Rhinocopia
The Rhinokopia (cutting off the nose ) was in the early Byzantine Empire a kind of mutilation to exclude which has been applied to people from the imperial dignity or adultery to be punished.
Political rhinocopia
The starting point was the prevailing view in the 7th century that only a physically intact man could become emperor. In order to finally remove ousted emperors or possible rivals for the imperial dignity, their noses were cut off. This is how, for example, the underage Emperor Heraklonas was dealt with after his overthrow in 641. Heraklonas died of the injury. His mother, the Empress Martina (widow of the Emperor Herakleios ) had her tongue cut off. Emperor Constantine IV had his brothers Herakleios and Tiberios cut off their noses in 681 in order to finally eliminate their claims to power.
The most famous victim of political Rhinokopia was Emperor Justinian II , who was overthrown in 695 and exiled to the Crimea . The last victim was Justinian's successor, Emperor Leontios , who was overthrown in 698 and whose nose was cut off in 698 on the orders of his successor Tiberios II. In 705 Justinian II returned to the throne with Bulgarian help, thereby proving that Rhinokopia was not an effective means of disqualifying a ruler; hence it was no longer practiced from then on. Justinian had Leontios and Tiberios II executed. Images of Justinian from his second reign (705–711) show him with his nose, as the emperor's portrait was not allowed to show any mutilation.
Criminal law
Mutilation penalties were not provided for in Roman law; Cutting off a hand was only introduced in late antiquity , and in early Byzantine times this became the common punishment for forging coins and public documents. In the Byzantine eclogue , one of Emperor Leo III. introduced in the 8th century code of law, mutilation took an important place as a punishment; the law provided for nose mutilation in adultery. The mutilation sentences were given by Leo III. justified on the argument that they represented a mitigation of the actually appropriate death penalty.
Other occurrences
In the second Indian national epic, Ramayana , the Indian god Lakshmana mutilated the demoness Shurpanakha by cutting off her nose and ears.
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Constance Head: Justinian II of Byzantium , Madison 1972, p. 112f.