Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Reformation of Abuses at Rome by the Emperor Theodosius.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XVIII.—Reformation of Abuses at Rome by the Emperor
Theodosius.
The emperor Theodosius during
his short stay in Italy, conferred the greatest benefit on the city of
Rome, by grants on the one hand, and abrogations on the other. His
largesses were indeed very munificent; and he removed two most infamous
abuses which existed in the city. One of them was the following: there
were buildings of immense magnitude, erected in ancient Rome in former
times, in which bread was made for distribution among the people.746
| 746In the earlier periods of Roman history the
government undertook to regulate the price of corn, so as to protect
the poorer classes; in time of scarcity the government was to purchase
the grain and sell it at a moderate price. This provision was gradually
changed into a dispensation of public charity, at first by the sale of
the grain below cost, and afterwards by the gratuitous distribution of
the same. Some time before the reign of Aurelian, 270–275 a.d., the distribution of grain seems to have given
place to the distribution of bread. Such distribution was made after
the reign of Constantine at Constantinople as well as at Rome. See
Smith, Dict. of the Greek and Rom. Antiq., art. Leges
Frumentariæ.
|
Those who had the charge of these edifices, who Mancipes747
| 747Originally this name was applied to all
farmers-general of the public revenues. See Smith, Dict. of Greek
and Rom. Antiq., art. Manceps.
|
were called in the Latin language, in process of time converted them
into receptacles for thieves. Now as the bake-houses in these
structures were placed underneath, they build taverns at the side of
each, where they kept prostitutes; by which means they entrapped many
of those who went thither either for the sake of refreshment, or to
gratify their lusts, for by a certain mechanical contrivance they
precipitated them from the tavern into the bake-house below. This was
practiced chiefly upon strangers; and such as were in this way
kidnapped were compelled to work in the bake-houses, where many of them
were immured until old age, not being allowed to go out, and giving the
impression to their friends that they were dead. It happened that one
of the soldiers of the emperor Theodosius fell into this snare; who
being shut up in the bake-house, and hindered from going out, drew a
dagger which he wore and killed those who stood in his way: the rest
being terrified, suffered him to escape. When the emperor was made
acquainted with the circumstance he punished the Mancipes, and ordered
these haunts of lawless and abandoned characters to be pulled down.
This was one of the disgraceful nuisances of which the emperor purged
the imperial city: the other was of this nature. When a woman was
detected in adultery, they punished the delinquent not in the way of
correction but rather of aggravation of her crime. For shutting her up
in a narrow brothel, they obliged her to prostitute herself in a most
disgusting manner; causing little bells to be rung at the time of the
unclean deed that those who passed might not be ignorant of what was
doing within. This was doubtless intended to brand the crime with
greater ignominy in public opinion. As soon as the emperor was apprised
of this indecent usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having
ordered the Sistra748
| 748Lit. = ‘bells.’ Cf. Smith, Dict. of
Greek and Rom. Antiq., art. Sistrum.
|
—for so these places of penal prostitution were
denominated—to be pulled down, he appointed other laws for the
punishment of adulteresses.749
| 749From a law of Constantine’s (Cod. 9.
30) whose genuineness is, however, disputed, the punishment of adultery
was death. The same punishment appears to have been inflicted in
specific cases mentioned by Am. Marcellinus. Rerum Gestarum,
XXVII. 1. 28. Whence it appears that Socrates must have been
misinformed concerning the facts mentioned here.
|
Thus did the emperor Theodosius
free the city from two of its most discreditable abuses: and when he
had arranged all other affairs to his satisfaction, he left the emperor
Valentinian at Rome, and returned himself with his son Honorius to
Constantinople, and entered that city of the 10th of November, in the
consulate of Tatian and Symmachus.750
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
