Everyday Life in Byzantium Read online

  52 Children playing with hoops (mosaic detail)

  Two days of careful preparation preceded each race meeting. First the emperor’s permission had to be formally obtained, which took the best part of a day. On the following day a notice was hung up at the entrances to the Hippodrome announcing the meeting. Thereupon the factions assembled at the Palace’s Hippodrome Gate to acclaim the emperor and to wish themselves victory in the contests, which were to take place next day; then they moved off to inspect the horses in their stalls within the palace precincts, in order to make sure that all was well with them. Many of the emperors, notably Constantine VIII (1025-8), took a keen personal interest in the horses , some even commissioning bronze statues of them from the leading sculptors of the day, though others preferred busts of their favourite charioteers. It is unfortunate that none of these has survived.

  On the day of the races vast crowds assembled at dawn at the Hippodrome’s gates. Meanwhile the emperor, dressed in his state robes, wearing the imperial regalia and carrying the lighted candle which he had used that morning when performing his prayers in his private chapel, would be making his way to the audience chamber attached to his box in the Hippodrome to receive the greetings of the city’s leading dignitaries. Whilst he was occupied in this manner his Master of the Horse was checking final arrangements for the races, that is to say, making certain that the charioteers, the leaders of the factions, the imperial guards, with their standards flying, those members of the factions engaged in ceremonial duties and the crowd of spectators were in their places. On notifying the emperor that the games could begin a signal was given and the doors of the royal box slowly opened. The emperor advanced onto the tribune and mounted the throne prepared for him in the imperial box. Standing on its step he raised a fold of his robe to bless the audience by performing the sign of the cross three times, first facing towards the centre block of seats, then to the right, and lastly to the left. Then he dropped a white kerchief as a signal for the games to begin: the stable doors flew open and the first four chariots drove onto the course. They had been chosen by lot to run the first of the day’s eight races. Each competitor had to complete seven rounds of the course; seven ostrich eggs were set out on a stand in full view of all the spectators, and as each round of the course was completed an egg was removed from the stand. The prefect, dressed in a toga, awarded a crown or palm to the winner of each race.

  53 Incident from a circus in the Hippodrome

  The charioteers were passionately admired and acclaimed by their supporters. Constantine VIII even had the portraits of those he admired most executed in mosaic. To begin with charioteers were chosen from the upper ranks of the working class. But, just as in nineteenth-century England pugilists were in such favour that young noblemen took to the ring, so in tenth-century Byzantium did young men of high birth, even certain emperors, compete in the Hippodrome. Constantine VIII not only watched the contests but took part in them on equal terms with other competitors. The charioteers wore short sleeveless tunics held in place by crossed leather belts and leather puttees round their calves. By the eleventh century empresses could not be restrained from seeing the races, but they had to watch from the roof of one of the palace churches, St Stephen, instead of from the imperial box. The Latin occupation put an end to the games and none was held in the capital after 1204, though they remained popular in many other towns.

  The intervals between each of the day’s eight races were whiled away by the antics of mimers, acrobats, actors and dancers, each performing individual turns. On state occasions, similar theatrical entertainments and team games were held in the Hippodrome instead of the races. In the eleventh century Constantine VIII, Michael V and Constantine IX all adored these entertainments, though Constantine IX disliked organ music as much as he loved that of flutes. Individual artists were treated as stars: the juggler Philaraius was so lavishly rewarded by his admirers that he ended his days as a very wealthy man. Many of the dances were performed by children, but acrobatic turns, mimes, songs, fooleries and drolleries of various sorts were more popular with the crowd than were dances or even tragedies; some of the productions appear to have included singing, perhaps foreshadowing western Europe’s far later operatic works. The range of available diversions far exceeded anything else in contemporary Europe, and in later times even came to include what can only be described as cabaret shows. Foreigners visiting the city were amazed and delighted by these entertainments. Certain book illuminations and gold cloisonné enamel plaques survive which give an idea of how the adult dancers looked. The finest of these plaques form part of the crown of Constantine IX Monomachus (1042-55). They are now preserved in Budapest. Several of them show girls dancing in a somewhat oriental, swaying manner, holding a drapery above their heads. Even more evocative is the illumination of Miriam dancing, in the famous Chludov manuscript preserved in the USSR. Both groups of illustrations show that the Byzantine taste in dancing was strongly oriental in character, the swaying, elegant girls moving in a manner evoking the arts of Syria, Persia and India rather than those of Greece or southern Europe. From the start the Church had disapproved so strongly of theatrical diversions that it had tried to abolish them; on failing to do so it concentrated on prohibiting them on Saturdays and Sundays.

  54 The crown of the Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus

  The industrial and religious communities were for the most part concentrated in the suburbs of Constantinople, but even there the principal streets were at least five metres wide and paved with stone. Much of the central area was given over to public squares where markets were held and men gathered to hear the news and discuss the burning problems of the day. According to Anna Comnena, a distinguished officer who managed to escape from the Turks and return to Constantinople made his way immediately to the Forum of Constantine to give the men who were there an account of the battle in which he had been captured. In Justinian’s day the Augustaion was the favourite public meeting place in the capital, perhaps because the town’s bookshops were situated close by, whilst the public scribes waited near the entrance of Haghia Sophia. Towards the end of the sixth century a large food market was also held there. Precious gems and metals were sold in the Agora or market place between the Great Palace and Constantine’s Forum, and so the metal-workers, jewellers and moneylenders were also to be found there.

  Though there were a great many shops in Constantinople, street sellers were numerous; they peddled such costly wares as embroideries worked in gold thread or such everyday items as kumis (mare’s milk), shoes and textiles. Their numbers were swelled by many travelling astrologers, magicians and fortune-tellers. Carriages, sometimes mounted on solid gold wheels, yet lacking all forms of springing, thronged the streets. The finest were often exquisitely painted and gilt, and the trappings of the mules to which they were harnessed were of gilt leather. Ladies, whether travelling in a carriage or being carried in a litter, were accompanied by eunuchs who walked beside them clearing a passage through the crowd. Noblemen generally rode white horses, probably thoroughbred Arabs, using saddles embroidered in gold thread. In town they were accompanied by servants carrying sticks, who walked beside them helping to clear the road for their masters.

  There were many public gardens in the town where the male population could find peace from the congestion and turmoil of the crowded streets. The interest which the Byzantines took in gardens is reflected in the profusion of floral motifs in their art, but it was also touchingly demonstrated during the excavations of the mosaic floor of the Great Palace, when the archaeologists uncovering the mosaic discovered that the empty area forming the centre of the floor had been made up with a layer of specially good earth which had obviously been brought there for the purpose of making a garden. Theophilus’ love of gardening may have owed something to Eastern influence. He made a wonderful garden beside his polo ground, laying it out between the pitch and the pavilion known as the Tsykanisterion or polo palace. In the eleventh century Constantine IX took delight
in making a pond in the centre of a park of fruit trees; he had its sides sunk below the level of the ground so that it could not be seen from a distance; as a result unsuspecting trespassers who entered the park in order to steal its fruit were apt to fall into it and had to swim ashore. The pond was fed by channels of water. Constantine also built himself a pleasure house of great charm near the pond; he was fond of sitting in it whenever he visited the park. On another occasion he decided to transform a field into a garden; at his orders large fruit trees were transplanted into it and much turfing was carried out. Unfortunately no picture survives showing us what Byzantine gardens looked like. The herbals which exist list and illustrate a great many individual plants, but these are mainly medicinal or edible ones and little space is devoted to flowers of a purely decorative quality.

  At least until the time of Leo VI (886-912) burial within the city walls was only permitted in the case of an emperor and his relations. Only they were entitled to lie in porphyry sarcophagi placed in mausolea or in tombs within a church; the latter habit arose in later times, when emperors were often buried in a favourite church. Andronicus I, for example, was laid to rest in the church of Mary Panachrantus (Fenariissa Camii). After the Latin occupation of Constantinople the reinstated emperors could no longer afford to build churches or even chapels to serve as their mausolea, yet some of their courtiers included men who were in a position to do so. Early in the fourteenth century the Great Logothete Theodore Metochites devoted a considerable part of his large fortune to building in the neighbourhood of the Blachernae Palace a church dedicated to the ‘Saviour in Chora’, from the designation of Christ Chora or Heart of the Living. It was to serve as his mausoleum and was attached to a monastery; the church is now one of Istanbul’s finest monuments and is known there under the name of Karieh Camii. Metochites adorned the lower sections of its walls with intricately veined marble panels and their upper sections with wall mosaics and paintings which are one of the glories, of later Byzantine art. Having completed the church Metochites fell into disgrace and ended his days as a monk in the monastery which formed part of his endowment. Though by that time burial in tombs had become customary, in the early Byzantine period the rich, like their forebears of classical times, were buried in sarcophagi; these were generally made of marble and richly adorned with sculptures executed by leading artists of the day. Ordinary people were expected to use cemeteries situated outside the walls, yet graveyards nevertheless became established in many urban churchyards. In both cases graves were marked by tombstones simply inscribed with the dead person’s name and occupation, followed by the good wishes of their relatives, and sometimes by their portraits. At a death, as in pagan times, professional mourners were employed. Though an emperor wore white when in mourning, all others wore black; this even applied to empresses, for Anna Comnena mentions that, at the death of her father, the empress removed her imperial veils, cut her hair and replaced her purple dress and shoes with black ones. On the third, ninth and fortieth days after burial (the intervals prescribed by Babylonian astrologers who based their calculations on the lunar cycle), the family would gather round the tomb to intone laments. The metaphors coined by friends in memory of the dead were not inscribed on the tombs, but were recited verbally and written down to be handed round and read over the tomb. The majority abounded in mythological allusions and were often based on mythological themes.

  55 Theodore Metochites giving a model of his church to Christ

  The attempts to limit burials in towns were probably as much for reasons of health as of lack of space. We know that plague and leprosy were widespread. Other diseases had by then been correctly diagnosed; more than one emperor had been found to suffer from arthritis, gout, dropsy, heart disease or consumption, whilst Michael IV was an epileptic. To treat these, and probably many other ailments which are not mentioned in surviving records, the Byzantines had an efficient and well-developed medical service. Each town had what was thought to be sufficient doctors for the size of its population, and contained hospitals, almshouses and orphanages. Each of these was in the charge of a trained professional who was answerable to a special eparch, though Constantinople’s largest orphanage, an imperial foundation, was directed by an Orphanotrophus, generally a priest, responsible only to the emperor.

  The Byzantines were well aware of the need for psychological care in addition to the physical and provided treatments of a type which were not available for centuries to come in the Western world and which still, today, are not fully appreciated even in certain countries which enjoy a high living standard. Of what may be described as valuable psychological amenities the right of each private householder, at any rate in Constantinople, to a view of the sea or of a local historical monument was one that was fully recognised, though anyone claiming that the sight of a monument, such, for example, as a statue of Apollo, had been denied to him was obliged, in order to have it restored to him, to prove that he was sufficiently well informed to be able fully to appreciate it. The Byzantine concern for a plentiful supply of water was based on more than either psychological needs or those of convenience, for adequate supplies were essential to their cities’ teeming populations if these were to withstand a long siege—and from the eighth century the threat to Constantinople’s security was so great that the inhabitants were instructed to keep three years’ supplies of basic foods in their store rooms. It was thus a primary duty of the nation’s engineers to provide all towns with a lavish supply of water. In the case of Constantinople this was at first done by means of a series of aqueducts, one of which, that built by Valens (364-78), still survives in the centre of old Istanbul. The supply was based on a system of waterworks which started far beyond the town’s boundaries, carrying water from sources in the Forest of Belgrade to the north of the Golden Horn to the city. However, the Byzantines soon realised that a supply such as this could easily be cut by a daring enemy and they therefore devised a system as spectacular architecturally as it was practical. They set about building vast subterranean cisterns in which immense quantities of water could be stored safely for long periods, establishing them at various central positions. More than 30 of these have been surveyed. Some of the largest and finest are situated near the cathedral of Haghia Sophia, not far from the Great Palace’s main entrance. Two are veritable architectural masterpieces, comparable in size and excellence of proportion to a great, many-columned church. Large enough to boat in, their domed ceilings are supported by a veritable forest of columns; indeed, the Turks have aptly named the more spectacular of the two ‘The Cistern of A Thousand And One Columns’.

  With their liking for water, the Byzantines were almost as fond of taking baths as were the Romans; though three baths a day were considered excessive by the Church, two baths were not regarded as unusual; nevertheless, in the eighth century clerics who bathed twice a day were severely rebuked by their superiors. Only the very rich could afford to have bath-houses of their own. That in which Romanus III (1028-34) died—he was probably murdered—was near the palace in which he was then living. It was his practice on entering the bath to start by washing his head and then his body, and to finish with a swim—a method which clearly indicates that Byzantine baths were similar to those used by the Romans. When Michael IV (1034-41) built the church dedicated to the two Anargyroi or healers, SS Cosmas and Damian, he provided a fine bath-house with fountains as an adjunct to the church. The same practice was probably followed by other emperors. There was no scarcity of public baths in any town, for the notables followed the examples set by their emperors, often building such establishments in the poorer districts of their cities. As in Rome, so in Byzantium, the public baths were generally impressive and well built; their façades were often ornate and their interior decoration and equipment luxurious. By Justinian’s day, and probably from long before, cubicles and lavatories had come to be regarded as essential; these generally encircled a round bathing-pool, the water for which was heated in a bronze boiler and fed to the bath by pipes te
rminating in an ornamental spout. A cold and a hot swimming-pool and a hot steam bath were all placed in the same building as the hot bath. The establishment was open to men throughout the day, but in the evenings it was reserved for women.

  56 Part of Constantinople’s Cistern of 1001 Columns

  Apart from the great religious festivals and processions, events organised in the Hippodrome and meetings with friends in public squares, gardens and bath-houses, organised diversions were rare. They were largely limited to a series of seasonal functions of a semi-religious, semi-official nature which were eagerly awaited by the poorer people. The processions accompanying a venerated icon’s annual parade through a town always attracted a vast crowd; annual pilgrimages to monasteries or shrines were occasions for much rejoicing. A pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a unique emotional experience and a test of physical endurance, but many people, from Byzantium and abroad, managed to undertake it, and towns on the pilgrim route, such as Ephesus, prospered. Inns serving wine and food were numerous, though on Sundays and feast days they could not open before eight in the morning and had to extinguish their fires and close their doors at eight in the evening.