nevertheless, since Titus also had shown a great fondness for eunuchs, in order to insult his memory, he forbade that any person in the Roman Empire should thereafter be castrated.[40]  καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, καίπερ καὶ αὐτὸς Ἐαρίνου τινὸς εὐνούχου ἐρῶν, ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ Τίτος ἰσχυρῶς περὶ τοὺς ἐκτομίας ἐσπουδάκει, ἀπηγόρευσεν ἐπὶ ἐκείνου ὕβρει μηδένα ἔτι ἐν τῇ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ ἐκτέμνεσθαι. 
Domitian. Engraving of statue 

18th-century engraving of an ancient statue of Domitian

 

 

[1] No more is known, for example, about the far higher-profile Antinous, loved by the Emperor Hadrian, with the importance exception that images of Antinous survive. Another loved boy of whom a comparable (but aso small) amount is known is Glaucias, the subject, dead at twelve, of Statius’s Silvae II 1.

[2] Published in Mnemosyne, 4th Series, Fasc. 3 (June 1997) pp. 281-94. 

[3] This, the latest statement about Earinus, published in the second half of 94, is the only one mentioning his having been freed. As Statius, in the poem which ensues and was written earlier in the year, as well as Martial, are hardly likely to have failed to praise Domitian for it if it had taken place before they wrote their poems, it presumably happened in between, after the dedication of Earinus’s hair.
     Earinus’s manumission “took place at an exceptionally young age. Manumission earlier than the age of 30, the minimum age prescribed by the Lex Aelia Sentia of A.D. 4, was very rare in the imperial house hold […]. As Earinus' young age can nonetheless be established with a reasonable amount of certainty, it demonstrates that Domi-tian's affection for him was sincere.” (C. Henriksén, “An Imperial Eunuch in the Light of the Poems of Martial and Statius” in Mnemosyne, 4th Series, Fasc. 3 (June 1997) pp. 288-9.

[4] A Roman boy’s first cutting his shoulder-length hair short and dedicating the locks was a coming-of-age ceremony marking his transition from one phase of life to the next.

[5] Cytherea is a poetic epithet of Venus, the goddess of love, who emerged from her birth in the sea on a shell off the Greek island of Kythera. She is imagined as helping Earinus out of sympathy to him as a beloved.

[6] The son of Phoebus Apollo is Asklepios, the god of medicine, to whom, in his temple at Pergamon, Earinus was dedicating his cut tresses.
     The reason for Earinus’s choice of Aesculapius “is obvious: he had undergone a surgical operation, thereby making closer contact with the god of medicine, who had a major sanctuary in his home town of Pergamum, a sanctuary which, while still at the beginning of its period of greatness, was already competing with the other gods of Pergamum, Zeus, Athena and Dionysus. […] Habicht points out that it is under Domitian that the coins of Pergamum, after an interval of over a hundred years, again begin to carry the picture of Aesculapius, and that it is by a Flavian emperor that the priests are given Roman citizenship and the gentile name Flavius and concludes with the supposition that Earinus had a finger in it, drawing the attention of Domitian to the Aesculapius of his native Pergamum. If this is correct, the god was largely indebted to Earinus for a period of greatness that would involve such names as Galen and last for about 150 years, until the middle of the third century (Habicht, Inschriften 18 ff.).” (C. Henriksén, “An Imperial Eunuch in the Light of the Poems of Martial and Statius” in Mnemosyne, 4th Series, Fasc. 3 (June 1997) pp. 290-1)

[7] Pergamon, the Greek city in Asia Minor whence Earinus came, is more blessed than nearby Mount Ida, whence the Trojan boy Ganymede was abducted by Jove, the king of the gods (to be his catamite and the cupbearer of the gods), because Ganymede was bitterly resented by Jove’s wife Juno, who refused the nectar (drink of the gods) he tried to serve her. In contrast, Earinus, sent to be a cupbearer in Latium (the region in which Rome lay), has the approval not only of the Roman Jove or lord of earth (ie. the emperor Domitian), but of his wife (Domitia). Cupbearer was one of the main functions of  pueri delicati (such as Earinus was): their serving wine at banquets, likely naked, to the guests allowed their masters to flaunt the wealth and exquisite good taste implied by their having acquired such beautiful boys.

[8] Eryx and Idaly were mountains in Sicily and Cyprus respectively and favourite haunts of Venus.

[9] This is the clearest statement that Earinus was chosen (for the Emperor by the goddess of love) for his beauty.

[10] Thus Earinus as a “child at play” in Pergamon was already destined “to be the favourite of the palace.” He was selected for Domitian, unseen by him, and after his accession as Emperor in 81. Presumably such a rich and powerful connoisseur of boys had agents throughout the empire looking out for especially beautiful boys for him.

[11] In Greek mythology, Endymion and Attys were youths so beautiful that goddesses fell in love with them.

[12] Narkissos was a boy in Greek mythology so beautiful that, after spurning the loves of a man and a nymph, he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and died of frustrated longing.

[13] Hylas was a beautiful boy of fifteen and the beoved of the mythological hero Herakles. Sent to fetch water from a pool during the expedition of the Argonauts, he was abducted by amorous nymphs, causing Herakles to abandon the expedition in favour of an unsuccessful search for him.

[14] This mythological Evander reigned where Rome was much later to be built.

[15] Germanicus was one of the flattering names of Domitian, soon to become Earinus’s lover..

[16] Cloth dyed purple in Tyre in Phoenicia was a special luxury.

[17] Such is Domitian’s renown, Statius is saying, that the Getae (of the Lower Danube) and the eastern powers, the Persians (presumably meaning Parthians), Armenians and Indians are happy to submit to him.

[18] Paulus Aegineta, Epitome medica VI 68 explained the two different methods by which boys were castrated: excision or crushing of the testicles. With excision, the scrotum was pressed down with fingers while straight cuts were made in it with with a knife, so that the testicles fell out. According to the crushing method, performed on infant boys (not more than five) placed in a vat of hot water, “as the bodies are relaxed, the testicles are pressed in the same vat with the fingers until they evanesce and, being dissolved, no longer appear firm to the touch.” This must have been the method used with Earinus, since he was unsexed “with never a wound.” Paulus further said that “those who have had their testicles crushed can sometimes even have a desire for coitus, as apparently a part of the testicles is left unharmed at the crushing.” This presumably implies they were capable of having erections, which Roman lovers of boys (unlike Chinese, for example) may very well have preferred. See, for example, the Greek Anthology XII 7 v, where Straton said one of the disadvantages of sex with women was that “there is nowhere to put the wandering hand.”
     Earinus’s castration took place in Rome (otherwise Statius would not have had the trouble of explaining in lines 73 ff below how it could have been carried out under the auspices of Domitian), so he must have been sent there when he was an infant, but not one aged less than three since Statius emphasises in lines 79-80 that at the time he dedicated his locks of hair (in AD 94), if he had not been castrated, he would have been dedicating his first beard as well, implying that by then he was at least sixteen. Most likely he was therefore born around 77, aged three to five when castrated between 81 and 83 and sixteen to eighteen when he dedicated his locks.

[19] Acting in his role of perpetual Censor from AD 85, Domitian issued an edict banning castration, first mentioned by Martial, Epigrams II 60, published in 86/7. Having boy eunuchs, apparently for sex, had recently become fashionable in Rome, both Domitian and his brother and predecessor Titus, being keen on them, with the result that any beautiful infant boy born to a slave-girl was in danger of being castrated. In acting to end this, Domitian could well have been influenced by his love and sympathy for Earinus who, since he was brought to Rome for Domitian, had presumably been introduced to him soon after his arrival there.

[20] Venus, the goddess of love.

[21] Nisos, a mythological Ling of Megara, could not be harmed so long as his purple locks were intact, but his daughter betrayed him for he lover by cutting them off.The father of the mythological hero Achilles had vowed to give his long hair to the river-god Spercheios, but Achilles instead cut it off to honour his slain friend Patroklos.

[22] The Paphian queen is Venus, the goddess of love and mother of the winged boy-god Cupid.

[23] Cytherea is an epithet of Cupid’s mother, Venus, the goddess of love.

[24] Priam, the last King of Troy, and Nestor, King of Pylos and the oldest of the Greek leaders who vanquished Troy, both had proverbially long lives.

[25] The name, which Martial could not fit into any of his metres because it was made up of four short syllables was Earinus (from the Greek έαρ meaning spring). Suggestive of youth and beauty, it was suitable for a puer delicatus, and here, as steadily becomes apparent from the subsequent epigrams about him, IX 12-13, 16-17 and 36,  it is the name of the eunuch boy beloved of the reigning Emperor Domitian.

[26] “Besides having a symbolic value as the drink of the gods, nectar is often used in an erotic context and usually in connection with Ganymede (see below) as a metaphor for kisses. Cf. AP [The Greek Anthology] 12, 133 (Meleager), where the poet says, that in summer, when he was thirsty, he “kissed the tender-fleshed boy” (i.e. his darling Antiochus) and was relieved of his thirst. He then calls to Zeus: ‘Father Zeus, do you drink the nectareous kiss of Ganymede, and is this the wine he tenders to your lips?’.” (Christer Henriksén, Martial, Book IX: A Commentary, Uppsala, 1998, I p. 95)

[27] Attis was the goddess Cybele’s boy and Ganymede was the cupbearer of his lover, “the Thunderer” (Jupiter).

[28] This perhaps implies that since-lost Greek poems were also written about Earinus.

[29] As set out in the prededing epigram 11, Earinus’s name meas “spring”, the season when the bees near Athens, whose founder was Cecrops, made what was considered the best honey.

[30] Palamedes was said to have invented certain letters including Y (Latin V) from watching cranes in flight. Earinos latinized becomes Vernus.

[31] The epigram is a riddle whose simplicity provides relief in its simplicity with the preceding two epigrams on the name Earinus, which is of course the answer.

[32] Earinus’s mirror “(jewelled gold” as described above by Statius, line 94) is, like his hair, an insignia of his life hitherto as a puer delicatus, in which checking he is looking beautiful has been a central part.
     “There is no other evidence of a mirror dedicated to a god instead of a goddess, and Earinus’ offering may perhaps be seen as a manifestation of the eunuch’s uncertainty of his sexual identity.” (Christer Henriksén, Martial, Book IX: A Commentary, Uppsala, 1998, I p. 109)

[33] The god of Pergamon is Aesculapius, god of healing, who, as set out in Statius’s Silvae III 4 vi and the footnote thereto, had a celebrated temple there, where Earinus was born.

[34] The comparisons with Jupiter’s loved boy Ganymede here and in IX 36 are the nearest Martial comes to spelling out the sexual character of the Emperor’s relationship with Earinus, though, as already observed, some allusions, such as to nectar in the context used, also have boysexual undertones. The Emperor is here being flattered as much as Earinus: Pergamon prefers that which comes from him to that which comes from Jupiter.

[35] Latona was the paternal grandmother of Aesculapius, the god to whom Earinus, in “Latium’s city” (Rome) was sending his locks.

[36] “Earinus’ mirror […]. Nitidum may perhaps suggest that the mirror was of high quality, plain and highly polished, so as to avoid distortion and give as accurate a reflection as possible of the viewer […]. That mirrors in antiquity were often deficient in this respect appears from the famous passage in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians (Cor. 1, 13, 12) […], which seems to imply that antique mirrors often gave an unclear and distorted view of the objects reflected in them.” (Christer Henriksén, Martial, Book IX: A Commentary, Uppsala, 1998, I p. 113)

[37] “Ausonian”, as often in Martial, means “Roman”, and the page referred to is Earinus in this humourous, light-hearted  account of the reaction on Mount Olympos to Earinus’s dedication of his locks, presumably designed to offset the serious tone of the preceding ones about him. On poems such as this, apparently depicting Domitian as the equal of Jupiter:

There are several points which are crucial for a correct understanding of [them]. Most importantly, these are humorous pieces; the situations depicted are paradoxically absurd and the poet did not expect anyone to take them seriously. In spite of the flattery of ingratiating poets, Domitian, being deeply religious, obviously knew that he was not a god himself […]; serious attempts at depicting him as the superior of Jupiter may very well not have met with his approval. Martial, for his part, was naturally aware of the fact that Jupiter was the supreme deity; [examples given …] These were matters obvious to everyone and therefore also the basic conditions which made it safe to write such poems as 9, 3 and 9, 36. These poems should not be understood as attempts to make Domitian stand out as Jupiter’s superior. Rather, they seize upon the rigidity of ancient Greco-Roman mythology, which was not an inviolable matter in Martial’s day. […]
     Nevertheless, it may perhaps seem hazardous to adopt such a tone in a poem on the achievements of a sovereign who has been described as “both superstitious and suspicious, completely lacking a sense of humour” […], but this description is not altogether true; that Domitian had in fact a sense of humour is suggested, apart from 9, 34 and 36, also by 9, 83 […] and 5, 19, 17 f. As 9, 3; 34; and 36 all deal with Domitian and the gods and with Jupiter and his envy of Domitian in particular, the humorous air in these poems may perhaps be regarded as Martial’s way of playing down a matter which he felt not to be really serious, viz. his own and his fellow poets’ rendering of Domitian as the earthly Jupiter. Such jokes involving the emperor (but naturally not made at his expense) could not have been made unless Martial was sure about Domitian’s reaction. Apparently they had his consent, a fact which, if anything, demonstrates that he knew that he was not in fact a god himself. In this context, it may therefore not be inappropriate to speak of Martial not as a “court poet”, but as a “court jester”. (Christer Henriksén, Martial, Book IX: A Commentary, Uppsala, 1998, I pp. 31-2)

[38] Jupiter’s wife Juno was widely depicted as envious of his love of Ganymede. See Lucian’s Dialogues of the Gods for an amusing example. Here she is taking maliciously mocking him him for continuing in the passive role when he already has down hidden by his long locks. Calling him a “man” undermines his legitimacy as a boy in a Greek love affair and implies he is instead a contemptible cinaedus (pathic).

[39] “It is not Jupiter himself who opposes Ganymede’s wishes, it is the actual circumstances, the res ipsa: although Jupiter is the supreme god, his freedom of action is heavily obstructed by mythology; he cannot pick another cupbearer, no more than he can remarry or do anything else that would disturb the mythological tradition. Domitian, on the other hand, is a living god with no mythology other than that which he creates himself through his actions; he can do what he pleases, and has the means to do it. This paradoxical situation is a good illustration of the artificiality and rigidity which many of Martial’s contemporaries probably felt was inherent in Graeco-Roman religion.” (Christer Henriksén, Martial, Book IX: A Commentary, Uppsala, 1998, I pp. 182-3)

[40] Titus was Domitian's elder brother and predecessor. Dio relentlessly attributes dark motives to everything Domitian did, but here there are grounds for doubting him. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars XII 7 I, while sharing Dio’s general judgement of Domitian, lists his edict against castration as unequivocally one of his good deeds. In imputing hypocrisy to Domitian, Dio is ignoring the evidence from Statius, Silvae IV 3 78 above that Earinus was castrated before Domitian’s edict. A fairer explanation of Domitian’s motives for the edict might be that he had already grown to love and sympathise with Earinus, as suggested by J.P. Sullivan in Martial the unexpected classic (Cambridge 1991), 39.

 

 

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