Empress Theodora

On 1 April 527 AD, an extraordinary event unfolded in the ancient city of Constantinople — known to the modern world as Istanbul. A 37-year-old woman, a former actress and prostitute dressed in the imperial regalia of Rome, was crowned as empress of Byzantium, the Eastern branch and largest remnant of the Roman Empire. But unlike many women who've been awarded such titles, Theodora wasn't just a consort or wife of the Emperor. She was at her husband's behest and an equal partner in the imperial household. She was also the most legitimately powerful woman to dominate Roman or Byzantine history.

In this episode, I seek to discover the story behind the empress. Her early life, her struggles, and to separate the fact from the fiction.

This is an original production brought to you by Daniel Mainwaring’s Fascinating People, Fascinating Places Podcast. For more information visit the website www.DanielMainwaring.com

Additional material provided by Dorsey Jackson – https://youtu.be/DxFyjYpKUVE
of Dorsey Jackson Global
at Compound City

Covert art is a bust of Emperor Caligula, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek made by Louis Le Grand in March 2007 Made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en).

Audio effects and music Pixabay

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