The Penal Law of the Prochiron

This paper examines the criminal law provisions of the Prochiron, a legal compilation in 40 titles enacted by the Macedonian rulers between the last quarter of the 9th century and the early 10th century. Title XXXIX, Περὶ ποινῶν ("On Punishments"), comprises 86 chapters devoted to criminal law. The Macedonian legislation aimed to purify the ancient laws that had been distorted in the Isaurian Ecloga of 741. Nonetheless, criminal law in the Prochiron continued to reflect the influence of Title XVII of the Ecloga, which had extensively introduced capital punishment, corporal penalties, and mutilations. Historiography has emphasized the severity of these punishments. While such measures—flogging, mutilation, blinding, and the cutting of the tongue or nose—appear harsh, it is important to note that they often replaced the death penalty prescribed by Justinian’s legislation. This shift aligns with the philanthropic intent expressed in the proem of the Ecloga, which stated that the laws had been revised "for the more humane correction" (ἐπιδιόρθωσις εἰς τὸ φιλανθωπότερον), thereby softening earlier penalties. In this context, penal law emerged as a defining feature of Byzantine legal tradition, which is often characterized by its brutality.