Midway through the third season of Succession, Tom Wambsgans tells his underling and cousin by marriage, Greg Hirsch, a colorful anecdote from an empire in decline. “Sporus was a young slave boy—he was Nero’s favorite,” Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) explains. “Well, Nero pushed his wife down the stairs, and then he had Sporus castrated, and he married him instead.