medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (20. July) is the feast day of:
Margaret of Antioch (? perhaps in 307) "The governor fell in love with
Margaret's beauty and wanted to marry her. When she refused, the governor
had her tortured; her wounds were healed the next day, however. Thereupon
Margaret was beheaded."
I seem to have some vague memory that, in order to prevent
misgovernment and abuse of power, the Roman Empire had very
strict rules for provincial governors. As long as they were governors,
among other things they were not allowed to marry women living
in their province. Disobeying meant risking severe punishments.
So, the governor of Antioch would not have been able to take
Margaret as his wife, but only keep her as his concubine. That would
hardly have been the same!
Does anyone know more about this? With best regards,
Mia Korpiola
Mia Korpiola, LL. Lic.
KATTI
P. O. Box 4 (Fabianinkatu 24 A)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
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