The role of women throughout the entirety of the Byzantine Empire was one thing: please males. If a woman could do that job successfully in society, then they would fulfill their only true job. Women's rights at this time were very limited, as in they couldn't do nearly half the things men could such as marry according to their own will. Marriage ties in with their role of pleasing males, as in many women who were already married became concubines (mistresses) for them. However, even with all the negative factors against women, there were still some positives. For example, women could remarry if both partners agree to it and they would become a free woman again. Overall, the Byzantine Empire remained a patriarchal society as seen in various places in history.
2) Why does Justinian's background matter when reading this document?
Justinian's background matters when reading this document because of what his previous life used to be before becoming the emperor. In his early life, Justinian was a peasant like the other hundreds of thousands of people living in the empire. Since he used to be a peasant, he knows what it feels like to live with not much in life and he could understand their pain. Justinian would rather do things such as place laws that favored the weak over the powerful because of his knowledge of peasant life.
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