208 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. woman. During long centuries the notion of her degradation had been spreading downwards from the court and the capital, and this in spite of the position which Eoman law had as- signed her. Fortunately for the descendants of the inhabitants of the lower empire, they were saved by their religion from the lowest depth which the Asiatic creed had permitted or caused. Christianity had never permitted polygamy, and the spectacle of hundreds of women kept together in luxurious imprisonment in Constantinople was reserved for later times and Asiatic courts. But allowing for the absence of polygamy, the estimate of woman in the capital was altogether Asiatic in character. Nicetas, who as a monk regarded woman from a monkish point of view, finds fault with the wife of Alexis the Third, and incidentally gives an indication of the position of woman a few years before the time of the Latin conquest. He says that he does not complain of her insensate luxury nor of her prodigal extravagance, but of her immodesty (which he explains to mean that she was shameless enough to wish to take a part in the government) ; that she gave her orders without waiting to see whether they were in accord with the wishes of the emperor ; that when the latter received foreign ambassadors her throne was as high as his, and she took her seat covered with diamonds and precious stones. The nearest relations of the emperor would carry her litter on their shoulders as if they were her slaves. The real cause of com- plaint against her is that she did not live in retirement at the palace, but that she allowed herself to be seen in public places and on public occasions, sometimes even unaccompanied by her husband. A life very like harem life had been introduced at court and amonc: the nobles. Women were secluded and Something i • i i • a • like harem treated m much the same manner as women m Asia. life. Above all, one of the worst institutions of Asia, that of eunuchs, had been introduced. If there be an institu- tion which more than all others tends to degrade both man and woman, and to prevent the progress of a race, it is the one in question. The eunuch not unusually rises to be the chief
