Everyday Life in Byzantium Read online

  The festivities associated with pagan festivals were more carefree in character and were so much enjoyed that, even when university students were forbidden to take part in them, the majority continued to rank as holidays at least until the eighth century, and some for much longer. Later they were treated much like Halloween parties in present-day Scotland. Thus, at the Brumelia feast held in honour of Dionysius, masked men paraded the streets. At a new moon, fires were lit in the streets, as they still are in remote villages in Sicily on the day of the Virgin’s Assumption, and young men in the district were expected to jump over the flames. There were in addition the local seasonal fairs at which sages, astrologers and healers, in spite of intense disapproval by the Church, attracted large crowds, and did a good trade in charms, amulets and potions. There were also unexpected diversions, such as the arrival of foreigners dressed in unusual costumes or the appearance in the city’s streets of outlandish animals such as elephants accompanied by their mahouts, camels led by Negro grooms or giraffes. Less kindly and innocent excitement was aroused by the passage of condemned criminals being led to their place of execution or torture, seated back to front on a mule with their hands tied behind their backs. If the sentences were carried out in public crowds flocked to watch.

  But even incidents such as these were rare and life in Byzantium revolved round the family which, in its turn, centred almost entirely on family religious ceremonies—baptisms, engagements, marriages, deaths and burials. Periods of fasting and penitence, rituals associated with the cooking of the paschal lamb—still today an important part of the Greek Easter celebrations—excursions to shrines and monasteries, pilgrimages followed by periods of retreat, or even the entry of a relation into a monastery or his taking of Holy Orders, punctuated the family’s lives.

  57 One of the ivory plaques from the Veroli casket

  At birth the newly born child was washed by the midwife and swaddled in woollen bandages—scenes which are often illustrated in Byzantine paintings of the Nativity. The infant was kept in that condition for two or three months. Richer families often employed wet nurses to rear their babies. From the sixth century it was considered essential for a child to be baptised within a week of its birth; during the ceremony the baby was immersed in holy water three times and was then carried home accompanied by its parents and their friends who carried lighted candles and sang hymns. Until about the sixth century it was usual for a child to have only one name and, in order to distinguish it from others bearing the same name, the Greek custom was followed of adding its father’s name in the genitive case, so that the child became known as, for example, Nicholas Theodorou, meaning Nicholas, son of Theodore. However, at the time it was also feasible to follow Roman practice and to add to a child’s first name or praenomen its nomen gentilianum and cognomen. Surnames started coming into use in the sixth century and were soon widely applied. Little is known about the food given to babies, but a young widower living in the tenth century reared his infant on barley gruel, honey and water. Cereals, small quantities of white wine and vegetables were considered suitable for toddlers, but meat was not given until a child had reached its teens.

  Christianity did a great deal to raise the status of women by investing marriage with new meaning and importance. The country’s civil law continued to recognise divorce in cases where both parties desired it regardless of the Church’s opposition to it. Although divorce never ceased to be legal it fell into abeyance in all but the eleventh century, when it became quite common and was often arranged by contract. The Church also disapproved of second marriages, but these were never forbidden, though a third marriage incurred a severe punishment, and a fourth, when not contracted by an emperor, led to excommunication. These measures did much to strengthen the unity of a family and largely as a result family life remained all-important. Although women played a secondary part in public life they often ruled in the family circle. The legendary hero Digenis Akritas always waited for his mother before starting a meal, placing her in the seat of honour. Psellus’ mother certainly ruled her family, and although her concern for her son’s education may have been unusual among women of her class her hold over her family was in no way so. Yet, apart from reigning empresses, women, even if they dominated their husbands and households, were not their social equals, though Psellus loved his sister as though she were. All women, including empresses, had to cover their faces, with a veil whenever they went out; they were not allowed to appear in processions and few entered the reception rooms in their homes when their husbands were entertaining male guests. No men other than members of their family and the eunuchs attached to their households were allowed to enter their apartments. Both at court and among the rich, eunuchs, many of them Caucasians, were employed to wait upon the ladies of the household. But although women were expected to live a secluded life they were not segregated even if, in the richer families, they had to be accompanied by an attendant whenever they went out, and even if such outings were permitted only to enable them to go to church (where they had to occupy the gallery), to visit a close relation, or to go to the baths. Many women thought it right to wear bathing dresses when in the bath.

  58 The marriage of David, detail from a silver dish

  The hereditary principle was in force in the middle class, yet it was possible to rise in the social scale by accomplishment or marriage. Engagements were treated as very important commitments of almost religious significance. A broken engagement was strongly condemned by the Church and was punishable by fines. This attitude resulted in the engagement of very young children, even though it was quickly made illegal for girls to marry under the age of 12 and boys under 14. Parents decided upon the union, the engagement being ratified by a written contract. When the date of the wedding was settled invitations were sent out to relatives and friends. The day before the wedding the walls of the bridal chamber were hung with precious stuffs and the family’s most valued possessions and pieces of furniture were placed in the room to the accompaniment of singing. On the wedding day the visitors assembled dressed in white. The groom came, accompanied by musicians, to fetch his bride. She awaited him elaborately dressed in a brocaded gown and a finely embroidered blouse; her face would have been covered by a veil. As her bridegroom approached her she would raise the veil for him to see her, supposedly for the first time. He would find her face heavily made up. Surrounded by her parents, attendants, friends, torchbearers, singers and musicians the bride and her groom would walk together to the church, passing along streets where people standing on balconies showered them with violets and rose petals. In church their respective godparents stood behind them, holding marriage crowns above their heads throughout the ceremony, in their cases the crowns replacing the lengths of precious stuffs placed above the heads of imperial brides and their grooms. Rings would be exchanged and, from the eleventh century, a marriage contract, which had been drawn up prior to the marriage, was produced for signature before witnesses. After the ceremony all returned to the bride’s house by the same route as they had come by, to sit down to a banquet. Men and women were placed at separate tables, all of which were elaborately laid, the family’s best vessels, dishes and cutlery being used for the occasion. At nightfall all the guests accompanied the newly wedded as far as the bridal chamber; they re-assembled there on the following morning to wake them with their songs.

  Certainly from the seventh century it appears to have been the custom for the bridegroom to present his bride with a bridal ring and belt. The ring does not seem to have been the one used at their wedding and it is thought that the husband gave them to his wife when they entered their bridal chamber together for the first time. More bridal rings have survived than belts, and it may well be that only the very rich could afford to give their wives a belt. Though the rings that are now to be found in museums are made of gold it seems probable that less expensive ones of silver or bronze were also used. The gold examples consist of a plain hoop or an octagonal-shaped one; in the latter case seven o
f its faces were generally decorated with biblical scenes, often executed in niello, whilst the central octagon was adorned with a bezel of varying shape displaying a marriage scene, more usually one showing Christ standing between the bride and bridegroom in the act of joining their hands. A rather more symbolic rendering of the same scene was, however, equally popular: it showed the bridal pair standing on either side of a cross, with their marriage crowns poised above their heads. At times the word Homonoia (Concord) was written above. It has been suggested (by Dr Marvyn Ross) that the marriage rings evolved from the custom introduced by the early emperors of issuing special coins on their wedding days—as, for instance, the coin showing Theodosius II standing between Eudoxia and Valentinian III, who were married in Constantinople in the year 437, and those showing Christ standing between Marcian and Pulcheria, and Anastasius and Ariadne.

  59 Gold marriage ring

  60 Honorius and Maria, with hair-styles fashionable at the end of the fourth century

  The marriage belts which have survived are far more elaborate and costly affairs than the rings. The majority are made of a series either of rather small, round discs or coins or of gold medallions, with two much larger gold medallions serving as buckles and clasps. Often the small disks or plaques were decorated with pagan, generally mythological motifs and therefore contrasted sharply with the two central ones which generally displayed Christ standing between the bridal pair, with the bridegroom to His right, in the act of joining their hands. The designs were generally stamped on the disks and then chased. Often an inscription was engraved above each scene. On an example preserved in the Dumbarton Oaks collection in Washington it reads: ‘EΞ, ΘE0Y OMON[O]IAXAPIΣ YΓ[E] IA’ (from God concord, grace, health).

  A wife’s dowry was carefully safeguarded for her. Legally drawn-up wills were usual in Byzantium, but verbal ones, stated in the presence of two witnesses, were treated as valid. As in Roman law, a husband had to leave his wife’s dowry to their children, but at the same time he had to bequeath her enough to live on should she survive him, by endowing her with money, furniture, slaves and even, if he possessed them, his rights to issues of free bread. If widowed, unless she re-married, the wife became the legal guardian of their children, controlling her late husband’s property in her capacity of head of the family and household. If the husband were offered a bishopric during their joint lives he could only accept the post if the wife willingly agreed to leave him to enter a convent.

  Even relatively humble families owned slaves or employed servants to help with the housework. Though Psellus’ father was far from rich the family employed two servants. In rich families the large number of free and slave retainers employed was greatly increased by that of their poor relations and hangers-on. In the sixth century slaves under ten years old were being sold for 10 nomismata; the price of older, but untrained men was double that, but a scribe fetched as much as 50 nomismata, whilst doctors and other educated men were worth over 60. However, the price kept dropping through the centuries. Naturally enough the Church disapproved of slavery. Theodore of Studius went to the length of forbidding monasteries to own slaves, yet the system endured till the end. Although the number of owners who thought it right to abolish slavery steadily increased, paradoxically, relatively few granted theirs their freedom.

  The Byzantines changed very considerably in their outward appearance with the passing centuries, with fashion dictating different styles in costume, hairdressing and beards. Women’s fashions seem to have changed less than those affected by men, but this impression may be a mistaken one and the result of lack of information. Basically, from the time of Theodora onwards, empresses and their ladies followed the example of emperors and their courtiers and wore a close-fitting silk tunic over which they placed a dalmatic embroidered at the shoulders and hem; above this they wore a pallium, that is to say a long piece of embroidery with a circular opening for the head at its centre; the back panel extended to form a train which could be pulled forward and carried over the left arm. The costumes of middle-class women were also inspired by those of their menfolk, and consisted of a tunic and a robe with a side panel of sufficient length to enable it to be draped round the shoulder and pulled over the wearer’s head. Sometimes they covered their heads instead with a veil, with fabric and colour of their choice. Some of the robes were made of linen, some of silk, some of transparent fabrics, the use of which angered the Church. All wore cloaks similar to those worn by Justinian and Theodora in the Ravenna mosaics. The clothes of the rich were lavishly trimmed with embroidery. On the plaques forming the eleventh-century crown of Constantine IX Monomachus, Empresses Zoe and Theodora wear what are known amongst dressmakers as robes of the ‘princess shape’; these are almost identical. The tunics worn by the dancing girls shown on the other plaques differ slightly in detail; though all are of hip length and embroidered at the neck, round the bottom and along the front opening, some have their skirts cut on the cross whilst others have triangular insertions to give them a flared effect; some have round necklines, others V-shaped ones; all are accompanied by belts of differing widths. The girls wear heel-less shoes; some wear jewelled gloves and all have circlets on their heads. Though wigs were worn at certain periods, on the whole women parted their hair at the centre and coiled it up on either side of their heads, where it was held in place by strings of gold, silver or pearls. Sometimes linen bands were used instead. Occasionally ivory or tortoiseshell combs were worn as additional adornments. Eyebrows were plucked to form a long, straight and narrow line, and this was emphasised by having them underlined by a black line whilst the pupils were contracted by means of belladonna to become black dots. Lips were heavily rouged. In Palaeologue times women were even more heavily made up than before, and the richer ones acquired so many clothes that the Grand Logothete Theodore Metochites complained about his wife’s bulging wardrobes.

  61 Central motif from a purple Eagle textile, c. AD 1000

  62 Silver sauce-boat, fourth century

  Gold cup and cover, seventh to ninth centuries

  64 Filigree gold and glass rouge pot, sixth century

  During the fifth and sixth centuries working-class men went barefoot. They wore short woollen tunics held in place by a belt inserted into a strap passing over the left shoulder. Those who were better-off wore longer tunics, the best of which were made of silk; the cheaper ones were sleeveless, but the finest had long sleeves gathered into tight-fitting, elaborately embroidered cuffs. Those worn by courtiers were very lavishly trimmed with embroidery, much of it worked in gold thread. In cold weather men wore over these long coats which some scholars think took their shape from the coats worn by Chinese mandarins. Most of these coats were plain, but those belonging to men of wealth were lavishly embroidered, and if their owners could afford it they were also lined with fur—much of it a luxury import from Russia.

  Byzantine men were very interested in fashion. In the seventh century they were attracted by oriental styles and took to wearing shoes of eastern shape in summer and soft leather boots in winter in preference to Roman sandals; at the same time they substituted a short, close-fitting tunic for the longer, more flowing one. The skirt of the short tunic was slit at the back where a triangular strip of fabric was inserted to give it width; at the neck this garment was finished off by a small collar. Its origin is perhaps to be sought in the tunics worn in northern Persia, where extremely elegant, though longer tunics were liked. In the eleventh century a very short version trimmed with gold was used by the emperors as their riding costume; then too hose reaching to the knees was popular. The Comnenes introduced an era of great luxury in dress. Manuel Comnenus (1143-80), ambassador to Louis VII of France, appeared at the king’s court at Ratisbon dressed in a tight-sleeved, knee-length tunic made in a magnificent silk. The freedom of movement it afforded was so new that Western envoys compared the ambassador’s appearance to that of an athlete. Andronicus II (1282-1328) tried to curb the fondness for expensive clothes but failed, and under
his successors the passion for them encouraged every eccentricity. Foreign trends, whether Syrian, Italian, Bulgarian or Servian, became the rage; Syrian influence introduced the fashion for black cloaks. Even the economic crisis which persisted from the return of the emperors to Constantinople in 1261 to Byzantium’s fall in 1453 did not put an end to the fondness for magnificent and extremely elaborate clothes. Particular admiration was felt for both Italian and Turkish styles. The tunic once again became heavier and straighter till it regained the appearance of a robe. The Great Logothete Theodore Metochites obtained special permission to wear the extraordinary hat in which he is shown in the mosaics of the Church of the Chora, when at the height of his power in about the year 1305. His costume, like that painted in 1346 of the High Admiral Apocauchus or that of much the same date of John VI Cantacuzenus (1347-55), does not suggest that lack of money had forced silk manufacturers to produce plainer and cheaper stuffs.