HKB
2 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: conspiracy and assassination · tigris crossing · strategy and the aims of war · sisauranum fortress · saturninus and chrysomallo · marriage and betrothal · forced marriage · flogging · empire and the rule of provinces · crime and punishment · belisarius retreat
Usually: argument (1) · narrative (1) · betrayal (1) · crisis of belief (1) · injustice endured (1) · censure (1) · detachment (1) · indignation (1)
Antonina and Photius’s conflict escalates while Rome’s East politics unfold: after Antonina deceives John of Cappadocia through repeated oaths, Belisarius retreats near the Roman frontier due to Antonina’s arrival, narrowing his strategic campaign.
Belisarius should swear fidelity to him by the most sacred oaths known to Christians, and they bound themselves never to abandon each other, even at the cost of their lives. For the present, they both agreed that it would be unwise to make any attempt; and they resolved to wait until Antonina had left Byzantium to join them, and Theodosius had returned to Ephesus, which would give Photius the opportunity of going th…
Procopius describes Theodora’s coercive control of marriage and offices, including imprisoning and forcing Saturninus to marry Chrysomallo and flogging him for discovering she is no virgin, and connects her hatred of John of Cappadocia to political opposition and torture-based false accusations.
behaved too saucily and having taken an unbecoming oath. She then had him severely flogged on the bare back, and advised him to restrain his talkative tongue for the future. In my former writings I have already related her treatment of John of Cappadocia, which was due to a desire to avenge personal injuries, not to punish him for offences against the State, as is proved by the fact that she did nothing of the kind …