Theodora I

500 – 548 · Generation IX · Empress · Justinian

Theodora (AD 500 – 548). Empress. Married Justinian around AD 525. Wife and chief adviser of Justinian I. Her beginnings were humble: her father, Acacius, kept bears for the Green faction of the Hippodrome, and she worked as an actress and courtesan before meeting Justinian — a union made possible only when Emperor Justin changed the marriage law in 524. Crowned augusta in 527, she is credited by Procopius with stiffening the court’s resolve during the Nika riots of 532, when flight seemed the only course. With Justinian she closed brothels in 528, and she founded the Metanoia convent for women leaving prostitution. Reputedly a Miaphysite, she sheltered persecuted clergy in the palace, often working against her husband’s Chalcedonian policy; she also helped bring down the prefect John the Cappadocian in 541 and engineered the removal of Pope Silverius. She died on 28 June 548 of an illness recorded as a “cancer” and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

One of 9 people of Justinian (518–602) in this archive. Justinian and Theodora’s house, which rebuilt the law and reached back into the west.

Partners

Married Justinian I (482 – 565) in 525

Life

500 — Born
525 — Married Justinian
548 — Died