Pythagoras (freedman)


Pythagoras, a freedman of the Roman emperor Nero, was married in a public ceremony in which the emperor took the role of bride.

Life

Little is known about Pythagoras' background except that he was a freedman who accompanied Nero and was called "one of that filthy herd".

Marriage to Nero

In the year 64, during the Saturnalia, Tigellinus offered a series of banquets to Nero, after a few days of which Nero performed a marriage to Pythagoras:

Doryphorus

tells the story of Nero's being the bride to a freedman named "Doryphorus". Both Tacitus and Dio Cassius mention only "Pythagoras". According to Champlin, it is improbable that a second such scandalous wedding occurred without being noted, and the simplest solution is that Suetonius mistook the name. Doryphorus, one of the wealthiest and most powerful of Nero's freedmen, died in the year 62 before the banquets of Tigellinus, where Nero, covered with skins of wild animals, was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women bound to stakes, after which he was dispatched by his freedman "Doryphorus". As "doryphoros" means "spear bearer" like the statue, it may be that the latinized word had just capitalized the Greek word.