Crownless: Forgotten Queer Histories of Rome

A haunting reimagining of a life erased by empire, Crownless gives voice to Aeneas of Bithynia—the youth renamed “Sporus” and forced into the role of Nero’s empress. Blending meticulous history with lyrical storytelling, Carlisle resurrects a silenced figure of queer antiquity, capturing both the brutality of Rome’s power and the fragile endurance of identity. Intimate, defiant, and unforgettable, Crownless is a work of historical fiction that illuminates the lives the empire tried to erase.