Diophantus was born in the city of Abae, in Arabia, during the reign of
Alexander Balas. Mistakenly thought to be born a female, his birthname was Herais. His father, who was also called Diophantus, was a
Macedonian Greek, and he married an
Arab woman from the region. The couple's first child, a baby boy also called Diophantus, died at a young age. Diophantus Senior was perhaps a military settler in the region along with many other Macedonians. Diophantus was married to a man named Samias, who travelled abroad after they had been married for one year. Diophantus then fell ill with a fever and a tumour formed at the base of his abdomen. Doctors suspected this was a tumour in the womb. The doctors tried to apply medication, but on the seventh day of the disease, the tumour ruptured, and male genitalia appeared. Diophantus' mother and two servants witnessed this occurrence. The women dressed Diophantus in the typical feminine way, imagining that Diophantus had had homosexual relations with his husband. When Samias returned from his travels, Diophantus no longer wanted to be married. Samias took Diophantus' father to court and the judges decided that the wife should return to the husband. Diophantus then removed his clothes, revealing himself as a man, protesting that the judges had forced one man to live with another. Diophantus began to wear male clothes, and doctors concluded that his internal sexual characteristics had been hidden inside an egg-shaped compartment, through which there was a membrane through which excreta flowed. Doctors performed cosmetic surgery, giving his genitalia a "decent shape". It was after this operation that he took the name Diophantus. It is likely that he belonged to the Guard due to the "permanent character of [his] military service in the cavalry during peacetime". Diophantus' life also links to a prophecy that predicted Alexander Balas' death would come at the birthplace of the "two-formed" – meaning Abae, where Diophantus was born. == Historiography ==