In 1975, while I was still a college student, I was working on a work of fiction (with a bit of fantasy) set in the Later Roman Empire. This fascinating period, from about 250 AD to 650 AD, involved Christians, Jews, Pagans, Romans, hundreds of ethnicities, a complicated Byzantine court system, warfare against barbarian tribes, Persians, and rival factions. Christianity was made the state religion by the Emperor Constantine, and Christian philosophy and literature was at its peak with writer saints like Augustine and Jerome. I could write forever about this era. It was also a fabulous source of design and architecture, with elaborate classical motifs mixing with Asian and Egyptian sources.
The person in this portrait is one of the main characters in the story, Heliodorus. He was not only a main character, but a weird one too: he was a eunuch who had served at the imperial court and had made his way out of slavery to become the owner of a fleet of ships in the Eastern Mediterranean. Eunuchs (castrated males) were a major social group in the secular power structure. I remember doing research about eunuchs with a mixture of horror and fascination. They were useful because they couldn't reproduce and create sons to maintain power. They couldn't serve in the church hierarchy because eunuchs couldn't become priests. And yes, some of them guarded harems. In my story, the mysterious Heliodorus helps my female main character escape various perils, because she is rumored to have a copy of the Bible which has magic powers of prediction and healing.
Heliodorus was originally from a Central Asian tribe related to the Huns (a major enemy of the later Romans) and was sold into slavery and "fixed" in his childhood. I ended up being more fascinated by his character than the girl-on-the-run he rescued. In this portrait Heliodorus is wearing Byzantine court garb with Coptic embroidered designs.
Ink and watercolor on sketchbook page, 6" x 8", January 17-18, 1975.
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