[1227] Our knowledge of these facts in detail is due to Procopius (Anecdota or Hist. Arcana), but sufficient corroboration from other sources is not wanting. The question as to the authenticity of this work of Procopius has been finally set at rest by the recent researches of Dahn and Haury. It is doubtless as true as all history in detail, i.e., vitiated by prejudice, ignorance, and mistakes. The life and literary activity of P. will be noticed later on.
[1228] Procopius, Anecdot., 10.
[1229] This was a staple piece of “gag” for centuries, and is another instance of the uniformity of Byzantine life during long periods; see Tertullian and Gregory Naz., as quoted by Alemannus, op. cit., p. 380.
[1230] See Mirecourt (Les Contemporains, Paris, 1855, 78) for an amusing account (with portrait) of Lola Montez, and her bold procedure in dispensing with her maillots, “to the delight of the gentlemen of the orchestra,” when dancing at Paris. Some may still remember the popularity of “the Menken,” as Mazeppa at Astley’s, the result of her having been counselled to turn “to account her fine physique”; see Dic. Nat. Biog., sb. nom., for her career and distinguished associates. Her apology, protesting against the performance being denounced as an exhibition of nakedness, was published, and is extant. This hetaira approached somewhat to her Greek prototypes, and issued a volume of poems, which, if not equal to Sappho’s, had a merit of their own. The same significance cannot, however, be attached to such displays as at the present day. The indiscriminate bathing was only just passing into disrepute, and ingenuous exhibitions of that kind were still possible. See, for instance, Aristaenetus (i, 7), where a “modest” young lady trips down to the beach, coolly divests herself of her clothing, and asks a young gentleman, who happens to be reclining there, to keep an eye on her things while she is in the water. This author, waiting c. 500, could scarcely have deemed such an incident preposterous in his time. As to naked women in the theatre, in addition to the notices already given from Chrysostom, see In Matth. Hom. xix, 4 (in Migne, viii, 120).
[1231] Her proceedings are described by Procopius, with the openness and detail which was natural to the age in which he lived. For this, however, he has been censured, to the damage of his historical credit, as if he thereby proved himself to be a dissolute person, unusually experienced in the vices of the times. But the charge is unjust, and might be urged with greater force against almost all of the Christian fathers who continually inveigh against abuses of the sexual instinct, in the intricacies of which they show themselves to be far better versed. Beginning with the Epistle of Barnabas they never tire of decrying circumstantially all sexual relations, especially those who “medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt”; Minucius Felix, 28; cf. Arnobius, Adv. Gen., ii; Lactantius, Div. Inst., vi, 23, etc. Their rigid text is “genitalem corporis partem nulla alia causa nisi efficiendae sobolis accepimus”; ibid. Nor was it regarded as proper that the knowledge and discussion of such matters should be ordinarily thrust out of sight; on the contrary they were included in the category of topics habitually invested with interest to “society.” Thus the polished Agathias in an amatory epigram (28), after lamenting the pangs and torments of love, makes his point with:
Πάντ’ ἄρα Διογένης ἔφυγεν τάδε, τὸν δ’ Ὑμέναιον
ἤειδεν παλάμῃ, Λαΐδος οὐ χατέων.
This graphic effusion duly found its place in that book of “elegant extracts,” compiled for the delectation of the Byzantine drawing-room, the Greek Anthology, where it remains enshrined amid a crowd of companions, at least ten times as remote as itself from modern ideas of decency.
[1232] One example of her unusual turpitude may be reproduced. After enlivening a party of ten or more young men for a whole evening, she “παρὰ τοὺς ἐκείνων οἰκέτας ἰοῦσα τριάκοντα ὄντας ἂν οὕτω τύχοι, ξυνεδυαζετο μὲν τούτων ἑκάστῳ”; Procopius, Anecdot., 9. Unconsciously she was emulating the activities of the Empress Messalina five centuries previously:
Claudius audi