Pythagoras (freedman)

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Pythagoras
Nationality Roman
Occupation Freedman
Known forMarriage to Nero
Title Wine steward

Pythagoras was a freedman of the Roman emperor Nero, whom he married in a public ceremony in which the emperor took the role of bride. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Life

Little is known about Pythagoras' background except that he was a freedman who accompanied Nero.

Marriage to Nero

In the year 64, during the Saturnalia, Tigellinus offered a series of banquets to Nero, after a few days of which Nero performed a marriage to Pythagoras: [5]

... he stooped to marry himself to one of that filthy herd, by name Pythagoras, with all the forms of regular wedlock. The bridal veil was put over the emperor; people saw the witnesses of the ceremony, the wedding dower, the couch and the nuptial torches; everything in a word was plainly visible, which, even when a woman weds, darkness hides.

Doryphorus

Suetonius tells the story of Nero's being the bride to a freedman named "Doryphorus". Both Tacitus and Dio Cassius mention only "Pythagoras". According to Champlin, it is improbable that a second imperial wedding occurred without being noted, and the simplest solution is that Suetonius mistook the name. [6] Doryphorus, one of the wealthiest and most powerful of Nero's freedmen, died in the year 62 before the banquets of Tigellinus, [6] where Nero, covered with skins of wild animals, was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women bound to stakes, after which he was dispatched by his freedman "Doryphorus". [7] As "doryphoros" means "spear bearer" [8] (Δορυφόρος) like the statue, it may be that the latinized word had just capitalized the Greek word. [9]

Bibliography

See also

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References

  1. Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum--Nero, c. 110 C.E.
  2. Cassius Dio Roman History: LXII, 28 - LXIII, 12-13
  3. Frier, Bruce W. (2004). "Roman Same-Sex Weddings from the Legal Perspective". Classical Studies Newsletter, Volume X. University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 2011-12-30. Retrieved 2012-02-24.
  4. Champlin, 2005, p.146
  5. 1 2 Tacitus, Annals, XV.37
  6. 1 2 Champlin, 2005, p.161
  7. Champlin, 2005, p.169
  8. Champlin, 2005, p.166
  9. Champlin, 2005, p.313