Family tree Homs » Theodora / Θεοδώρα Eastern Roman Empress (± 485-548)

Personal data Theodora / Θεοδώρα Eastern Roman Empress 

• She was born about 485 in Cyprus.
• She was christened in Empress of Byzantine.
• She died on June 28, 548 in Constantinople.
• A child of Acacius the Bear-keeper and Balbila
• This information was last updated on December 25, 2011.

Household of Theodora / Θεοδώρα Eastern Roman Empress

She is married to Hecebolus of Syria.

They got married about 499 at Not married.

Child(ren):

1. Theodora Anastasius  ± 515-± 548 

Notes about Theodora / Θεοδώρα Eastern Roman Empress

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Theodora was the wife of Emperor Justinian I. She began poor, as a prostitute, circus performer, and actress

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Theodora was the wife of Emperor Justinian I. She began poor, as a prostitute, circus performer, and actress

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Theodora was the wife of Emperor Justinian I. She began poor, as a prostitute, circus performer, and actress

Theodora (6th century)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Empress Theodora (c. 500–548) was empress of the Byzantine Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Along with her husband, she is a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14.

Theodora was born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, the daughter of Acacius, a bearkeeper for the circus. Much of the information from this earliest part of her life comes from the Secret History of Procopius, published posthumously. Critics of Procopius (whose work reveals a man seriously disillusioned regarding his rulers) have dismissed his work as vitriolic and pornographic, but have been unable to discredit his facts. For example, the sources do not dispute Theodora emerged as a comic actress in burlesque theater, and that her talents tended toward what we might call low physical comedy. While her advancement in Byzantine society was up and down, she made use of every opportunity. She had admirers by the score. Procopius writes that she was a courtesan and briefly served as the mistress of Hecebolus, the governor of Pentapolis, by whom she bore her only child, a son. There was a downside to her repertoire as well; Procopius also repeatedly notes her lack of shame and cites a number of scenes to demonstrate it, and also the low regard in which she was held by respectable society.

It is believed by some scholars that sometime before meeting Justinian she became an adherent of the Monophysite sect of Christianity, which claims Christ was of one nature, remaining their partisan throughout her life. Others instead argue that her association with Monophysitism is largely because of Justinian's putting her in charge of courting the Monophysites' reunion with the Chalcedonian party in the Church, and so while remaining Chalcedonian herself, she was pastorally favorable toward the non-Chalcedonians.

In 523 Theodora married Justinian, the magister militum praesentalis in Constantinople. On his accession to the Roman Imperial throne in 527 as Justinian I, he made her joint ruler of the empire, and appears to have regarded her as a full partner in their rulership. This proved to be a wise decision. A strong-willed woman, she showed a notable talent for governance. In the Nika riots of 532, her advice and leadership for a strong (and militant) response caused the riot to be quelled and probably saved the empire. A contemporary official, Joannes Laurentius Lydus, remarked that she was "superior in intelligence to any man" [1].

Some scholars believe that Theodora was Byzantium's first noted proponent—and, according to Procopius, practitioner—of abortion; she convinced Justinian to change the law that forbade noblemen to marry lower class women (like herself). Theodora also advocated the rights of married women to commit adultery, and the rights of women to be socially serviced, helping to advance protections and delights for them; and was also something of a voice for prostitutes and the downtrodden. She also helped to mitigate the breach in Christian sects that loomed large over her time; she probably had a large part in Justinian's efforts to reconcile the Monophysites to orthodoxy.

Other scholars (and those who venerate Theodora as a saint) instead regard Theodora's achievements for women not as a modern feminist "liberation" to commit abortion or adultery but rather as a truly egalitarian drive to give women the same legal rights as men, such as establishing homes for prostitutes, passing laws prohibiting forced prostitution, granting women more rights in divorce cases, allowing women to own and inherit property, and enacting the death penalty for rape, all of which raised women's status far above that current in the Western portion of the Empire.

There were less charitable acts as well. Rumors spoke of private dungeons in her quarters that people she disapproved of disappeared into forever, though such rumors can be found regarding nearly any royal figure. More congenial is the story of how she sheltered a deposed patriarch for 12 years without anyone knowing of it.

Theodora died of cancer (probably breast cancer) before the age of 50, some 20 years before Justinian died. Her body was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, one of the splendid churches the emperor and empress had built in Constantinople. Both Theodora and Justinian are represented in beautiful mosaics that exist to this day in the Basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna in northern Italy, which was completed a year before her death.

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Sources
^ Lynn Hunt and others, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures (Boston: Bedford, 2001), 263.

{geni:occupation} Eastern Roman Empress

{geni:about_me} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodora_(wife_of_Justinian_I '''Theodora'''] (Greek: Θεοδώρα) (c. 500 - June 28 548), was empress of the Byzantine Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Like her husband, she is a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14. '''Theodora is perhaps the most influential and powerful woman in the Byzantine Empire's history.'''

Theodora, according to Michael Grant, was of Greek Cypriot descent.[4] There are several indications of her possible birthplace. According to Michael the Syrian her birthplace was in Syria; Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos names Theodora a native of Cyprus, while the Patria claims Theodora came from Paphlagonia.

Her father, Acacius, was a bear trainer of the hippodrome's Blue faction in Constantinople. Her mother, whose name is not recorded, was a dancer and an actress.[5] After her father's death, her mother brought her children wearing garlands into the hippodrome and presented them as suppliants to the crowd.

Both John of Ephesus and Procopius (in his Secret History) relate that Theodora from an early age worked in a Constantinople brothel serving low-status customers; later she performed on stage.

Lynda Garland in "Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204" notes that there seems to be little reason to believe she worked out of a brothel "managed by a pimp". Employment as an actress at the time would include both "indecent exhibitions on stage" and providing sexual services off stage. In what Garland calls the "sleazy entertainment business in the capital",

Theodora would earn her living by a combination of her theatrical and sexual skills. Theodora made a name for herself with her portrayal of Leda and the Swan, where she stripped off her clothes as far as the law allowed, lying on her back while some attendants scattered barley on her groin and then some geese picked up the barley with their bills. She also entertained notables at banquets and accepted a multitude of lovers.

Procopius mentions that during her time as a prostitute, Theodora was familiar with all the methods to induce an abortion.

At the age of 16, she traveled to North Africa as the companion of a Syrian official named Hecebolus when he went to the Libyan Pentapolis as governor. She stayed with him for almost four years before returning to Constantinople.

Abandoned and maltreated by Hecebolus, on her way to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, she settled for a while in Alexandria, Egypt. She is said to have met the Patriarch Timothy III in Alexandria, who was Monophysite, and it was at that time that she converted to Monophysite Christianity.

From Alexandria she went to Antioch, where she met a Blue faction's dancer, Macedonia, who was perhaps an informer of Justinian. It may have been Macedonia who provided Theodora to Justinian, presenting her as a person whom it would be useful to know and as a fellow aficionado of the Blues, as her father was on the side of this faction while working at the hippodrome, and Justinian was their supporter.

She returned to Constantinople in 522 and gave up her former lifestyle, settling as a wool spinner in a house near the palace. '''Her beauty, wit and amusing character drew attention from Justinian, who wanted to marry her.'''

However, he could not: He was heir of the throne of his uncle, Emperor Justin I, and a Roman law from Constantine's time prevented government officials from marrying actresses. Empress Euphemia, who liked Justinian and ordinarily refused him nothing, was against his wedding with an actress. However, Justin was fond of Theodora.

In 525, when Euphemia had died, Justin repealed the law, and Justinian managed to marry Theodora. By this point, she already had a daughter (whose name has been lost). Justinian apparently treated the daughter and the daughter's son Athanasius as fully legitimate,[7] although sources disagree whether Justinian was the girl's father.

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