ABSTRACT
This book is primarily concerned with the eunuchs of the Byzantine empire (which spanned the fourth to fifteenth centuries AD). Eunuchs, however, are not a phenomenon restricted to this civilisation; they are found throughout history from antiquity up to the present day.1 The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief history of the eunuch, establishing in what cultures they have been found and also what roles they have played. The complexities of the source material and the debates about its interpretation will largely be ignored for the sake of supplying a digestible overview, but will necessarily be explored in subsequent chapters (especially Chapter 2). The initial analysis of this chapter will provide both a context in which to place Byzantine eunuchs and basic information from which comparisons can be developed. It will also serve the purpose of demonstrating how prevalent and persistent the existence of the eunuch has been throughout human history.
