The Showdown between the Intersex Scholar Favorinus and The Roman Emperor Hadrian, SHA Vit. Hadr. 14.10-13

Favorinus Avoids Emperor Hadrian’s Wrath with a Pun

Name: Scriptores Historia Augusta Date:   Unknown Region:    Unknown Citation:    Life of Hadrian 15.10-13

Hadrian was talented in public speaking and poetry, as well as all of the liberal arts, but he used to mock, criticize, and bully professors of every kind, as if he knew more than them. He often used to challenge these professors and philosophers by publishing little books or poems and they, in  turn, would publish a response. This even happened to Favorinus [one of his dearest friends [1].

When Hadrian criticized him for using a certain word, Favorinus bowed out of the argument. When his friends challenged this, since the term that Hadrian had criticized was used by Classical authors, Favorinus let them in on a little joke. He said, “Buddies, that's terrible advice: just let the guy who has thirty legions believe that he is the smartest man of all.”

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[1] Later in the same text [16.10], Favorinus is listed as one of the emperor's dearest friends: in summa familiaritate Epictetum et Heliodorum philosophos et, ne nominatim de omnibus dicam, grammaticos, rhetores, musicos, geometras, pictores, astrologos habuit, prae ceteris, ut multi adserunt, eminente Favorino.

Favorinus Avoids Emperor Hadrian’s Wrath with a Pun

Et quamvis esset oratione et versu promptissimus et in omnibus artibus peritissimus, tamen professores omnium artium semper ut doctior risit, contempsit, obtrivit. Cum his ipsis professoribus et philosophis libris vel carminibus invicem editis saepe certavit. Et Favorinus quidem, cum verbum eius quondam ab Hadriano reprehensum esset atque ille cessisset, arguentibus amicis, quod male cederet, Hadriano de verbo, quod idonei auctores usurpassent, risum iucundissimum movit; ait enim : “Non recte suadetis, familiares, qui non patimini me illum doctiorem omnibus credere, qui habet triginta legiones.” 

Scriptores Historiae Augustae Little is known about the author(s) of the Historia Augusta; even internal evidence within the text is either falsified, skewed or utterly fictitious. Although attributed to six different authors, the text was likely written by a single author living during the 4th century CE. It is a series of imperial biographies modeled after the works of Suetonius; these biographies cover the reigns of the emperors Hadrian through Carus.

Intersex and Famous: Favorinus (Philostratus, VS 1.8.1-2)

The Famous Intersex Scholar Favorinus

Name: Philostratus Date:   170 – 250 CE Region:    [modern Greece] Citation:     Lives of the Sophists 1.8.1-2

Similarly, eloquence also made the philosopher Favorinus famous among the sophists. He was from the city of Arelate [1], which is situated on the Rhone River in western Gaul. He was born of ambiguous sex, and intersex, which was clear from his body type and his voice. He remained beardless even as an old man, and his voice was high-pitched, the same voice that eunuchs have. This didn’t stop him romantically, though! He was charged with adultery by a man of consular rank. He got into an argument with the emperor Hadrian, but didn’t suffer any major consequences for it. And so, his life was one of three mysteries: he was a Gaul who spoke Greek; he was a eunuch charged with adultery; and he got into a fight with an emperor without dying. [This is more a praise of Hadrian’s virtue, since the emperor could have arguments with others, yet treat others as equals, even though he could put them to death for disagreeing with him.]     

[1] Modern Arles, France

ὁμοίως καὶ Φαβωρῖνον τὸν φιλόσοφον ἡ εὐγλωττία ἐν σοφισταῖς ἐκήρυττεν. ἦν μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἑσπερίων Γαλατῶν οὗτος, Ἀρελάτου πόλεως, ἣ ἐπὶ Ἠριδανῷ ποταμῷ ᾤκισται, διφυὴς δὲ ἐτέχθη καὶ ἀνδρόθηλυς, καὶ τοῦτο ἐδηλοῦτο μὲν καὶ παρὰ τοῦ εἴδους, ἀγενείως γὰρ τοῦ προσώπου καὶ γηράσκων εἶχεν, ἐδηλοῦτο δὲ καὶ τῷ φθέγματι, ὀξυηχὲς γὰρ ἠκούετο καὶ λεπτὸν καὶ ἐπίτονον, ὥσπερ ἡ φύσις τοὺς εὐνούχους ἥρμοκεν. θερμὸς δὲ οὕτω τις ἦν τὰ ἐρωτικά, ὡς καὶ μοιχοῦ λαβεῖν αἰτίαν ἐξ ἀνδρὸς ὑπάτου. διαφορᾶς δὲ αὐτῷ πρὸς Ἀδριανὸν βασιλέα γενομένης οὐδὲν ἔπαθεν. ὅθεν ὡς παράδοξα ἐπεχρησμῴδει τῷ ἑαυτοῦ βίῳ τρία ταῦτα: Γαλάτης ὢν ἑλληνίζειν, εὐνοῦχος ὢν μοιχείας κρίνεσθαι, βασιλεῖ διαφέρεσθαι καὶ ζῆν. τουτὶ δὲ Ἀδριανοῦ ἔπαινος εἴη ἂν μᾶλλον, εἰ βασιλεὺς ὢν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἴσου διεφέρετο πρὸς ὃν ἐξῆν ἀποκτεῖναι.

Pariter et Favorinum philosophum eloquentia in sophistis clarum fecit. Erat enim ex Hesperiis Galatis ille, Arelate urbe, quae ad Rhodanum fluvium condita est. Natus est autem sexu ambiguo et androgynus, id quod et specie et voce apparebat; imberbis enim facie etiam senex erat et vox acute et acriter cum intentione sonabat, quales eunuchos solet formare natura. Tanta nihilo minus ardebat venerea cupidine, ut vel adulterii reus a viro consulari fieret. Ex controversia autem, quae ei cum imperatore Hadriano orta est, nihil cepit incommodi quare haec tria vitam suam admiranda habuisse dictabat, quod Gallus graece loquutus esset, quod eunuchus reus factus esset adulterii, quod cum imperatore contendens salvus evasisset. Hoc autem Hadriano potius laudi fuerit habendum, quod imperator qui fuit tanquam aequalis cum eo concertarit, quem interficere licebat. Translated into Latin by Anton Westermann

Philostratus [Lucius Flavius Philostratus; 170 – 250 CE, modern Greece] was a Greek scholar who lived during the late 2nd and early 3rd century CE. He was a member of the imperial Roman social circle; one of his works, the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, he dedicates to the Roman empress Julia Domna.