Dorotheus was first chamberlain to the emperor Diocletian; Gorgonius and Peter were under chamberlains. They were the three principal eunuchs of the palace and had sometimes borne the weight of the most difficult affairs of state, and been the support both of the emperor and his court. When the palace of Nicomedia was set on fire, probably by the contrivance of Galerius who unjustly charged the Christians with it, Dorotheus with Gorgonius, and several others under his dependence were very cruelly tortured and at length strangled. Their bodies were cast into the sea by an order of Diocletian lest the Christian should worship them as gods.