Historical evidence suggests that the 5th-century Byzantine emperor Theodosius II had a deep and possibly romantic connection to the eunuch Chrysaphius. The explicit language used by ancient chroniclers describing Theodosius’s love for Chrysaphius and emphasizing his beauty is more direct than often found for other relationships of the time.
A phrase found repeatedly is: “Theodosius loved a certain Chrysaphius… for he was endowed with exceptional beauty.” As a eunuch, Chrysaphius was already de-gendered or re-gendered by the thinking of the time, and was seen as “beautiful” (possibly feminine); that an emperor was enamored of him makes for the possibility of a homoerotic relationship.
Theodosius was married with children, but bisexuality was not uncommon or unknown, nor was it as stigmatized as it has been in our culture. A bisexual man with a non-binary queer person, or even a transgender woman? That language was not available to them, but it is available to us, and we know what such relationships look like.
Additionally, Chrysaphius was not held in high regard at court. He was called malicious, politically ambitious (a climber), and even a heretic. Was that just jealousy because he had the emperor’s favor and therefore a certain degree of influence with the emperor, or could it also be that eunuchs were queer figures who were “othered” and he (or she or they) were simply the victim of prejudice?
It is interesting to note that Emperor Theodosius II is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church (his lover Chysaphius is not). For obvious reasons, modern historians and LGBTQ+ affirming scholars interpret the relationship of Theodosius and Chrysaphius as being within the spectrum of what we today would call queer.
