Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 495 views

    Sex Crimes in Byzantium

    Uploaded by

    Victor Hugo Esquivel
    Greece and Rome in many ways had more tolerant, open societies regarding sex and love. But as Christianity took a stronger hold on the Roman Empire

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Sex Crimes in Byzantium

    Uploaded by

    Victor Hugo Esquivel
    495 views3 pages
    Greece and Rome in many ways had more tolerant, open societies regarding sex and love. But as Christianity took a stronger hold on the Roman Empire

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Greece and Rome in many ways had more tolerant, open societies regarding sex and love. But as Christianity took a stronger hold on the Roman Empire

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    495 views3 pages

    Sex Crimes in Byzantium

    Uploaded by

    Victor Hugo Esquivel
    Greece and Rome in many ways had more tolerant, open societies regarding sex and love. But as Christianity took a stronger hold on the Roman Empire

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    Sex Crimes in Byzantium - Torture and Mutilation

    Sex and love were much more open in a tolerant Greek and Roman world.

    Byzantine Christians made sex a crime punishable by


    torture, mutilation and death
    Greece and Rome in many ways had more tolerant, open societies regarding sex and love. But as
    Christianity took a stronger hold on the Roman Empire, and Paganism was forcibly stamped out,
    Puritanism became the law of the land.
    If you dared to have sex then you were violating the laws of the Christian God. The proper
    punishment for sex crimes were torture, mutilation or castration.
    Although the frequently mentioned punishment of mutilation might offend modern sensibilities, it is
    important to note that such measures often replaced capital punishment and were considered to provide a time
    for penance, thus presumably allowing the wrongdoer to secure the forgiveness of God.
    Let's see. As you are being strapped down by government officials to be castrated or tortured you
    were supposed to be thankful that the Christian God was a loving God and now you had extra time
    to save your soul.
    Right. No wonder there was a Protestant Reformation.
    The Ecloga of Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III (717-41) was meant an abridgment of the Corpus Juris Civilis,
    but there are several modifications to be noted in it. These have led some scholars to term the Ecloga the first
    law code to be influenced by Christian principles. This influence is apparent in the following list of criminal

    punishments, taken from the Ecloga.


    The Ecloga on Sexual Crimes
    1. A married man who commits adultery shall by way of' correction be flogged with twelve lashes;
    and whether rich or poor he shall pay a fine.
    2. An unmarried man who commits fornication shall be flogged with six lashes.
    3. A person who has carnal knowledge of a nun shall, upon the footing that he is debauching the
    Church of God, have his nose slit, because he committed wicked adultery with her who belonged to
    the Church; and she on her side must take heed lest similar punishment be reserved to her.

    4. Anyone who, intending to take in marriage a woman who is his goddaughter in Salvation-bringing
    baptism, has carnal knowledge of her without marrying her, and being found guilty' of' the offence
    shall, after being exiled, be condemned to the same punishment meted out for other adultery, that is
    to say, both the man and the woman shall have their noses slit.
    5. The husband who is cognizant of, and condones, his wife's adultery shall be flogged and exiled,
    and the adulterer and the adulteress shall have their noses slit.
    6. Persons committing incest, parents and children, children and parents, brothers and sisters, shall
    be punished capitally with the sword. Those in other relationships who corrupt one another carnally,
    that is father and daughter-in-law, son and stepmother, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, brother
    and his brother's wife, uncle and niece, nephew and aunt, shall have their noses slit. And likewise
    he who has carnal knowledge with two sisters and even cousins.
    7. If a woman is carnally known and, becoming pregnant, tries to produce a miscarriage [abortion],
    she shall be whipped and exiled.
    8. Those who are guilty whether actively or passively of committing unnatural offences shall be
    capitally punished with the sword. If he who commits the offence passively, is found to be under
    twelve years old, he shall be pardoned on the ground of youthful ignorance of the offence
    committed.
    9. Those guilty of "abominable crime" [homosexuality?] shall be emasculated.

    From E. Freshfied, trans, A Manual of Roman Law: The "Ecloga", (Cambridge, 1926], 108-12.).
    Reprinted in Deno Geanokoplos, Byzantium, (Chicago: 1984), 78

    Going from an open Roman-Greek sexual culture to Puritanism under the Byzantine Christianity.

    You might also like