Okay, so things I've read about the byzantine empire usually mention eunuchs at some point, although the only one who I remember anything about is Narses. Anyway, I was wondering what jobs eunuchs actually filled in the Byzantine Empire, especially post-arab conquest. Was it like the Qing Empire where they were outside the general imperial bureaucracy, or were there just some jobs in the bureaucracy that could only be held by people who had their testicles removed? Also, this question is only somewhat related related, but were their testes removed before or after puberty? This doesn't really matter as much, I'm just kinda curious.
Well, a number of things! Most (though not all) of the eunuchs we know of are from the very high courtly elite, so we have a relatively high amount of information on them. Court eunuchs are typically educated, powerful, rich, and well-connected; certain positions (especially those involving physically waiting on the emperor) were restricted to eunuchs, but eunuchs could in practice be just about everything but emperor -- though if they got powerful enough as an emperor's ministers, they could often end up calling the shots for him anyway. The Byzantine use of eunuchs started in this kind of domestic capacity: they were introduced in Late Antiquity to wait upon the empress, though I'm not sure if we know for exactly what reason (because they were "safe" to have wait on women? because they're so strongly associated with empires like Persia?). In Late Antiquity, court eunuchs were mostly 1. non-Byzantine and 2. slaves, though they could still acquire massive authority of their own (especially if they were freed), but eventually the demographics shift, and by the 10th century or so, most of them seem to be free Byzantines. Like their Late Antique counterparts, most "eunuch jobs" at this period are still closely associated with waiting on the emperor, or managing the palace -- one 9th-century manual lists about twenty such positions, which you can check out here (121-130). After 1204, though, court service itself becomes radically redefined in the wake of the Latin Conquest -- and eunuchs become much more expensive to make/employ -- so their use under the Palaiologoi falls off quite sharply, though I believe it continues all the way until 1453.
All of that said, eunuchs don't just show up in court service: historical sources record eunuch soldiers, consuls, doctors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, philosophers, generals, monks, and even husbands and adoptive fathers: Leo VI (Novel 26, r. 886-912) forbid eunuchs from marrying, but explicitly allowed them to adopt children, so presumably there were eunuchs who were doing both! "The Byzantine Empire" covers a long span of time, however, so court service is certainly their most obvious association -- it's just hardly the only possibility.
There are literally only two books on Byzantine eunuchs (in English, anyway), but if you're interested, they're both certainly worth checking out: Kathryn Ringrose's The Perfect Servant (2003) and Shaun Tougher's The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (2010). Failing that, though, the section in Bury's work on the Kletorologion should give you a good cross-section of what eunuchs actually did at court -- though it's good to keep in mind that that's not all they do.
Hi there - we've approved this question, but would ask you to take the username ping out of your text. Those can often come across as a demand for said user to respond to the question, which they may not have the time or inclination to do for various reasons.