While everyday life in late antiquity was municipally oriented and situated primarily in open spaces, Byzantine funneled its energy inside closed buildings. Public life did not totally disappear - some processions and feasts continued to be held in public - but it was significantly contracted: the theater ceased to exist, religious services dispensed with many outdoor liturgical ceremonies, even races and circus games tended to be replaced by carnivals and by sports and competitions such as polo and tournaments, which were on a reduced scale and socially restricted. The shift from reading aloud to silent reading, the adoption of silent prayer, the abandonment of public repentance, the playing of quiet board games like chess - all these belong to the same phenomenon of "privatization" of everyday life.
With the exception of churches, there was no new construction of public buildings in Byzantine towns, and the regular city planning of antiquity, with squares, porticoes and wide avenues, was replaced by a chaotic maze of narrow streets and individual habitants. The Houses of the nobility (villas or mansions) also lost their orderly arrangements, which was replaced by a group of irregularly shaped rooms, bed chambers, terraces and workshops; also abandoned was their openness to nature in the form of the atrium - with its impluvium, inner garden and fountain - or naturalistic floor mosaics. Houses became darker, and the shift in lighting from lamps to candles after the seventh century contributed as well to this change.
The increased use of tables and of writing desks influenced various habits - from reading and writing (including the format of the book) to dining and games. The bed as the symbol of the most private aspects of daily life became consistently distinct from chairs or stools, which were used for more social occasions. Pottery grew more uniform and less decorated than in antiquity; it served primarily the private needs of the family, whereas imperial banquets used gold and silver ware.
A respect for the human body determined the form of ancient costume: the body was covered only minimally and there was no fear of nakedness. Byzantine costume, however, which began to adopt the use of trousers and sleeves, was a reaction against the openness of antiquity, and heavy cloaks provided people with additional means of concealment.
Patterns of food consumption evidently changed as well: in the ordinary diet, the role of bread decreased, whereas meat, fish and cheese became more important. Dining habits changed, too, from a relaxed reclining to the more formal sitting on chairs. While the actual diet was not spare by medieval standards, the predominantly monastic ideology of the Byzantines condemned heavy meals and praised ascetic abstemiousness.
Bathing habits also changed: the public baths which had served virtually as a club for well-to-do Romans, almost disappeared and ancient bathhouses were often transformed into churches. Provincial baths were few, located in log huts full of smoke coming from an open hearth.
The nuclear family was the crucial social unit responsible for the production of goods, so that hired workers (misthioi) and even slaves were considered an extension of the family; the education of children was also the family's responsibility. The family was limited to a certain extent by the neighborhood, guild or village community; it was these microstructures that too charge of organizing feasts. Women, who indisputably played a decisive role in the household, were compelled to remain in a special part of the house and to wear "decent" dress, which served clearly to distinguish a matron from a prostitute, whose more revealing costume suggested immoral conduct. The unity of the family was emphasized by the custom of common meals and by the father's right to indoctrinate (sometimes with physical force) all the members of his household.
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998