So the prefect “tortured Isaiah severely and exiled him and he amputated Alexander’s genitals and paraded him around on a litter.” Other suspects had sharp straws inserted into their penises and were publicly humiliated in the forum. This was not merely cruel Roman sport, but imperial policy. Justinian subsequently decreed that everywhere homosexuals and “those detected in pederasty” should be gelded. Many died in agony. “From then on there was fear among those afflicted with homosexual lust,” wrote Malalas.18 It was a cruel demonstration of a prejudice that would endure throughout the Middle
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