Episode 333 – The Bachelorhood of Basil II with Mark Masterson
Added 2025-12-15 20:58:18 +0000 UTCTo mark the 1000th anniversary of his death we revisit the bachelorhood of Basil II.
My guest is Mark Masterson — until recently Associate Professor of Classics at Victoria University of Wellington (retired 2025). His work explores masculinity, desire, and male social bonds in the Roman world.
In his book Between Byzantine Men he discusses an oration written in Basil's day which may shed light on his intimate life.
Picture: Basil II by J Foliveras (https://www.deviantart.com/jfoliveras/art/Basil-II-727003918)
Comments
I would recommend reading the book before dismissing it entirely. And again it's not an argument that Basil was gay as we would put it. Simply that it may be possible that this was a rumour at the time. A data point as Prof M said. But the rest of the book provides context for other instances.
Robin Pierson
2026-01-05 14:09:37 +0000 UTCIn a very conservative and traditionalist society such as Rome, and Christian Rome even more so, people of course knew about homosexuality but people were not loud and proud about. There were no Pride parades on the Mese. Since it was not openly celebrated, perhaps the conservative establishment didn’t feel threatened by discreet instances of it in poetry and elsewhere.
erik w bjorke
2026-01-04 01:42:09 +0000 UTCI don’t object to the theory itself, but I’m not really convinced by the argument. It would be helpful to actually check the original Greek and translation to see if it really says mouth-to-mouth kissing It seems like he’s reading modern ideas of intimacy into what are really just standard Byzantine rhetorical tropes. These texts often describe saints and holy men hugging and kissing, and it doesn’t mean anything sexual. Masterson himself emphasizes the Prodigal Son metaphor, which immediately what I thought, so I’m not sure this really tells us anything about Basil being gay. It could just show he was very forgiving. And based on his other point about men back in the day making phallic jokes, I guess that would make the majority of men gay. I mean when has that not been the case? 😂 The guy is looking for evidence to confirm his bias wherever he can find it. It’s basically like someone searching for Bigfoot in the woods, hearing a sound they don’t recognize, and immediately concluding, “Yep, that’s him.” Based on the written evidence we do have I think its more likely that he was obsessed with his work and simply had no interest in any relationship. He had a stoic and paranoid personality that made him wary of marriage alliances and a risk for factional intrigues.
Robert Gluzman
2026-01-03 19:54:08 +0000 UTCI'm looking forward to producing episodes on Roman law so I can learn more. But my suspicion is that laws like that were never enforced. Unless politically motivated. Though in this case I suppose Symeon might have been voicing a well-known rumour. No one was actually going to investigate the Emperor's private life. Basil Lekapenos was the illegitimate son of the Emperor Romanos. Everyone knew that for example.
Robin Pierson
2026-01-02 11:01:08 +0000 UTCJustinian introduced strict anti LGBT laws yet here we have evidence of not super secret LGBT relationships. Does this indicate these laws were loosely enforced during later periods, or that Emperors/the upper classes were exempt?
Alan Boughey
2025-12-31 15:37:59 +0000 UTCProf Masterson mentions a particular book as being highly influential in his starting researching this topic. As far as I can tell from the internet, this book seems to be Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Columbia University Press, 1985 (hope I got the right one!). This seems to have been a very influential book and it is interesting that its ideas have been applied to the historical and specifically Byzantine world.
Alan Boughey
2025-12-30 18:55:47 +0000 UTCHaha
Robin Pierson
2025-12-17 14:12:28 +0000 UTCI was not expecting you to drop a new episode so soon! Thanks for the Hanukkah present, Robin!
Maxwell Elkiss
2025-12-16 18:52:05 +0000 UTCI don't want to step too deeply into the private life of a person, but given his field of research and publications (https://hcommons.org/members/mmaarrkk/) I think an educated guess is certainly possible. Not that it should in any way disregard his research. In any case, I think I will keep this episode on the back burner for a while, since I don't think applying modern ideas of sexualitiy or 'toxic masculinity' to people a thousand years ago are really fruitful endeavors. Moreover sexualizing meaningful male friendships is not really something that is helpful since if anything having a male mentor or guidance figure is something most young men nowadays lack. Most researchers in these fields in my view do this for current political gains, not that dissimiliar to the Iconophiles if one thinks about it.
Sascha
2025-12-16 18:05:48 +0000 UTCSuper interesting podcast, I think it works well with all the work Judith Herron has done on gender in Byzantium.
Diarmuid Angland
2025-12-16 12:10:06 +0000 UTCVery interesting episode. In light of your constant warnings over the past decade of checking our sources and taking into account Confirmation Bias, do you know or can you disclose whether Ass Prof Masterston is homosexual? Thank you
Mladen
2025-12-16 09:33:32 +0000 UTCRobin we missed you
Félix Comet
2025-12-16 08:41:15 +0000 UTCI was just thinking yesterday, I wonder when Robin will post again? And then a few hours later you return!
Luke Gauci
2025-12-16 07:53:35 +0000 UTCThousand year anniversaries don't come along very often. I look forward to similarly detailed coverage of the East/West schism, Manzikert, and the First Crusade!
Christopher Burton
2025-12-16 02:33:08 +0000 UTC
