{"id":9697,"date":"2017-08-03T18:36:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9697"},"modified":"2017-08-03T18:36:42","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T18:36:42","slug":"a-trans-soldier-in-the-ancient-roman-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/a-trans-soldier-in-the-ancient-roman-army\/","title":{"rendered":"A trans soldier in the ancient Roman army?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/tom-sapsford-393306\">Tom Sapsford<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-southern-california-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\">University of Southern California \u2013 Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a series of recent tweets, Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/26\/us\/politics\/trans-military-trump-timeline.html\">proposed to ban transgender people<\/a> from serving in the U.S. military. This proposal would reverse the inclusive policies introduced during the Obama regime.  Trump\u2019s decision was, he claims, based on the burdensome medical costs and disruption that accommodating transgender people in the military has allegedly caused.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/890193981585444864\"><\/a>\n           <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>          <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/890196164313833472\"><\/a>\n           <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>          <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/890197095151546369\"><\/a>\n           <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>          <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s tweets put me, as a classics scholar, in mind of a rather obscure fable thought to be written in early imperial Rome by one of the Emperor Augustus\u2019 freed slaves, <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/telling-tales-on-caesar-9780199240951?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;#\">Phaedrus<\/a>. In this tale, a barbarian is threatening the troops of the military leader, Pompey the Great. All are afraid to challenge this fierce opponent until a <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=k1G2BQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA453&amp;lpg=PA453&amp;dq=cinaedus+masterson&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=DuS6NIO-aG&amp;sig=pOPxuYOMYdnec5Bc6ndZXbryK7o&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi1nd_csLbVAhWohlQKHTavBlMQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&amp;q=cinaedus%20masterson&amp;f=false\">\u201ccinaedus\u201d<\/a> steps forward to volunteer for combat. <\/p>\n<p>Although foreign to us moderns, the cinaedus was a familiar figure to ancient Greeks and Romans, whose identity raised concerns about gender.<\/p>\n<h2>The cinaedus and the commander-in-chief<\/h2>\n<p>The cinaedus was frequently mentioned in classical sources due to his brazen effeminacy, untoward sexual behavior (most often a \u201cshocking\u201d desire to be <a href=\"https:\/\/sententiaeantiquae.com\/tag\/kinaidos\/\">anally penetrated<\/a> by other men), and the ambiguous status of his genitalia. <\/p>\n<p>This figure was first mentioned by Plato in the fourth century B.C., who says little more than that the cinaedus\u2019 life was terrible, base and miserable. Other classical authors provide more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3704392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents\">detail<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Martial, a Roman poet writing in the first century A.D., for instance, describes a cinaedus\u2019 dysfunctional penis as like a \u201csoggy leather strap\u201d in one epigram. In the same century, the Roman novelist Petronius has a cinaedus suggest that both he and his fellows have had their genitals removed.<\/p>\n<p>In Phaedrus\u2019 fable, the \u201ccinaedus\u201d is described as a soldier of great size but with a cracked voice and mincing walk. After pleading permission in a stereotypically lisping manner from Pompey, his commander-in-chief, the cinaedus steps into battle. He quickly severs the barbarian\u2019s head and, with army agog, is summarily rewarded by Pompey.<\/p>\n<h2>What the cinaedus reveals about today<\/h2>\n<p>Hold Phaedrus\u2019 fable up and some easy similarities stand out with the situation today. The cinaedus is comparable to a contemporary trans person in that their expression of gender does not match the norms that their society \u2013 whether ancient or modern \u2013 expects of their sex as assigned at birth.<\/p>\n<p>Ancient Greek and Roman sources show a bias against gender-variant people parallel to Trump\u2019s current-day attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>Both the tweets and the fable display discomfort with the idea of gender-ambiguous fighters, regardless of any true situation on the ground. And while Trump professes exclusion of transgender people <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2017\/07\/26\/539470211\/trump-says-transgender-people-cant-serve-in-military\">on grounds of financial cost and disruption<\/a>, Phaedrus is a little more open about his motivations.<\/p>\n<p>In Phaedrus\u2019 fable, the cinaedus is untrustworthy. He is described as having stolen valuables from Pompey and then later swears on oath that he hasn\u2019t. A clear connection is made between gender \u201cdeception\u201d and treacherous behavior. <\/p>\n<p>This, I believe, is the same unfounded gender panic that Trump is drawing on to appeal to his traditional support base.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \">\n            <img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theconversation.com\/files\/180602\/width754\/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg\"><figcaption>\n              <span class=\"caption\">A rally in Times Square after President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement of a ban on transgender troops in the U.S. military.<\/span><br \/>\n              <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">Frank Franklin II\/AP Photo<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Gender diversity<\/h2>\n<p>Such consistency in attitudes across millennia is rather depressing. Some points in redress, however, are worth considering. <\/p>\n<p>There are notable differences between a cinaedus and a trans person. The cinaedus was thought of as male, albeit with questionable masculinity. He is only ever described as being effeminate, never as identifying with, or living as, the opposite gender. <\/p>\n<p>In my own work, I use the term <a href=\"http:\/\/ejce.berkeley.edu\/geneq\/resources\/lgbtq-resources\/definition-terms\">\u201cgender diversity\u201d<\/a> to point out loose, but still meaningful, connections between the ancient cinaedus with both modern trans people and others included under the <a href=\"http:\/\/theath.ca\/features\/the-missing-letters-beyond-lgbtqi\/\">LGBTQI+<\/a> umbrella.<\/p>\n<p>The wide variety of effeminate men, masculine women, eunuchs and intersex individuals mentioned in classical sources suggests a breadth of experiences was possible outside of traditional gender norms. <\/p>\n<p>There is some evidence of female masculinity in antiquity. The mythical women warriors of Greek mythology, the Amazons, might actually have had some basis in historical fact. In his book <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/postcolonial-amazons-9780199533374?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;#\">\u201cPostcolonial Amazons,\u201d<\/a> scholar of ancient Greek <a href=\"http:\/\/history.sdsu.edu\/faculty_and_staff\/faculty_bios\/w_penrose.htm\">Walter Penrose<\/a> demonstrates that warrior women were prevalent and highly valued both in Scythian and ancient Indian cultures.<\/p>\n<p>And although classical scholars have debated whether any actual individual in antiquity ever embraced the stigma of being openly called a cinaedus, a series of tax receipts, letters and temple inscriptions from Greco-Roman Egypt do <a href=\"http:\/\/eugesta.recherche.univ-lille3.fr\/revue\/pdf\/2015\/6.Sapsford-Eugesta-5_2015.pdf\">document men<\/a> who were identified and notably identified themselves using this term. <\/p>\n<h2>Being trans and surviving adversity<\/h2>\n<p>The cinaedus has a long and persistent history. Being a topic of interest for writers from Plato in the fourth century B.C. through to Byzantine authors in the 11th century A.D., he is truly a survivor.<\/p>\n<p>As gender studies scholar <a href=\"http:\/\/english.columbia.edu\/people\/profile\/560\">Jack Halberstam<\/a> writes, trans people will <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucpress.edu\/blog\/29000\/trumps-transgender-crisis\">likewise survive Trump\u2019s exclusionary tactics<\/a>. For, as Phaedrus\u2019 little fable suggests, gender-diverse people have in all ages been capable of some mighty remarkable things. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.edu.au\/content\/81735\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>Like the victorious soldier cinaedus, they can confound expectations and achieve results in some of the most extremely adverse situations.<\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/tom-sapsford-393306\">Tom Sapsford<\/a>, Lecturer, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-southern-california-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\">University of Southern California \u2013 Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a>. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-trans-soldier-in-the-ancient-roman-army-81735\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Sapsford, University of Southern California \u2013 Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences In a series of recent tweets, Donald Trump proposed to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. This proposal would reverse the inclusive policies introduced during the Obama regime. Trump\u2019s decision was, he claims, based on the burdensome medical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[479,1959,1602],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9699,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697\/revisions\/9699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}