Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/368

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ill-omen.^[1] Animated by a genius so restless and aspiring, it is evident that such a woman needed only transference to a field of higher potential, to become one of the most notable characters of the age. Such a place had been prepared for her by fate, and she was destined to renew on the throne of the Empire the triumphs she had won on the boards of the theatre.^[2]

[Footnote: she was emulating the activities of the Empress Messalina five centuries

previously:

Claudius audi
Quae tulerit: dormire virum cum senserat uxor . . .
Intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar . . .
Excepit blanda intrantes, atque aera poposcit:
Mox lenone suas jam dimittente puellas,
Tristis abit; etc.

Juvenal, Sat. vi, 115, et seq.

Pliny discusses her proclivities in the inquiring mood of a physiologist; Hist. Nat., x, 83.]

↑ This is in direct opposition to the established views of Byzantine superstition; see p. 119.
↑ The age of Theodora is nowhere mentioned, but Ludewig and Isambert favour 497. Nicephorus Cal. (xvi, 39) says that she was born in Cyprus, an assertion which cannot be contradicted, but which is, on the whole unlikely, and some of his collateral statements are erroneous. The following information pour rire has found its way into so considerable a work as Hefner-Altneck's Trachten: "Theodora was the daughter of Acacius, Patriarch of CP., and was trained by her mother (!) for the theatre, in which she distinguished herself by her art as a pantomimist"; i, p. 124. The Patriarch Acacius was doubtless a celibate. The whitewashing of Theodora has, of course, been undertaken, but late, not till 1731, by Ludewig. She was, in fact, in bad odour with the Church, and the worst that could be said of her was acceptable. Recently a further attempt has been made by Débidour (L'Impératrice Theodora, Paris, 1885, Latin Thesis, 1877), called forth by Sardou's well-*known play of Theodora, in which she is undoubtedly misrepresented. A pendant to this brochure, containing all the facts of the defence, will be found in Eng. Hist. Rev., 1887 (Mallet). Present flatterers were, of course, ready to swear that she was an Anician! See p. 308.

[1] This is in direct opposition to the established views of Byzantine superstition; see p. 119.

[2] The age of Theodora is nowhere mentioned, but Ludewig and Isambert favour 497. Nicephorus Cal. (xvi, 39) says that she was born in Cyprus, an assertion which cannot be contradicted, but which is, on the whole unlikely, and some of his collateral statements are erroneous. The following information pour rire has found its way into so considerable a work as Hefner-Altneck's Trachten: "Theodora was the daughter of Acacius, Patriarch of CP., and was trained by her mother (!) for the theatre, in which she distinguished herself by her art as a pantomimist"; i, p. 124. The Patriarch Acacius was doubtless a celibate. The whitewashing of Theodora has, of course, been undertaken, but late, not till 1731, by Ludewig. She was, in fact, in bad odour with the Church, and the worst that could be said of her was acceptable. Recently a further attempt has been made by Débidour (L'Impératrice Theodora, Paris, 1885, Latin Thesis, 1877), called forth by Sardou's well-*known play of Theodora, in which she is undoubtedly misrepresented. A pendant to this brochure, containing all the facts of the defence, will be found in Eng. Hist. Rev., 1887 (Mallet). Present flatterers were, of course, ready to swear that she was an Anician! See p. 308.

[1]

[2]