My research interests include the question of the social status of children and orphans, and a philanthropy in early Byzantium in general.

The source base of work mainly consists of written sources. It is worth mentioning Corpus Juris Civilis - Justinian 's "Body of Civil Law", The Alexiad of Anna Komnene, the teachings of the Church Fathers, most notably the writings of the Archbishop of Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom.

Historiography on a number of issues under consideration is quite extensive. There are studies of both russian and foreign scientists. It`s important to name the works of S.B. Sorochan "Byzantium. The Paradigm of Life, Consciousness and Culture "and G.G. Litavrin "How the Byzantines Lived".

A great contribution was made by the work of the German historian D. Ariantzi in the study of childhood in early Byzantium and the work of the American historian Miller Timothy, who gave us the concept of what is orphanotrophy in early Byzantium.

It is also important to note the contribution of M. Grigorevsky, who analyzes the teaching of the Archbishop of Constantinople about family and marriage in his monograph. But this is not all researches on this issue.

Children in Byzantium were considered a separate category of inhabitants.  They had their rights and duties, matured early and were very significant for society due to their low life expectancy. Byzantine children practically did not have childhood indeed.

Children, in fact, were not children. As soon as they reached a certain age, they were immediately attracted to homework, and especially if there was no adult in the family.  Children from noble families had easier.

The Orphans expected an unenviable fate. They had to beg and steal to survive, even if they ended up in shelters.

With the spread of the Christian idea of mercy, a special philanthropic activity appeared among public and private individuals.  The impetus for this was the fact that the church itself, directly, took an active part in helping those in need.

As a rule, all charitable institutions were opened by churches and monasteries.  However, there were institutions supported by the state.

Thus, we see Byzantine childhood is not the childhood that modern children have: they grew up early, learned responsibility, did hard work, not to mention the age at which it was necessary to get engaged.  Philanthropic activity has become quite extensive, and with the beginning of the spread of Christianity, it acquired newer and larger scales.

Thanks for interesting artical.