Ancient Life: The Cruelest Cut

About 1,800 years ago, some unlucky youths living near the banks of the Thames River in ancient Londinium found their nether parts caught in the serrated grip of the bronze castration clamp shown here. (The implement, now on display in the British Museum, would have originally been hinged together at the top by a screw nut; the ring at the top kept the penis out of harm’s way while the scrotum was severed by a surgical knife.)

Castration was a fairly common procedure in the ancient world. First-millennium B.C. Assyrian officials installed eunuchs in positions of authority because they were thought to be less vulnerable than other men to sexual blackmail and corruption. Eunuchs also guarded harems and served as escorts for royal ladies. The Athenian historian Xenophon (428–354 B.C.) wrote that the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great (559–529 B.C.) “selected eunuchs for every post of personal service to him, from the doorkeepers up.”