Word Finder - eunuch

definition

A castrated human male.

definition

Such a man employed as harem guard or in certain (mainly Eastern) monarchies (e.g. late Roman and Chinese Empires) as court or state officials.

definition

(in translations of ancient texts) A man who is not inclined to marry and procreate.

In 374 he was assassinated by a eunuch from motives of private revenge.

The conduct of a new campaign was entrusted to the eunuch Narses; Totila marched against him and was defeated and killed at the battle of Tagina in July 552.

Arcadius submitted at first to the guidance of the praetorian prefect Rufinus, and, after his murder (end of 395) by the troops, to the counsels of the eunuch Eutropius (executed end of 399).

The eunuch seems to have led his army round the head of the Adriatic Gulf.

An offshoot of the Khlysti is the more celebrated secret sect of the Skoptsi (skopets, a eunuch), which represents an extreme ascetic reaction from the promiscuous immorality of some (by no means all) of the Khlysti.

Johns, to whom reference has already been made, demurs (in a communication to the writer) to the fusion of the priest and the magician, and to the custom of " calling every unknown official a priest or a eunuch."

The sultan, throughout desirous for peace, is said to have been much under the influence of the chief eunuch, Haji Beshir Aga.

It deals chiefly with the struggles of the Byzantine army, under the command of the eunuch Narses, against the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Persians.

Cicero pondered over the fact; Arcesilaus explained the secession to the Epicurean camp, compared with the fact that no Epicurean was ever known to have abandoned his school, by saying that, though it was possible for a man to be turned into a eunuch, no eunuch could ever become a man.

The emperor at last complied, and in 552 a powerful army was despatched under Narses, an Armenian eunuch now advanced in life, but reputed the most skilful general of the age, as Belisarius was the hottest soldier.

Belisarius wrote to the eunuch pointing out the necessity of unity of purpose in the imperial army.

The only other important military operation of Narses which is recorded - and that indistinctly - is his defeat of the Herulian king Sindbal, who had served under him at Capua, but who subsequently revolted, was defeated, taken captive and hanged by the eunuch's order (565).

At the close of 565 Justinian died, and a deputation of Romans waited upon his successor Justin II., representing that they found "the Greeks" harder taskmasters than the Goths, that Narses the eunuch was determined to reduce them all to slavery, and that unless he were removed they would transfer their allegiance to the barbarians.

The brutal treatment he had experienced in boyhood under the orders of Adil Shah, and the opprobrious name of eunuch with which be was taunted by his enemies, no doubt contributed to embitter his nature.

Its importance began under Lysimachus, who deposited his treasures, 9000 talents, in this strong fortress under the charge of a eunuch, Philetaerus of Tium.

He denies that the precedents of the eunuch baptized by Philip or of Paul baptized without hesitation by Simon (to which the other party appealed) were relevant.

Her physician Eudemus prepared and the eunuch Lygdus administered a slow poison, from the effects of which Drusus died after a lingering illness.

The administration remained in the hands of the eunuch Basileios (an illegitimate son of Romanus I.), president of the senate, a wily and gifted man, who hoped that the young emperors would be his puppets.

The Bible tells us of a Samaritan woman, an Ethiopian eunuch, a gentile centurion.

Do you remember how Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch who is reading from the prophet Isaiah about the servant.

Nevertheless, during five campaigns he held his enemies at bay, until he was removed from the command, and the conclusion of the war was entrusted to the eunuch Narses.

Their maritime importance compelled Narses, the imperial commander, to seek their aid in transporting his army from Grado; and when the Paduans appealed to the Eunuch to restore their rights over the Brenta, the Venetians replied by declaring that islands of the lagoon and the river mouths that fell into the estuary were the property of those who had rendered them habitable and serviceable.

The chief eunuch who had governed Majorca perished in the siege.

The traitor Tennes was put to death, but Mentor rose high in the favour of the king, and entered into a close alliance with the eunuch Bagoas, the king's favourite and vizier.

He was a eunuch, but we are nowhere distinctly informed that he was of servile origin.

This was Bardas Sclerus, whom the eunuch deposed from his post of general in the East.