Earinus

Titus Flavius Earinus was a eunuch and favorite of the Emperor Domitian. Having had a discreet presence at the emperor's court, he went unnoticed by Suetonius, who made no mention of him. Cassius Dio, however, acknowledged his existence, and his relationship with the emperor was the subject of literary celebration by the poets Martial and Statius, whose verses are the only contemporary sources on his life available today.

Life In Book 3 of his Silvae, Statius wrote a lengthy poem of 106 verses on the life of Earinus, which constitutes the richest source of biographical details about the young eunuch. According to Statius, Earinus was born in Pergamon, probably in the latter half of the 70s CE, and was sent to Rome at an early age. Statius and, more directly, Martial also compared their relationship to that of Ganymede and Jupiter, which served as a homoerotic emblem in Greco-Roman culture.

Castration, initially seen as an oriental and foreign practice among Romans, became a recourse which certain Roman men desiring a long relationship with their pueri delicati turned to, in order to prolong the latter's state of youthful beauty and prevent the dreaded growth of beards and leg hair. The aforementioned poets, however, wave aside the contradiction and insist that Earinus's castration took place before the ban was issued.