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Castration was also used to eliminate potential opponents. In the Byzantine Empire, for a man to be castrated meant that he was no longer a man—half-dead, "life that was half death". [2] Castration also eliminated any chance of heirs being born to threaten either the emperor's or the emperor's children's place at the throne.
A Byzantine castrato from the 11th century. Castration as a means of subjugation, enslavement or other punishment has a very long history, dating back to ancient Sumer.In a Western context, eunuch singers are known to have existed from the early Byzantine Empire.
The history of this third sex is mentioned in the ancient Kama Sutra, which refers to people of a "third sex" (tritiya-prakriti). [44] Some of them undergo ritual castration, but the vast majority do not. They usually dress in saris or shalwar kameez (traditional garbs worn by women in South Asia) and wear heavy make-up. They typically live on ...
Later Byzantine chroniclers like John Skylitzes, Zonaras, and Kedrenos, claim that Basil was castrated as an adult, following the deposition of his father in 944; Michael Psellos however reports that this was done for political reasons during his infancy, a view supported by modern scholars like Brokaar and Ringrose, since castration of adults ...
In the Byzantine hierarchy, in addition to the division by position, there was a hierarchy of noble titles associated with this division. In the early period of Byzantine history, numerous examples of eunuchs are known in the four highest categories of nobility — illustres, respectabiles, clarissimi, perfectissimi.
He also ordered blinding and castration as a punishment for thieves. [7] Prince Álmos and his four-year-old son Béla II of Hungary were blinded in 1113 by Álmos' brother Coloman . Mahmud Shah Durrani , the Afghan Emperor of the Durrani Empire , blinded his brother and former ruler, Zaman Shah Durrani to disqualify him from succession or ...
The History of Liao 遼史 described and praised Empress Chengtian's capture and mass castration of the Chinese boys in a biography on Wang Ji'en. [ 42 ] Some legends say that the Mongol Genghis Khan was castrated by a Tangut princess using a knife, who wanted revenge against his treatment of the Tanguts and to stop him from raping her.
Leo V the Armenian (Greek: Λέων ὁ Ἀρμένιος, Leōn ho Armenios; c. 775 – 25 December 820) was the Byzantine emperor from 813 to 820. He is chiefly remembered for ending the decade-long war with the Bulgars, as well as initiating the second period of Byzantine iconoclasm.