disreputable.[1] Nevertheless, the pastimes of the public are jealously protected; and the amorous youth who runs away with an actress,[2] equally with him who withdraws a favourite horse from the Circensian games for his private use,[3] is subjected to a heavy fine. A woman, however, who wishes to reform her life on the plea of religious conviction, is permitted to quit the stage, but is not afterwards allowed to relapse into her former life of turpitude.[4] Should she betray any inclination to do so, it is enacted that she shall be kept in a place of detention until such time as the decrepitude of age shall afford an involuntary guarantee of her chastity.[5] The Byzantine aristocracy, from the rank of Clarissimus upwards is prohibited from marrying an actress or any woman on a level with that class.[6], Ven., 1878; cf. Krumbacher, Byzant. Literaturgesch., Munich, 1897, p. 644, et seq.]*
- ↑ Cod. Theod., XV, vii, 12, etc.
- ↑ Ibid., 5.
- ↑ Ibid., 6; Cod., XI, xl, 3.
- ↑ Cod. Theod., XV, vi, 8, etc.
- ↑ The immorality of the stage is the constant theme of Chrysostom. The fact that he draws no ethical illustrations from the drama seems to prove that no plays were exhibited in which virtue and vice were represented as receiving their due award. Fornication and adultery were the staple allurements of the stage; Act. Apost. Hom. xlii, 3 (in Migne, ix, 301). From the culminating scene of "The Ass" in the versions both of Apuleius and of Lucian it would seem that practical acts of fornication were possible incidents in public performances. It must be remembered, however, that women did not frequent the Greek or, at least, the Byzantine theatre. Sathas labours vainly to prove the existence of a legitimate Byzantine drama; [Greek: Histor. dok. peri t. theatr. kai t. mousik. t. Byzantiôn
- ↑ Haenel, Cod. Theod., IV, vi, 3; Cod., V, xxvii, 1. By the first draft, due to Constantine, the prohibition might apply to any poor but virtuous girl. This defect was remedied by Pulcheria; Nov. Mart. iv. Here we may discern a result of Athenais, the dowerless but well educated Athenian girl being chosen (by Pulcheria) for her brother's
