In ancient times, there was a civilization called the Byzantine Empire. In this empire, some people believed that if they cut off someone's nose or ears, it would make that person less important or powerful. This is called political mutilation.
Now, cutting off someone's nose or ears is very painful and not a good thing to do. It's like hurting someone badly just because you don't like them or don't agree with them. But in the Byzantine Empire, some people thought it was okay to do this to their enemies.
They believed that if a person didn't have a nose or ears, they would look different from everyone else and people would be afraid of them. They thought it would make that person less powerful and less likely to challenge them.
However, this was a very cruel practice and it caused a lot of harm to people. It's not something that we should do or think is okay today. It's important to treat everyone with respect and kindness, even if we don't agree with them or they're our enemy.