Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/132

 disreputable. Nevertheless, the pastimes of the public are jealously protected; and the amorous youth who runs away with an actress, equally with him who withdraws a favourite horse from the Circensian games for his private use, is subjected to a heavy fine. A woman, however, who wishes to reform her life on the plea of religious conviction, is permitted to quit the stage, but is not afterwards allowed to relapse into her former life of turpitude. Should she betray any inclination to do so, it is enacted that she shall be kept in a place of detention until such time as the decrepitude of age shall afford an involuntary guarantee of her chastity. The Byzantine aristocracy, from the rank of Clarissimus upwards is prohibited from marrying an actress or any woman on a level with that class. , Ven., 1878; cf. Krumbacher, Byzant. Literaturgesch., Munich, 1897, p. 644, et seq.]*