Eutropios (Chamberlain)

Bust of Eutropios, c. 450, KHM Vienna

Eutropios (lat. Eutropius ; † 399 in Constantinople ) was an important late antique politician at the court of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius . The eunuch Eutropios, initially praepositus sacri cubiculi , that is , the emperor's chief chamberlain, was the emperor's most important advisor since 395 and exerted an influence on the still young Arcadius that could hardly be overestimated. In 399 he became the first and only eunuch to ever reach the consulate .

Life

Eutropios was born a slave in the east of the Roman Empire near the Persian border. He was castrated as a child and has since passed through numerous hands as a eunuch . Among its owners was a soldier named Ptolemaeus. This gave it away to the army master Arintheus , who served under the emperors Julian (361–363) and Jovian (363–364). After Arintheus' death it passed into the possession of his daughter. Around 379, Eutropios, who was already old, was finally released and served at the imperial court under Theodosius . There he was promoted by the army master Abundantius , so that he soon became cubicularius , i.e. chamberlain. Before the fight against the usurper Eugenius , Eutropios was given the special task of asking the prophet John in the Theba desert about the outcome of the war in 394. Since 395 at the latest he was the highest chamberlain ( praepositus sacri cubiculi ; "Head of the Holy Chamber").

After the death of the last all-Roman emperor Theodosius at the beginning of 395, the empire was divided among his underage sons (later referred to as the division of 395 ). Honorius (10 years) became Emperor of the Western Roman Empire under the tutelage of the powerful army master Stilicho ; in the east the 17-year-old Arcadius became emperor. The latter was initially under the influence and tutelage of the army master Rufinus , against whom Eutropios intrigued. When Rufinus tried to marry his daughter to the emperor in order to consolidate his influence at court, the chamberlain thwarted the plan. He made sure that the emperor instead married Aelia Eudoxia , the daughter of Bauto , a high-ranking military man. In November 395, Rufinus finally fell victim to an assassination attempt. Both Stilicho, who had previously been an enemy of Rufinus, and Eutropius, who - together with the assets of the murdered man that was awarded to him - could now take over his power, were probably involved in the conspiracy against Rufinus.

Together with the emperor, Eutropios was now the most powerful man in the Eastern Roman Empire , and a large part of the emperor's politics at that time was his responsibility. At first Eutropios tried to limit the increased influence of the magistri militum , the army masters. He set up intrigues against the two leading army masters Timasius and Abundantius (who had previously helped him to rise to court), who were eventually condemned and banished. Her fortune was transferred to Eutropios. In the area of ​​religious politics, he initially seems to have briefly embarked on a course of relaxation towards the Arians by granting the Arian Eunomians the right of inheritance that had previously been revoked from them. A little later, however, laws were passed that restricted the scope for Christians who thought differently.

About 395 were Huns in Syria invaded and since then had been pillaged several towns in the east. By 398 the Romans were finally ready to fight them, and Eutropios took over the command of the campaign. He succeeded in pushing the Huns back to Armenia and across the Caucasus , for which he was awarded the title of Patricius . He was even given the special honor of being designated consul in 399 . That made him the only eunuch who ever rose to become consul. In the western empire, however, his consulate was not recognized.

Eutropios also interfered in the internal affairs of the Church by getting through the appointment of John Chrysostom as Patriarch of Constantinople in 398 . This was elected after Eutropios Theophilos , the Patriarch of Alexandria, had persuaded by threats to give Chrysostom his vote in the bishopric. With this intervention, however, Eutropios made the Empress Aelia Eudoxia an enemy, who had already come into conflict with Chrysostom. Even when he subsequently tried to reduce the influence of the churches, for example by restricting their legal powers and the right to asylum, he made no friends.

Eutropios was overthrown in his consulate year 399. The Gothic military leader Tribigild attempted an uprising with his soldiers, with the suppression of which the army master Gainas (also a Goth) should be entrusted. However, Gainas demanded that Eutropios be deposed first. Stilicho, whom Arcadius asked for help, also called for the chamberlain to be disempowered, and so Arcadius finally gave in. He recognized Eutropios' honor and banished him. Soon after, he had him executed.

This Eutropios is not to be confused with the historian of the same name .

literature

• David F. Buck: Eunapius, Eutropius and the Suda . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . Volume 135, 1992, pp. 365-369 ( online ).
• Alan Cameron : Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1970, p. 124 ff.
• Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity. Roman history from Diocletian to Justinian 284-565 AD (= Handbook of Classical Studies 3, 6). CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-07992-X , pp. 157-160, 167.
• Jacqueline Long: Claudian's "In Eutropium", or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC et al. 1996, ISBN 0-8078-2263-9 .
• John Robert Martindale: Eutropius 1. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4 , pp. 440-444.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Volume 2: Baanes – Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 448-449.
• Otto Seeck : Eutropius 6) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 1, Stuttgart 1907, Col. 1520 f.

Remarks

1. ^ Claudian , Against Eutropius 1.58 speaks of Assyria as the place of birth.
2. ↑ Claudian, Against Eutropius 1.44-49.
3. ↑ Claudian, counter Eutropius 1.61 to 63.
4. ^ Claudian, Against Eutropius 1,132.
5. ↑ Claudian, counter Eutropius 1,312; Sozomenos 8,22,7-8.
6. ↑ On this Zosimos 5,3.
7. ↑ Zosimos 5,10,5; Eunapios of Sardis , fragment 70, Hieronymus , letter 60.16. To Alexander Demandt , militum Magister in. RE Suppl XII, Stuttgart 1970, Sp 553-790, here Sp 727f...
8. ↑ Codex Theodosianus 16: 5, 27; 16.5.36.
9. ↑ Cf. Otto Seeck , Arkadios 2 , in: RE II, 1, Sp. 1137–1153, here Sp. 1141 with details of the laws.
10. ↑ Socrates Scholasticus 6.2; Sozomenos 8.2; Palladios , Dialogus de vita Ioannis Chrysostomi 5.