Basil I is a fascinating figure who went from a peasant migrant sleeping on the streets of Constantinople to one of the most successful emperors in the history of the Byzantine Empire. His beginnings, though, are rather raunchy by the uptight standards of the Byzantines. It's a story of gay love, sex, murder, and even possibly a same-sex marriage or two! Check out this episode where we will not only discuss the shady details of Basil's pre-imperial career, but delve into the sources and the question of how we think we know what we think we know.

Sources:

Boswell, John. "Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe", rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1994).

Rapp, Claudia. "Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: Monks, Laymen, and Christian Ritual" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

Tougher, Shaun. "Michael III and Basil the Macedonian: Just Good Friends?" in "Desire and Denial in Byzantium: Papers from the 31st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies", ed. Liz James (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), 149-158.

Links Mentioned:

Chad Denton, "Bi, Claudius?", The Outline: https://theoutline.com/post/6294/yes-there-were-homosexuals-in-ancient-rome?utm_source=contributor_pages

Jesi Egan, "Abusing Foucault: How Conservatives and Liberals Misunderstand 'Social Construct' Sexuality", Slate: https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/03/sexuality-as-social-construct-foucault-is-misunderstood-by-conservatives-and-liberals.html

Mostly the Hawai'ian pig demi-god Kamapua'a is known for his love-hate relationship with the volcano goddess Pele. However, Kamapua'a was also pretty into guys.

Marie Equi was an out lesbian who lived openly with another woman and adopted a child, a high school drop-out who got a medical degree, a political activist who fought for workers' rights and abortion rights and put everything on the line to protest against the United States entering a popular war...and she did it all in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

SOURCE:

Michael Helquist. "Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions." (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2015).

A small, romantic gesture between an emperor and his lover became an allegory for love between men that lasted for many centuries in China. Unfortunately, the full story wasn't quite that romantic.

Two Brazilian historians once found love letters written by a Portuguese man to another man in the archives of the Portuguese Inquisition. Given where the letters were found, you might guess that the story is an unhappy one, but maybe not in the way that you think.

If the idea that Jesus and one of the Apostles were lovers sounds like some appalling thing an off-Broadway playwright or a punk rock singer would come up with, well, the idea is actually older than that, and may have even been invoked by King James I, the very man who sponsored the King James Bible! Watch to hear the very odd but woefully incomplete story of the myth of the Beloved Disciple.

We wrap up talking about queer figures in the early histories of the "Big Three" monotheistic religions with the obscure figure of Hit. His story later became a justification for homophobia, but the earliest and most authentic versions of the story are arguably more...sitcom-y.

For this episode, meet lesbian and cross-dressing Harlem Renaissance idol and blues singer Gladys Bentley.

Music: Midnite Lites, "I Wanna Be Loved By You."

For this episode, I tell the true story of a successful diplomat and spy in eighteenth century Europe who suddenly declared that she was a woman, setting her up against no one less than the king and queen of France.

You may already know about the gender-bending, sexually deviant Roman emperors Caligula, Nero, and Elagabalus, but do you know about the ill-fated Emperor Galba, who was a gruff, old-school Roman who nonetheless liked "muscular men"?