The sad story of Sporus #history #rome

[HistorybyMae]

According to most sources, Nero, in a fit of rage, kicked his pregnant wife’s belly which caused her death. He then chose Sporus to act as his wife.

Shortly before Nero's death, Sporus presented Nero with a ring bearing a gemstone depicting the R_pe of Proserpina (Persephone). The last emperor, Vitellius, intended to reenact that scene as a tribute to the ring of Sporus. The show would have most likely ended with the killing of Sporus in the arena.

[AlexanderTheBloodraven]

They wouldn’t even allow him to keep his
own individual identity. The people who took him never called him by his own name. They always called him Poppaea, the name of Nero’s second wife, who Sporus greatly resembled. Even the name he is known for - Sporus - might’ve just been another way people humiliated him.

According to scholars, it is likely that Sporus wasn’t his actual name, but was just a cruel epithet or byname that people gave him after his castration, since Nero found him during his tour of Greece and the word is likely derived from the Greek word spóros (meaning ‘seed’ or ‘semen’), mockingly referring to his inability to produce it after his mutilation.

Can you imagine that? Having your identity completely stripped from you when you were still a child, your tormentors replacing your own name with the name of a woman they previously killed and then having your identity reduced to a cruel nickname that served as nothing but a horrific reminder of what was likely the most painful moment in your life, forcing you to relive your mutilation and humiliation every time someone called your name? And, on top of all that, to have it become the only name referring to you for the rest of history?

That boy deserved so much better than what he got. I hope he found some peace in the end.

[Cathara]

I feel like every time I search Nero I find smth worse than the last time

[mikinnie-]

My most earnest desire as a history student is to uncover the boy's true name. Sporus was a cruel epithet granted to him by Nero to make fun of the fact that he'd be able to have children. Sporus was taken during Nero's tour of Greece, and ever since, his identity was stripped and buried. Till date, we do not know of his life before Nero..

[HelloNewMoon]

When people say shit like “what has the world come to” or “the world used to be more civilized” you know they never read an ancient history book.

[Cole_Anderson]

I don't want to call him Sporus because I know that's just another cruel nickname.
Aurum ("gold" in Latin) is a good name, and he deserves that more.

[AlexanderTheBloodraven]

Hi Mae! I’m the guy who suggested having Sporus for a video on your previous video about tourists disrespecting a statue of a young woman (I did it on TikTok too!). Thanks for making it a video so quickly!

Sporus was just a child. The things he had to endure was so horrific. I hope he was able to find peace in the end.

[Sunflowersarepretty]

Sporus went through so much. I hope he's finding peace in the afterlîfe. Pôwer can make people treat others like they're some disposable objécts. 😢

[София-жкн]

This actually made me cry. He was just a child. Rest in peace, sweetheart.

[samm]

I hated reading that he was “given” to other people as if he wasn’t even a person himself. Poor boy

[LanaCordova]

As a csa survivor, my heart breaks for him. I'm actually crying as I write this. Sexually violating someone is one of the worst things you can do to them, and I would never wish that pain on anyone.

[athul]

Nobody ever deserves to be put through that, especially not a child. I hope he’s found peace ❤️

[Ktakahashi]

He was only 20 when he died?!
And after Nero he was passed to TWO emperor's after? I shutter to ask how old he was when Nero found him. 😮😢

[x-omnistar-x]

One particular fact to consider is that the people who took him after Nero’s death were also associated in some way with Poppaea, Nero’s second wife, who was the wife that Sporus greatly resembled.

The first was the Praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus. He became the prefect of the Praetorians in 65 AD, the same year that Poppaea died. Sabinus was actually the one who persuaded the Praetorian Guard to desert Nero. Poppaea was considered very beautiful and it’s not unlikely that he fell in love with her, which might be another reason why he made the Praetorians desert Nero, since it was rumored that he kicked her to death. This is likely why he took Sporus into his ‘care’. He treated Sporus as his wife and only called him Poppaea. He tried to make himself emperor, but was killed by his own guardsmen.

After that, Sporus was taken by Emperor Otho. This in particular is very intriguing, because Otho was actually the real Poppaea’s first husband, before Nero had forced them to get divorced so he could marry her instead. Just like Nero and Sabinus, Otho treated Sporus as his wife and called him Poppaea. But after his loss at the Battle of Bedriacum, he took his own life, leaving Sporus at the mercy of his victorious rival, Emperor Vittelius.

Vittelius tried to emulate Nero, since Nero was still very popular amongst the people even after his death. That might be why he proposed to make Sporus the victim of a re-enactment of the Rape of Proserpina in mockery of the ring that Nero gave to Sporus (which depicted the same act), during which he would be killed.

It was at this point that Sporus had had enough and decided to end it to spare himself the suffering. He was just a child, barely out of his teens.

[Jay_Mlever]

Very sad story, even sadder when I see people refer to sporus as a femboy or something.

He was not gay, a femboy, or anything, he was MUTILATED and CASTRATED. He was a victim but the strongest soldier. I hope he’s in peace now at least.

[AadaKLopez]

I didn't know him. I never met him. And yet I still cry for him.

[ursa]

To add to this absolute horror, this child was likely kidnapped in Greece. Imagine if your child was kidnapped by the most powerful man, and this was done to him. It breaks my heart to think of the soul crushing agony the child and his family must have gone through. The more I learn about atrocities committed against people throughout history and more recently, the more it makes me want to just be kind, merciful and caring towards others. Too much cruelty and suffering has happened already.

[kyleecook]

Can a person reach out through history to give someone a hug and words of comfort? Because I kind of need to do that. Right now. Someone should have shown that kid some genuine humanity.

[donnagoldsmith]

I have read that he was a gentle, soft hearted boy and that he would cry a lot. People ridiculed and made fun of him from the Roman elite to other actual slaves. The servants and slaves probably did it as they saw him as no better than them (lower in fact because of his castration and forced transition) and because of how sweet and kind he was knew he would never tell on them or get them into trouble. This is what I presume as with just a few words he could have gotten them violently punished if not killed. Remember although Nero the disgusting degenerate that he was was his tormentor and created the whole depraved situation, he also treated Sporus as his wife and Empress and I'm sure any mockery of his new 'bride' would have been seen as mockery of himself? What that poor boy endured doesn't bear thinking about, just how sad, lost and lonely he must have been. Sleep well lost lamb.

[Princess_Nefertankh]

We don’t know the real name of the young man who has come down in history as "Sporus", it might’ve been “Gaius” or “Lucius” or another common Roman name. What we DO know is that he was a young man likely not without intelligence and courage.

Though Sporus endured cruelties most of us probably can’t even imagine, he did not merely cower in fear before Nero, and there can be found inspiration within the tragedy.

Just as mentioned in the video description, on January 1st of 68 AD, (slightly over 16 months after Nero’s “marriage” to him) during the celebrations marking the end/beginning of the year, when it was often customary to exchange gifts, he gave Nero a ring portraying Pluto (Hades), god of the dead, dragging the unwilling maiden Proserpina (Persephone) down to the underworld. This was seen as a bad omen, an insulting gift likely to bring evil luck.

However, Sporus took things a few steps further, secretly telling those who plotted against Nero about the emperor’s plans. Others who were involved in previous failed conspiracies against Nero (like the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 AD), died horrific deaths, no doubt he knew the risk he was taking, but he did it anyway.

Chrysostom writes that “It was solely on account of this that Nero lost his life--I mean the way he treated Sporus, for in anger he disclosed the emperor's designs to his retinue; and so they revolted from him and compelled him to make away as best he could.” (paraphrased /edited for clarity)

Sporus was one of four men who accompanied Nero when he fled the palace on the night of June 9 in 68 AD, the other three being Epaphroditus, Phaon and Neophytus. Epaphroditus is sometimes credited with assisting Nero in committing suicide. But he, like the other three, was a freedman (former slave) who is believed to have owed much of his career to Nero, and thus had a good reason to be loyal.

That night, during Nero’s final hours, with soldiers closing in, and the Senate turned against him, Nero decided to commit suicide, using a dagger, but couldn’t quite bring himself to plunge in the blade.

Then, according to the historian Pseudo-Aurelius Victor in the Epitome de Caesaribus, when the emperor lacked the nerve to stab himself, it was Sporus who “guided Nero’s trembling hand”.

Within a few hours Nero was dead, and would never hurt anyone again.

Note, there are some who doubt the very existence of Sporus, claiming this is another one of the “exaggerations” of the atrocities of Nero’s reign. But both Dio Chrysostom (AD 40-115) who went to Rome not long after Nero died, and Plutarch (AD 46-120) who probably saw the emperor in person, mention him in their works.

Thank you for this video, it’s the one that made me decide to subscribe. 💖