Political Injury In Byzantium

Blinding Leo Foki the Elder in 919 after an unsuccessful rebellion against Roman I Lacapin Skilica of Madrid , XII century.

Injury in Byzantium was not only a common punishment for felons, but also a means of political struggle ^[1] . Opponents were , castrated, and or other parts of the body to impede a political career. Mutilation did not lead to death, and therefore did not violate the prohibition of murder (in Byzantine law , maiming and exile were more common than the death penalty and imprisonment) ^[2]

The first Byzantine political mutilation occurred in 637. Emperor Heraclius I ordered the cutting off of the nose and hands of his illegitimate son, , accused of plotting against his father. The accomplice of John Atalarich, his cousin Theodore, was also punished. They were exiled to different islands. Additionally, it was ordered to chop off each of them on arrival on the island ^[3] . The first mutilated emperor was also the son of Heraclius: in 641, by decree of the Senate, Heraclius II was cut off his nose, and his mother - tongue. According to G. Ostrogorsky , this was the first case in Byzantium when such a method of disfigurement was used - cutting off the nose. He wrote: “For the first time we meet here on Byzantine soil the eastern custom of disfigurement by cutting the nose: it served as a sign of the unsuitability of the mutilated to fill the post” ^[4] . The Persian custom of mutilating pretenders to the throne was reported by Procopius of Caesarea : “Persians cannot become a one-eyed king or suffer from any other physical handicap”; “The father disfigured the eyes of his son; he did not take his sight, but <...> mutilated all the beauty of the eyelids. Khozroy did this for the sole purpose, so that his son would lose all hope of imperial power: a person who has any physical ugliness does not allow the law of the Persians to become a king ” ^[5] .

Truncation of the nose by Justinian II in 695 after his overthrow. Boccaccio , French edition of 1480.

The first known case of blinding in Byzantium (not counting unconfirmed or legendary) dates back to 705, when Justinian II ordered the patriarch Kallinikus to be blinded as a punishment for his support of opponents of Justinian ^{[6] [7]} . Castration became popular later - in the X-XI centuries. The mutilation had both cultural and rational reasons.

In Byzantine culture, it was believed that imperial power reflects divine, but God is perfect, and therefore the emperor must be impeccable: any injuries, especially on his face, deprived a person of the opportunity to take the throne. According to the Byzantinist G. G. Litavrin, "in Byzantium, the rule of law was acquired by the custom, according to which neither the blind man nor the eunuch could occupy the throne" ^{[8] [9]} . The exception was Emperors Justinian II and Isaac II Angel . Justinian II (rules 685–695 and 705–711), nicknamed Rinotmit, that is, the “beznosy” was overthrown and mutilated, but returned to the throne ten years later ^[4] . Isaac II Angel (reigned in 1185–1195 and 1203–1204) was overthrown and blinded, but was later restored to the throne by the crusaders ^{[4] [9]} . Castrats were not considered full-fledged people, but “half dead,” and therefore were not considered a threat in the political struggle ^[10] , which allowed them to occupy important posts in the Byzantine administration, without being candidates for the throne.

Castration also had a rational background: after castration, a person could not give birth to children who could compete with the children of the castration initiator for political influence. Similarly, blinding limited human mobility and, for example, made it impossible to lead an army into battle — an important aspect of state activity in Byzantium.