First millennium BCE
Mutakkil-Marduk (8th century BCE): Assyrian chief eunuch, eponym of the year 798 BCE in an Assyrian eponym chronicle. Yariri (8th century BCE): regent of Neo-Hittite Carchemish thought likely to be a eunuch. Sin-shumu-lishir (7th century BCE): Assyrian eunuch who attempted to usurp power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Aspamistres or Mithridates (5th century BCE): bodyguard of Xerxes I of Persia, and (with Artabanus) his murderer. Artoxares: an envoy of Artaxerxes I and Darius II of Persia. Bagoas (4th century BCE): prime minister of king Artaxerxes III of Persia, and his assassin (Bagoas is an old Persian word meaning eunuch). Bagoas (4th century BCE): a favorite of Alexander the Great. Influential in changing Alexanders attitude toward Persians and therefore in the kings policy decision to try to integrate the conquered peoples fully into his Empire as loyal subjects. He thereby paved the way for the relative success of Alexanders Seleucid successors and greatly enhanced the diffusion of Greek culture to the East. Batis (4th century BCE): resisted Alexander the Great at the Siege of Gaza. Philetaerus (4th/3rd century BCE): founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum
Zhao Gao (died 210 BCE): favourite of Qin Shihuangdi, who plotted against Li Si. Sima Qian (old romanization Ssu-ma Chien; 2nd/1st century BCE): the first person to have practiced modern historiography – gathering and analyzing both primary and secondary sources to write his monumental history of the Chinese Empire. Ganymedes (1st century BCE): highly capable adviser and general of Cleopatra VIIs sister and rival, Princess Arsinoe.
Hippocrates describes the Scythians as being afflicted with high rates of erectile dysfunction and thus "the most eunuchoid of all nations" (Airs Waters Places 22). In the Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, the term literally used for impotent males is spado but may also be used for eunuchs. Some men have falsified the status of their castration to gain entrance into the palace. Chinese eunuch Lao Ai for instance, became the lover of the mother of Qin Shi Huang, who bore him two sons, before Lao Ai and his sons were executed after participating in a rebellion against Qin Shi Huang. Castrato singers
Eunuchs castrated before puberty were also valued and trained in several cultures for their exceptional voices, which retained a childlike and other-worldly flexibility and treble pitch (a high-pitched voice). Such eunuchs were known as castrati. As women were sometimes forbidden to sing in Church, their place was taken by castrati. Castrati became very popular in 18th century opera seria. The practice, known as castratism, remained popular until the 18th century and was known into the 19th century. The last famous Italian castrato, Giovanni Velluti, died in 1861. The sole existing sound recording of a castrato singer documents the voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last eunuch in the Sistine Chapel choir, who died in 1922. This Italian practice of castrating young males to maintain their soprano voices was ended by Pope Leo XIII (1878). In popular culture
Notable eunuchs
In chronological order.