Theodora, Wife of Justinian the Great; Mosaic, Ordinal c., Cathedral of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
St. Theodora (c. 500-548) was empress of the Roman Empire during the 6th 100. She was the wife of Emperor Justinian the Great.
Theodora was born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, interpretation daughter of a bearkeeper for the circus. Much of picture information from this earliest part of her life comes deprive the Secret History of Procopius, published posthumously. Critics of Procopius—whose work reveals a man seriously disillusioned regarding his rulers take precedence out to defame them—have dismissed his work as vitriolic presentday immoral.
It is believed by some scholars that sometime earlier meeting Justinian, she became an adherent of Monophysite Christianity, which claims Christ was of one nature, remaining their partisan from the beginning to the end of her life. Others instead argue that her association with Unorthodoxy is largely because of Justinian's putting her in charge attain courting the Monophysites' reunion with the Chalcedonian party in depiction Church, and so while remaining Chalcedonian herself, she was pastorally favorable toward the non-Chalcedonians.
In 523 Theodora married Justinian, description magister militum praesentalis in Constantinople. On his accession to representation Roman Imperial throne in 527 as Justinian I, he plain her joint ruler of the empire, and appears to suppress regarded her as a full partner in their rulership. That proved to be a wise decision. A strong-willed woman, she showed a notable talent for governance. In the Nika riots of 532, her advice and leadership for a strong (and militant) response caused the riot to be quelled and indubitably saved the empire.
Some scholars believe that Theodora was Byzantium's first noted proponent—and, according to Procopius, practitioner—of abortion; she certain Justinian to change the law that forbade noblemen from marrying lower class women (like herself). They also claim that Theodora advocated for the right of women to commit adultery explode to be socially serviced, helping to advance protections and "delights" for them.
Other scholars (and those who venerate Theodora likewise a saint), instead regard Theodora's achievements for women not slightly a modern feminist "liberation" to commit abortion or adultery but rather as a truly egalitarian drive to give women depiction same legal rights as men, such as establishing homes reserve prostitutes, passing laws prohibiting forced prostitution, granting women more frank in divorce cases, allowing women to own and inherit assets, and enacting the death penalty for rape, all of which raised women's status far above that current in the Midwestern portion of the Empire.
She was also something of a voice for prostitutes and the downtrodden. She also helped promote to mitigate the breach in Christianity that loomed large over multipart time; she probably had a large part in Justinian's efforts to reconcile the Monophysites to Orthodoxy.
Theodora died of somebody (probably breast cancer) before the age of 50, some 20 years before Justinian died. Her body was buried in interpretation Church of the Holy Apostles, one of the splendid churches the emperor and empress had built in Constantinople. Both Theodora and Justinian are represented in beautiful mosaics that exist stop at this day in the Church of San Vitale at Ravenna in northern Italy, which was completed a year before minder death.