Hermotimus of Pedasa

Hermotimus of Pedasa (Greek: Ἑρμότιμος) was Xerxes the Great's favored royal eunuch during the Persian Wars against Greece (480 BC).

As a eunuch, not much factually is known about Hermotimus, because he was not as important to contemporary historians. Anecdotes still survive regarding the castration of Panionius in the winter of 480-481 BC, the same man who castrated Hermotimus and sold him as a boy. Hermotimus forced Panionius to castrate his sons, and then forced his sons to castrate him, proving his ruthlessness and lack of passion that he was to show in the Persian Wars the following autumn.[1]

After the loss at the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes made Hermotimus the secondary guardian of some of the king's many illegitimate children[2], a role generally reserved for kings. After the end of the campaign, all record of Hermotimus disappears.[3] It is likely that he lived out his life in the service of Xerxes and possibly Artaxerxes as a faithful eunuch.

References
  1. Strauss, Barry. The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece-and Western Civilization. Simon & Schuster. New York. 2004. 58
  2. The landmark Herodotus : the histories. Anchor Books. p. 644. ISBN 9781400031146.
  3. Strauss, Barry. The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece-and Western Civilization. Simon & Schuster. New York. 2004. 251
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.