[454] Cod. Theod., XV, vi, 8, etc.
[455] 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; Ἱστορ. δοκ. περὶ τ. θεάτρ. καὶ τ. μουσικ. τ. Βυζαντίων, Ven., 1878; cf. Krumbacher, Byzant. Literaturgesch., Munich, 1897, p. 644, et seq.
[456] 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 consort; or, perhaps, of her own union with Martian, at first a private soldier.
[457] Called trabea or toga palmata; Claudian, Cons. Olyb. et Prob., 178; Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., vi, 1.
[458] Ibid.
[459] Ammianus, xxii, 7. Julian, when at CP., in his enthusiasm for democratic institutions, followed the consul on foot, but, forgetting himself, he performed the act of emancipation, an inadvertence for which he at once fined himself 10 lb. of gold (£400).
[460] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 25; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 8, etc.
[461] Even under the barbarian kings in Italy, Odovacar the Herule and Theodoric the Goth, a consul was appointed annually at Rome in accordance with the arrangement made when Constantine decreed that the metropolitan honours should be divided between the old and the new capital.
[462] Nov. cv, 1, where they are enumerated. The regular cost of the display was 2,000 lb. of gold (£80,000), which, with the exception of a small amount by the consul himself, came from the Imperial treasury; Procopius, Anecdot., 26; cf. Jn. Lydus, loc. cit. Hence it appears that even the consulship need not be held by a millionaire; see p. 100.
[463] Cod. Theod., XV, v, 2. No lower dignitary was allowed to distribute anything more precious than silver.