Theodora: Empress of Byzantium
Paolo Cesaretti
Number of quotes: 14
Book ID: 281 Page: 107/108
Section: 4A
An actress without a stage in Apollonia, she claimed the daring “freedom of speech before the powerful” that the ancient Greeks had granted to philosophers alone, {7} Christianity had extended the same right to monks, who had recently evolved from philosophers….
Quote ID: 7031
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 281 Page: 120
Section: 3C2
To him, this error was the diametric opposite of the equally wrong ideas of Nestorius and Arius, who were fundamentally opposed to Christ’s divinity.
Quote ID: 7032
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 170
Section: 3E
Worshippers of other kinds were barred from holding office, from the army, and from the liberal professions. Their meetings were forbidden, their places of worship shut down, their property confiscated. They were even denied civil rights: they were unable to sue orthodox Christians for private or public debts, and could not testify against them in a lawsuit. By this time full Roman citizenship was being equated with Christian orthodoxy; those who did not profess it survived only by the grace of the emperor, in the expectation that they would change their ways.
Quote ID: 7033
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 172
Section: 3E
The year 529 has long been seen as the death date of ancient paganism: in that year Justinian ordered an end to the nearly thousand-year-old Academy of Plato in Athens. But although Justinian forbade pagans from holding teaching positions, and although those who refused baptism lost their property and were exiled, recent studies show that the wealthy academy’s property was not completely confiscated even as late as 560, thirty years after Justinian’s order.
Quote ID: 7034
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 173
Section: 3E
The Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) named the emperor alone as the source of all laws; this was the most important work of Justinian’s absolutist ideology, and lasted as a monument for centuries to come.
Quote ID: 7035
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 181
Section: 3E
Senators and patricians ceased to address the rulers with the technical, essentially neutral terms of “emperor” and “empress”. They were to address them now as “lord” and “lady,” if not “master” and “mistress.”….
With this momentous change, the public affairs of the old Roman Empire became private affairs, the personal domain of the emperors.
The same potentates who had once avoided brushing against the garments of the “impure” former actress were now compelled to express their devotion to her with their body and even their lips. They had to prostrate themselves not only before the emperor but also before Theodora, their hands and feet stretched out on the floor, and kiss the foot of both Augusti before they could rise.
Quote ID: 7036
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 182
Section: 3E,2E2
The anchorites were seen as variations or metamorphoses of the ancient role of “philosopher,” and their unique status brought them complete freedom of speech and action (parrhêsia) with respect to the emperors, freedoms that were not permitted to others. They did not worship the Augusti but were worshipped by them. Magistrates prostrated themselves before emperors, but emperors knelt before ascetics.
Quote ID: 7037
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 183/184
Section: 3E,2E2
Mār the Solitary, a Monophysite ascetic monk who had come to the capital under the protection of Theodora, was welcomed by both rulers together, but he did not do homage to them or even give them any respect. He didn’t even change out of his usual ragged tunic for the occasion: its repulsive smell was proof of his devotion and his celebrated mortification. Mār the Solitary was not old as Sabas: he was a vigorous man, an imposing figure, “an athlete of God” with tremendous physical strength. One of his biographers wrote that he was stronger “than ten criminals.” {27}The Solitary did not come to the palace to bless or admire anyone, but to chastise. He reproached the rulers for their religious policy which he believed was hostile to the Monophysites, despite Theodora’s position. And he did not just blame them: he insulted them, wounding them so deeply that the biographer’s quill hesitated to specify how. Protocol, the crown, and the purple mantle meant nothing to this anchorite, accustomed as he was to the emptiness of his lonely retreat in the desert.
His parrhêsia was met with surprising calm and majesty, like that of the ancient emperors—like Marcus Aurelius’s calm with Herodes Atticus. The rulers were not disturbed. They said: “This man is truly a spiritual philosopher,”…
Quote ID: 7038
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 199
Section: 3E
Though she was a woman, she spoke like a man, like an emperor. She gazed at the res severa (the “solemn matter”) of life and power with clear eyes, focusing on holding on to and perpetuating her power. She did not mention Christianity in her speech. The solemn, haughty spirit of ancient Rome spoke for the last time in history, through her. That spirit had one final metamorphosis—as a woman, as a former actress—and then it died like the prophetic voice of a vanishing sybil.After this time, the concept of the true Roman man would be subsumed into the idea of the faithful Christian. Man would evolve just as the laws were evolving: whatever was Roman about a man (or a law) would survive only insofar as it was Christian.
3E
Quote ID: 7039
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 281 Page: 205
Section: 3E
The revered Saint Ambrose, then bishop of Milan, dared to exclude Theodosius from the Sacraments and vowed not to readmit him until he had repented, which Theodosius eventually did. But Theodora suffered nothing like that in the second Rome; the temporal, imperial power in Constantinople didn’t submit to the power of the Church as did the western rulers.
Quote ID: 7040
Time Periods: 46
Book ID: 281 Page: 212
Section: 3E
The tools of her power—or of her cruelty as a “bane of mortals,” according to one unfavorable male critic—were discreet. There were rumors of bolts locking the doors “in some secret…dark, unknown, inaccessible… rooms of the palace.” {6}….
Others were gagged. Quite a few notables were forbidden to speak or protest, and were barely able to breathe. One such notable was Priscus, former personal secretary to Justinian, who seemed so arrogant and even downright hostile to Theodora that he was shipped off to a distant exile.
….
Still others—including those who gave testimony that did not please her—were tortured with whips made of ox sinews. We know of at least one case of torture with a knife: a certain Basianus, a supporter of the Greens, “insulted her” {8} in Constantinople. “Without a trial,” {9} Theodora ordered him castrated, and he died as a result.
Quote ID: 7041
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 214
Section: 3E
In the text of one law, Justinian spoke of Theodora as “given by God,” alluding to the etymology theou dôron, “gift of God.” The auspicious name that Acacius chose for his daughter had become a reality, sanctioned by imperial words.….
He made exceptions for her alone, while armies and subjects continued to be no more to him than abstract masses and numbers…
Quote ID: 7042
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 223
Section: 3E
Gelimer’s treasure included the great Menorah, the seven-branched candelabra from the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The Roman emperor Titus had seized it from the Hebrews in A.D. 71; Genseric, the Vandal king, had plundered it during the sack of Rome of 455. Now the Vandals lost it to Justinian. Because the object had not brought luck to anyone who seized it, Justinian sent it and other objects from the Hebrew temple back to Jerusalem, their natural home, in the custody of the Christian community. But this gesture was not the only event with Biblical implications in the triumph.
Quote ID: 7043
Time Periods: 6
Book ID: 281 Page: 249
Section: 3E
THEODORA’S CLEAR SIGHT and the initiative she showed in the winter of 536-37 made Justinian more of a spectator than an actor. Constantinople’s pressure on Rome and Italy was pushed by Theodora, the least Western and the least pro-Roman of rulers. Unable to tolerate Justinian’s docility in the face of Agapetus’s actions and Pope Silverius’s later response, she took over.….
Theodora wrote to Belisarius in Rome what no other woman—empress or not—had ever dared: she ordered the general to remove Pope Silverius.
Quote ID: 7044
Time Periods: 6
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