Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/144

 chastened members to the family circle. Yet to complete the picture one other sin against morality must be mentioned, which travels beyond the belief and almost eludes the conception of any ordinary mind. The incredible perversion of sexual instinct named paederasty is still more than ever rife in the principal cities of the East. Idealized by the Greek philosophers, tolerated by the later Republic,[2] and almost deified under many of the pagan emperors, it has with-**