Empress Theodora
Theodora (c. 500 – 28 June 548) was Byzantine empress by marriage to emperor Justinian. She became empress upon Justinian's accession in
527 and was one of his chief advisers, albeit from humble origins. Along with
her spouse, Theodora is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Oriental Orthodox Church, commemorated on 14 November and 28 June
respectively. She is sometimes enumerated as Theodora I.
The main historical sources for her life are the works of her
contemporary Procopius. The historian offered three different portrayals of
the empress. The Wars of Justinian, largely completed in
545, paints a picture of a courageous and influential empress who saved the
throne for Justinian.
Later, he wrote the Secret History.
The work has sometimes been interpreted as representing a deep disillusionment
with the emperor Justinian, the empress, and even his patron Belisarius.
Justinian is depicted as cruel, venal, prodigal, demonic and incompetent; as
for Theodora, the reader is given a detailed portrayal of vulgarity and
underage sex, combined with shrewish and calculating mean-spiritedness.
Alternatively, scholars versed in political rhetoric of the era have viewed
these statements from the Secret History as formulaic
expressions within the tradition of invective.
Procopius' Buildings of
Justinian, written probably after Secret History, is
a panegyric which
paints Justinian and Theodora as a pious couple and presents particularly
flattering portrayals of them. Besides her piety, her beauty is praised within
the conventional language of the text's rhetorical form. Although Theodora was
dead when this work was published, Justinian was alive, and perhaps
commissioned the work.
Her contemporary John of Ephesus writes
about Theodora in his Lives of the Eastern Saints and mentions
an illegitimate daughter. Theophanes the Confessor mentions
some familial relations of Theodora to figures not mentioned by
Procopius. Victor Tonnennensis notes her familial
relation to the next empress, Sophia.
Michael the Syrian, the Chronicle of
1234 and Bar-Hebraeus place
her origin in the city of Daman, near Kallinikos, Syria. They make an
alternate account compared to Procopius by making Theodora the daughter of a
priest, trained in the pious practices of Miaphysitism since
birth. These are late Miaphysite sources and record her depiction among members
of their creed. The Miaphysites have a tendency to regard Theodora as one of
their own. Their account is also an alternative to what is told by the
contemporary John of Ephesus. Many modern scholars prefer Procopius
account.
