-
In contrast to the unwashed West, early Byzantium
abounded in public baths. Street lighting made the nights
safer.
-
Emperors and wealthy citizens vied in endowing
hospitals, poorhouses, orphanages, homes for the blind or
aged (where "the last days of man's earthly life might be
peaceful, painles, and dignified"), homes for repentant prostitutes
(some became saints), even a reformatory for fallen women
aristocrats.
-
In the spirit "if any would not work, neither
should he eat," the indigent were put to work in state bakeries
and market gardens.
-
"Idleness leads to crime," noted Emperor Leo
III. And Drunkenness to disorder and sedition - so taverns
closed at eight.
-
God's state would protect the working girl:
a fine of two pound of gold for anyone who corrupted a woman
employed in the imperial textile factoryes.
-
Incest, homicide, privately making or selling
purple cloth (reserved for royalty alone), or teaching shipbuilding
to enemies might bring decapitation, impalement, hanging -
or drowning in a sack with a hog, a cock, a viper, and an
ape.
-
The grocer who gave false measure lost his
hand. Arsonists were burned.
-
The Byzantines came to favor mutilation as
a humane substitute for the death penalty; the tongueless
or slit-nosed sinner had time to repent.
-
"Men...should not shamelessly trample upon
one another," observed Leo VI, the Wise.
-
Constractors had to replace faulty construction
at their own cost. Housing codes forbade balconies less than
ten feet from the facing house, storing noxious mater, or
encroaching on a neighbor's light or sea view.
