#sporus

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

“I would castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat” which could mean nothing

[theastreous]

So like…

Alectryon - Hephaestus

Hyacinthus - Antinous (of Bythinia)

Ganymede - Sporus

…

Just leaving it there…

Nino, I am going to pull your feet while you are asleep tonight.

[grayjoy15]

Day 27: Glass - Petronius Arbiter and the fluorspar wine-dipper

(It’s a drinking spoon I think?) Also Sporus in the background 💜 because in one of my projects, he originally served Petronius

[dummyonastring]

remembering dio cassius is unreliable so that means there’s a chance sporus didn’t kill himself and he lived a long and happy life away from the public eye and maybe he got to go home and see his family. and lived the best life a eunuch could live in ancient times.

[nero-caesar-augustus]

can u tell us anything about what happened w/ Sporus?

You mean my lovely wife Poppaea who did not die? She has always been with me and has never died not even once.

She did disappear for a while and a lot of people were sad for some reason but then I found her again!! I do love her so very much thank you for asking, she is my favorite subject of conversation.

All hail the julio-claudian dynasty!

[medievalcat]

Hello! :)

I’ve recently fallen down a rabbit hole about poor Sporus and it feels impossible to find proper modern and historical accounts of him. I’ve been able to find a few pieces, but I’m struggling to find any discussions at round him.

Do you have any good reading recommendations?

omg hi!! sorry for the late response. I have also felt the same way in the past because there is not much out there and a lot of what is out there is kind of clickbait surface level stuff or ai :( but here are some legit resources ! I read most of these a long time ago and havent read most recently but I liked them:

Nero by Edward Champlin is an interesting biography that has some interesting things to say about Sporus and analyzes the few known actions he made of his own volition that we know of.

recently published books I have not read in entirety include Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age by Tom Holland and Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt. both include segments relating to Sporus and the authors' ideas about his personality, motives, and details about the significance of the name we know him by.

For a work of fiction, Acte by Alexandre Dumas is a novel about Nero's mistress Claudia Acte, frequently mythologized as an early Christian. The book has a genuinely interesting and empathetic take on Sporus where he is rightfully very angry. Empire by Steven Saylor also includes Sporus in the novel's cast as a deeply tragic figure.

If anyone has more suggestions I'd love to hear them !

[aniitahhhah]

Happy Birthday Nero 🙏

[mimblizzy]

Found out the OFFICIAL website of the Colosseum in Rome has a chatbotAI. To help you navigate and answer questions. It's an AI. Of NERO. Which. Is certainly a choice.

So anyway I couldn't resist. Cuz just yesterday I was at a conference and one of the contributions was about Poppaea Sabina/Sporus. So yk I thought I'd ask.

Sadly, even after waiting for 10+ mins. the Ai did not answer :(

Which is probably just cuz the AI is shit or not even really AI and just a badly programmed bot BUT maybe it's also perfectly in character and trying to stall

@poppaeasabina care for a statement?