Empress Theodora: From Actress to Ruler of the Byzantine Empire

Theodora was empress of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire from 527 until her death in 548, as the wife and close political partner of Justinian I. Born into a family of circus entertainers and once a stage performer, she rose to wear the imperial crown, shaped court politics and church affairs, and, according to Procopius, saved her husband’s throne during the Nika riots of 532. Her extraordinary career, and the very different ways ancient writers described it, make her one of the most discussed women of late antiquity.

Early life in the Hippodrome world

Theodora was probably born around 497, perhaps in Constantinople, although later traditions name Cyprus or Syria. Her father, Acacius, was a bear-keeper employed by the Green faction, one of the clubs that organised chariot racing and entertainments in the Hippodrome. She had an older sister, Comito, and a younger sister, Anastasia.

When Acacius died, his widow remarried and hoped the Greens would give the post to her new husband. According to Procopius, she sent her three small daughters into the Hippodrome as suppliants, but the Greens refused. The rival Blue faction took pity and gave the family a position. The story helps explain why Theodora later favoured the Blues.

As a young woman Theodora worked as an actress and comic performer. In Roman law and custom, actresses were barely respectable and were often assumed to be sex workers. This background was later used against her by enemies and has coloured her reputation ever since.

Travels, faith and meeting Justinian

As a teenager or young woman Theodora left Constantinople as the companion of Hecebolus, who was appointed governor of the Pentapolis in Libya. The relationship ended badly, and she made her way back by way of Alexandria and Antioch. Later tradition holds that in Alexandria she met leading Miaphysite churchmen, Christians who rejected the definition of Christ’s two natures agreed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and that she adopted their views.

Back in Constantinople, probably around 522, she met Justinian, nephew and heir of the emperor Justin I. Roman law forbade men of senatorial rank to marry actresses, and Justin’s wife, Euphemia, reportedly opposed the match. After Euphemia’s death, Justin issued a law allowing actresses who had left the stage to marry men of any rank. Justinian and Theodora married around 525.

In early April 527 Justin made Justinian co-emperor, and Theodora was crowned Augusta, or empress, beside him. When Justin died on 1 August 527, they became the ruling couple of the empire. Theodora already had a daughter from an earlier relationship, whose name is not recorded; she had no children with Justinian.

Power at court

Theodora was not a ruler in her own right, but contemporary laws and letters show that Justinian treated her as a partner. He referred to her in one law as his “most pious consort”, and officials swore oaths of loyalty to both emperor and empress. Foreign rulers and envoys wrote to her directly, and she kept her own household, estates and network of clients.

She was a formidable political enemy. Her long feud with John the Cappadocian, Justinian’s powerful praetorian prefect, ended in 541 when she and Antonina, the wife of the general Belisarius, helped trap him into appearing to plot against the emperor. John was disgraced, forced into the clergy and exiled. Procopius also accuses her of arranging the deposition of Pope Silverius in 537 in favour of Vigilius, a charge that other sources partly support.

The Nika riots

Theodora’s most famous moment came in January 532, during the Nika riots, when the Blue and Green factions united against the government, burned much of central Constantinople and proclaimed Hypatius, a nephew of the former emperor Anastasius I, as emperor (see Nika riots).

According to Procopius’s History of the Wars, as the emperor and his council discussed escaping by sea, Theodora rose to speak. She argued that it was better to die an emperor than to live as a fugitive, and quoted an old saying that royalty is a good burial shroud. Persuaded, Justinian stayed. His generals Belisarius and Mundus attacked the crowd gathered in the Hippodrome, and contemporary writers put the dead at about 30,000.

Historians debate this scene. Procopius was not in the room, and ancient historians often composed speeches for their characters. Even so, the episode shows how Theodora was seen at the time: as the stronger nerve at Justinian’s side.

Laws, charity and the church

Several of Justinian’s laws touch on concerns associated with Theodora. A law of 535 attacked pimps who lured poor girls into prostitution with false promises, and the couple founded a convent called Metanoia (“Repentance”) on the Asian shore of the Bosporus for women leaving that life. Other laws strengthened women’s rights over their dowries and protected them in divorce and inheritance. How far she personally drafted these measures cannot be proved, but writers of the time linked her name to them.

In religion, Theodora openly protected the Miaphysites while Justinian upheld Chalcedon. She sheltered hundreds of Miaphysite monks and clergy in the Palace of Hormisdas in Constantinople and supported their leaders, including Severus of Antioch. According to John of Ephesus, she also backed a Miaphysite mission to the kingdom of Nobadia in Nubia around 540, which won over its king before a rival mission sent by Justinian arrived. Some historians think the couple deliberately divided roles to keep both church parties loyal.

Theodora was also a builder and patron. The dedicatory inscription of the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople names her alongside Justinian. Her portrait survives in the apse mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna, completed around 547, where she appears with a halo and a jewelled crown, presenting a golden chalice (see Basilica of San Vitale).

Death and later memory

Theodora died in Constantinople on 28 June 548, probably aged around 50. The chronicler Victor of Tunnuna records that she died of cancer. She was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, where Justinian would join her in 565.

Justinian never remarried. In his later laws he still invoked her memory, and he kept faith with her Miaphysite protégés in the palace. Her niece Sophia, Comito’s daughter, married Justinian’s nephew Justin II and became empress in 565.

Theodora’s memory took very different forms over the centuries. The Eastern Orthodox Church came to venerate her and Justinian together as saints, with a feast day on 14 November, while Miaphysite communities in Syria and Egypt honoured her as their protector. In western Europe, by contrast, the publication of the Secret History in 1623 fixed an image of a scandalous empress that lasted for centuries.

In the modern era she became a subject for writers and artists. Victorien Sardou’s play Théodora (1884), starring Sarah Bernhardt, presented her as a romantic heroine, and the Ravenna mosaic made her face one of the best-known images from the early Middle Ages. Recent biographies have tried to look past both the scandal and the legend to the politician beneath.

How Procopius portrays her

Almost everything vivid about Theodora comes from one man, Procopius of Caesarea, and he gives two opposite pictures. In the Wars and the Buildings, written for public readers, she is a dignified empress and the heroine of 532. In the Secret History, written in secret and not published in his lifetime, she is a depraved schemer whose early life he describes in obscene detail.

Modern historians treat the Secret History as invective, a classical genre of character assassination, rather than biography. Its sexual stories cannot be checked and follow stock patterns of ancient abuse against powerful women. Yet it does reflect real resentment among the senatorial class at an empress of humble birth and great influence.

Other sources are kinder. The Miaphysite writer John of Ephesus praised her as a protector of the persecuted while openly acknowledging her disreputable past, and the Miaphysite churches remembered her with honour.

Myths and facts

Myth: Theodora was a prostitute who seduced her way to the throne. This picture comes almost wholly from the Secret History. That she was an actress is well attested; the lurid details are not.

Myth: Theodora ruled the empire. She had real influence, but Justinian remained the decision-maker, and she held no formal office beyond that of Augusta.

Fact: the “burial shroud” speech is a Procopian account. It is famous and may reflect what she said, but it reaches us in the words of a historian who wrote speeches in the classical manner.

Timeline

• c. 497: Theodora born, possibly in Constantinople.
• c. 522: Meets Justinian in Constantinople after returning from North Africa and Egypt.
• c. 525: Marries Justinian after Justin I changes the marriage law.
• April 527: Crowned Augusta as Justinian becomes co-emperor.
• January 532: Nika riots; Procopius records her speech against flight.
• 535: Law against forced prostitution; the Metanoia convent is founded around this time.
• 541: Fall of John the Cappadocian, engineered with Antonina.
• c. 547: San Vitale mosaics in Ravenna completed, showing Theodora and her court.
• 28 June 548: Theodora dies in Constantinople.

Why it matters

Theodora’s life shows how far a person could rise in the late Roman world, and how fiercely that rise could be resented. Her influence on Justinian’s reign, from the Nika riots to church politics, and the clash between flattering and hostile sources make her a key figure for understanding power, gender and history-writing in Byzantium (see Justinian I).