Eutropius (; died 399) was a fourth-century Eastern Roman official who rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Arcadius. He was the first

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

to become a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

Career

Eutropius was born in one of the Roman provinces of the Middle East, either

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

or on the border of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. According to Honorius' court poet Claudian, who composed a satirical invective against Eutropius due to the latter's hostility to Claudian's patron, Stilicho, Eutropius served successively as a catamite, pimp, and body-servant to various Roman soldiers and nobles, before winding up among the domestic eunuchs of the imperial palace. He rose to the rank of palace chamberlain, or the '' praepositus sacri cubiculi.'' After Theodosius' death in 395 he stood at the head of a faction opposed to the powerful Praetorian Prefect of the east, Rufinus. He successfully arranged the marriage of the new emperor, Arcadius, to Aelia Eudoxia, the daughter of general Bauto having blocked an attempt by Arcadius' chief minister to increase his power by marrying the young and weak-willed emperor to his daughter. After Rufinus' assassination in 395, Eutropius rose in importance in the imperial court, and he soon became Arcadius' closest advisor. He also played a role in the Revolt of Alaric I and the Gildonic War by encouraging Gildo's revolt against Stilicho's machinations. Eutropius' ascension to power was assisted by his defeat of a Hun invasion in 398. Around this time, Eutropius got John Chrysostom appointed as the bishop of Constantinople. In 399, he became the first eunuch to be appointed a

Downfall and execution

During his rise to the consulship, Eutropius earned a notoriety for cruelty and greed. He may also have played a role in the assassination of his predecessor Rufinus. In 399, the year of his consulship, he sent Gaïnas, the ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the e ...

'' at the time, to quell Tribigild's rebellion. However, Gainas and Tribigild teamed up to persuade Arcadius to dismiss Eutropius. In the meantime, Eutropius had also been estranged from Eudoxia, the very empress he had installed, who appeared to her husband wailing with her infant daughters about the eunuch's alleged schemes against her. Moved by his subordinates' threats and compassion for his family, Arcadius exiled Eutropius. After Eutropius's fall from power, his ally John Chrysostom's pleas kept him alive for a short time. He was eventually executed before the year ended. A surviving imperial edict shows that he was subjected to damnatio memoriae and his property was confiscated.

Notes

References

* J.B. Bury (1923)
''History of the Later Roman Empire''
see chapter

an

A full account. * Claudian, '' in Eutropium''
Book I
* Alan Cameron and Jacqueline Long
Barbarian and Politics at the Court of Arcadius
Berkeley et Los Angeles, 1993. {{Authority control 399 deaths 4th-century Byzantine people 4th-century Roman consuls Byzantine eunuchs Emperor's slaves and freedmen Executed ancient Roman people People executed by the Roman Empire Year of birth unknown