A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Athenais
ATHENAIS, afterwards the Empress Eudocia, Daughter of Leontius, a Sophist and Athenian Philosopher. Born at Athens about the Year 393 or 400. Died at Jerusalem about 466.
By the care of her father, Athenais received a most elegant and liberal education. To the learning and philosophy of the Greeks, she added the arts of elocution and music, and being likewise exceedingly beautiful, her father, on his death, left her only one hundred pieces of gold; saying, that her unequalled merit was a sufficient portion. Shocked at this unjust distribution, and at the scanty resource left to her, who had been accustomed to live in affluence, Athenais implored her brothers not to insist upon the will, but to permit her to come in for her share of the inheritance. Alive only to interest, they refused her request with harshness, and forced her to seek a home with an aunt by the mother's side. This lady, in concert with a sister of Leontius, instituted a process against her brothers; and, taking her to Constantinople, made the princess Pulcheria acquainted with her situation.
The graceful figure, the fine eyes, and fair curling hair of the suppliant; her eloquence and modesty, strongly interested Pulcheria, who was then seeking a wife for her brother Theodosius, surnamed the Young; and when she found her mind so highly gifted, and her morals irreproachable, she contrived that he and his friend Pauiinus, without her knowledge, should see her while conversing with the princess. Theodosius was deeply smitten; she was instructed in the truths of the Christian religion, which she embraced in 421, being baptized by the name of Ælia Eudocia and married to the emperor the same year, but not declared empress till after the birth of her daughter Eudoxia in 422. Hearing of her good fortune, her brothers fled; but causing them to be brought to Constantinople, she engaged the emperor to make one prefect of Illyria, and to bestow upon the other one of the principal employments in the royal palace: "I regard you," said she, "as the instruments of my elevation. It was not your cruelty, but the hand of Providence, which brought me here, to raise me to the throne."
Arrayed in the imperial purple of the east, she forgot not her former taste for study. She improved herself in Latin as well as Greek literature, was mistress both of the active and contemplative parts of philosophy; perfectly understood the art of speaking with elocution, and reasoning with judgment: in all the methods of proving and conversing by arguments, as well as of refuting opponents, no male philosopher was ever a greater proficient: she attained to a more perfect knowledge of astronomy, of geometry, and the proportion of numbers, than any could boast of in her time, and composed poems which were the admiration of her own and many succeeding ages. One mentioned by Socrates, was on a victory gained by Theodosius over the Persians: she translated into verse the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. Photius speaks highly of the merit of the poetry, and fidelity of the translation; also a poem in three books, on the martyrs Cyprian and Justinia. This poem, almost entire, was found lately at Florence, in the library of Laurentius de Medicis. "Who would suspect," says Dupin, "to find a woman ranked among ecclesiastical writers? There have been learned women in all ages, but very few divines among them. It is still the more to be wondered at, that an empress, amidst the pleasures and luxuries of a court, should employ herself in writing on theology?"
In 438, the empress undertook a journey to Jerusalem, to perform a vow she had made on the marriage of her daughter. She made magnificent presents to the churches, not only of that city, but of all the others, in her route. At Antioch, not having forgotten the taste for declamation she acquired in the school of her father, seated on a throne of gold, enriched with precious stones, and in presence of the senate and people, she pronounced the eulogium of that city, which ended with two verses from Homer, signifying that she was proud of deriving her descent from the same source as the people of Antioch. Delighted with her munificence, and flattered by her courtesy, the inhabitants erected a golden statue of her in their senate house, and another of bronze in the museum.
Athenais, or Eudocia, had as yet interfered very little in public affairs, which were principally conducted by Pulcheria; and, though it added to her own power, the latter deplored the inglorious indolence of her brother, who always signed every paper presented to him without observation. Wishing to show him the folly of this conduct, she once gave him a petition, in which she asked the empress for her slave, which he also signed without reading. On the discovery of this trick, the emperor was not pleased, and Eudocia was highly offended. Seduced by flatterers, she began to envy the influence of Pulcheria, and the latter soon fell into disgrace with the emperor and retired from court. But Eudocia, though of the finest capacity, was unskilled in the practical part of government; and felt that she was not able to guide the helm, which the steadier hands of Pulcheria had held so many years with wisdom and success: nor did public misfortunes alone assail her; the emperor became her adversary.
Paulinus had been his friend from childhood, and was now the cherished companion of his riper years. His praises of Eudocia had contributed to raise her to the throne, and he was more esteemed by both on that account. With the most amiable qualities of the heart, he possessed a taste for literature, which made her prize his conversation highly.
Theodosius became jealous on some trifling cause and, encouraged by bis courtiers, found a pretext to send Paulinus to Cesarea, and cause him to be murdered. The empress felt the most lively grief, not merely at the injustice, but at the stigma cast on her honour. She withdrew from court. Theodosius, filled with black suspicion, attempted not to recal her. At last, detesting both court and diadem, and regretting the obscure life she resigned twenty years before, she asked, and easily obtained permission to retire to Jerusalem. Even there the jealousy of the emperor pursued her: and having heard that Severus the priest, and the deacon John, had accompanied her in this voluntary exile, he caused them to be put to death. Rendered irritable by insults, the empress was roused, by this inhuman action, to such an excess of fury, that she caused Saturninus (the minister of the emperor in this act) to be murdered. This crime blackened her character, instead of avenging her innocence. She lived twenty years longer, touched with the truest grief and penitence for that rash act, abounding in works of benevolence and usefulness, constructing churches and monasteries, and conferring many privileges on Jerusalem. She was buried in the church of St. Stephen, and declared, even when dying, that her union with Paulinus had never been criminal; that she had only loved in him the friend of Theodosius, and a generous protector, who had seconded the kind designs of Pulcheria.