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homosexuality_roman_law_and_the_church [2009/04/30 15:34] admin |
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| Charges of homosexuality were tenuous but definitive and the ultimate insult, ambiguous though they were. One may draw comparisons to the McCarthy era and charges of communism in the modern era. Justinian doesn’t hold the blame alone, for Procopius shows his wife Theodora acting with particular cruelty. | Charges of homosexuality were tenuous but definitive and the ultimate insult, ambiguous though they were. One may draw comparisons to the McCarthy era and charges of communism in the modern era. Justinian doesn’t hold the blame alone, for Procopius shows his wife Theodora acting with particular cruelty. | ||
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| - | And she also conceived an anger against a certain Vasianus, a youthful member of the Green Faction and not without distinction, for having covered her with abuse. For this reason Vasianus ( for he had not failed to hear of this anger) fled to the Church of the Archangel. And she immediately set upon him the official in charge of the people, commanding him to make no point of his abuse of her, but laying against him the charge of sodomy. And the official removed the man from the sanctuary and inflicted a certain intolerable punishment upon him. And the populace, upon seeing a free-born man involved in such dire misfortunes, a man who had long been living in luxury, were all straightway filled with anguish at the calamity and in lamentation raised their cries to the heavens, seeking to intercede for the youth. She, however, only punished him even more, and cutting off his private parts destroyed him without a trial and confiscated his property to the Treasury. Thus whenever this hussy became excited, no sanctuary proved secure nor did any legal prohibition hold, nor could the supplication of a whole city, as it was clearly shewn, avail to rescue the offender, nor could anything else whatever stand in her way. | + | And she [Justinian's wife Theodora] also conceived an anger against a certain Vasianus, a youthful member of the Green Faction and not without distinction, for having covered her with abuse. For this reason Vasianus ( for he had not failed to hear of this anger) fled to the Church of the Archangel. And she immediately set upon him the official in charge of the people, commanding him to make no point of his abuse of her, but laying against him the charge of sodomy. And the official removed the man from the sanctuary and inflicted a certain intolerable punishment upon him. And the populace, upon seeing a free-born man involved in such dire misfortunes, a man who had long been living in luxury, were all straightway filled with anguish at the calamity and in lamentation raised their cries to the heavens, seeking to intercede for the youth. She, however, only punished him even more, and cutting off his private parts destroyed him without a trial and confiscated his property to the Treasury. Thus whenever this hussy became excited, no sanctuary proved secure nor did any legal prohibition hold, nor could the supplication of a whole city, as it was clearly shewn, avail to rescue the offender, nor could anything else whatever stand in her way. |
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| Again the object of attention is a man of the Green faction. Her insinuations cause the public to rise up in protest, similar to the Thessaloniki riot, though they are not punished this time. However, it does show that these laws were contrary to public opinion especially in their method of enforcement. These events as recorded in Procopius show that the motives were political, or at least the enforcement thereof. After all it was easy to accuse someone of being a homosexual, without need for proof, one only need to highlight some indication of effeminacy. The punishment is highly symbolic of this political motive emasculating your opponents making them powerless and effeminate; in essence accusing them of what one would like them to be. | Again the object of attention is a man of the Green faction. Her insinuations cause the public to rise up in protest, similar to the Thessaloniki riot, though they are not punished this time. However, it does show that these laws were contrary to public opinion especially in their method of enforcement. These events as recorded in Procopius show that the motives were political, or at least the enforcement thereof. After all it was easy to accuse someone of being a homosexual, without need for proof, one only need to highlight some indication of effeminacy. The punishment is highly symbolic of this political motive emasculating your opponents making them powerless and effeminate; in essence accusing them of what one would like them to be. | ||