sentences:  This was mainly because there was generally low tolerance for homosexuality across society, and those caught faced severe criminal sanctions (often including death).Nor is it straightforward to identify individuals before the 19th century as homosexual or "gay" in the modern sense of the world.Nevertheless, as far back as the sixth century (CE) the Greek chronicler John Malalas wrote about Isaiah, Bishop of Rhodes and Alexander, Bishop of Diospolis in Thracia who had been punished by the Prefect of Thrace (Victor) for "homosexual practices".