Saturninus and chrysomallo

The Secret History of the Court of Justinian primary

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 …