Earlier this year I made the case that Sporus, or Sabina as she should be more respectfully called, could easily be viewed as a trans woman rather than as a male-identified eunuch who was a victim of Nero’s eccentricity. The stories we get from Roman historians don’t show an unhappy victim, they show someone fitting comfortably into the role of a high status woman in Roman society and being accepted as such by the people.

Last week’s episode of the Bettany Hughes series, Eight Days that Made Rome, focused on Nero. I watched it with some trepidation. This is Channel 5, after all. If Sabina featured at all I was expecting her to be the butt (literally) of transphobic jokes.

What I saw was very different. Though she was named Sporus (which anyone who knows Latin will recognize as a male name), Sabina was portrayed as very feminine with no mention of her origins. She was simply the woman who shared Nero’s bed in his final days, and who loyally accompanied him on his flight from Rome. She was played by cis woman.

I find this astonishing. Not only did a very populist TV show eschew the opportunity to make smutty jokes, but someone, possibly Hughes herself, might agree with me that Sabina probably identified as a woman. Of course it is also possible that the show made this choice in order to avoid any hint of queerness, but that’s not been a problem for British TV for years. Unless I hear otherwise, I’m citing Hughes as a source the next time I talk about Sabina.

So, thank you Bettany for giving support to one of my pet theories about Roman history. And much kudos to Daniela Marinova for bravely taking on the role.