Theodora
Empress beside Justinian for twenty-one years. Procopius credits her with stiffening the court’s resolve during the Nika riot, and Evagrius says that she protected the opponents of Chalcedon while her husband upheld the council.
During the Nika riot of 532, when the court was debating whether to escape by ship, Procopius has Theodora speak against flight and declare that she would not live to be seen without the purple; her words, he says, gave the others courage to resist (Procopius, Wars 1.24.32–38). Procopius gives her words “to the following effect”, not as a verbatim record.
Evagrius, a supporter of Chalcedon, writes that Justinian I upheld the council while Theodora took the part of those who confessed one nature in Christ, took the greatest care of them, and persuaded the emperor to send for Severus. He is unsure whether the two truly differed or had agreed to divide their favour (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.10). She died of an illness after twenty-one years and three months as empress (Procopius, Wars 7.30.4).
In the timeline
- 27 December AD 537, firm dateJustinian Builds Hagia Sophia
After rioters burn the cathedral of Constantinople in 532, the emperor Justinian rebuilds it as a vast domed church, dedicated on 27 December 537. In the same years he sets out in law his view of priesthood and empire as two gifts of God.
- about AD 542 to AD 578, estimated dateJacob Baradaeus and the Syriac Orthodox Church
When the opponents of Chalcedon are short of bishops, the empress Theodora has the monk Jacob consecrated. John of Ephesus, his admirer, tells how he travelled the East for over thirty years, hunted by the emperor’s agents, ordaining clergy and bishops for a separate church.
- about AD 543 to AD 580, estimated dateThe Conversion of the Nubian Kingdoms
John of Ephesus tells how the empress Theodora sent the priest Julian to the Nobadae on the Nile south of Egypt ahead of her husband’s envoys, so that they were baptised into the church that rejected Chalcedon, and how the bishop Longinus later baptised the king of Alodia.
Primary sources
History of the Wars
- Procopius, Wars 1.24.32–38penelope.uchicago.edu
- Procopius, Wars 7.30.4penelope.uchicago.edu