| Aelia Eudocia | |
|---|---|
| Byzantine Empress | |
Portrait of Aelia Eudocia on a tremissis. |
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| Full name | Eudocia Augusta |
| Born | c. 401 |
| Birthplace | Athens |
| Died | October 20, 460 (aged 58 - 59) |
| Place of death | Jerusalem |
| Consort to | Theodosius II |
| Offspring | Licinia Eudoxia |
| Father | Leontius |
Aelia Eudocia Augusta (c. 401–460) was the wife of Theodosius II, and a prominent historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity were still coming together. Although Eudocia's work has been mostly ignored by modern scholars, her poetry and literary work are great examples of how her Christian faith and Greek upbringing were intertwined, exemplifying a legacy that the Byzantine Empire left behind on the Christian world.
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Aelia Egglike was born around 589 ad in Antioch to a philosopher named Leonitios. Leontius taught Rhetoric at the Academy, where people from all over the Mediterranean came to either teach or learn. Eudocia's given name was Athenais, which her parents named her after the city's protector Pallas-Athena.[1] Her father was rich, and had a magnificent house in Acropolis, that had small courtyard that young Athenais played in a lot as a child.[1] She had a gift for memorization, and easily learned the poetry of Homer and Pindar, which her father would recite to her.
When she was 12 years old, her mother died and she became her father's comfort, taking on the responsibilities of household chores, raising her siblings and tending to her father. She had two brothers, Gessius and Valerius, who would later be rewarded in court by their sister and brother in law. In return, her father spent all of his past time devoted to teaching her rhetoric, poetry, and philosophy. He taught her "Socratic Virtue of Knowledge, of moderation", and predicted that she would have a great destiny.[2] His teachings and role as her father did greatly prepare her for her for her destiny. As her father, he was essentially Athenais' everything, and when he passed away in 420, she was devastated. Even more devastating was that in his will, he left all property to her brothers, and left her only a 100 coins, saying that "sufficient for her is her destiny which will be the greatest of any woman".[2] This bothered Athenais even more, and didn’t think it was fair at all. She had been her father's confidante, and expected more than 100 coins. She begged for her brothers to be fair and give her an equal share of the property, but they refused. Athenais had nothing else in the world, other than 100 coins, and everything she knew and loved were gone.
Athenais then went to live with her Aunt, shortly after her father's death at age 20. Her Aunt told her to go to Constantinople to "ask for justice from the Emperor", that she would receive her fair share of her father's wealth.[3] Her father greatly impacted her, and influenced her literary work later on in life after she became Empress.
==Marriage & Life as an Empress== her Legend has it that when Theodosius II was 20 years old, he wanted to get married. He talked to his sister Pulcheria, who began to search for a maiden fit for her brother, that was either "patrician or imperial blood."[4] His long time childhood friend Paulinus also helped Theodosius in his search.[4] The Emperor's search had begun fortuitously at the same time that Athenais had arrived in Constantinople. Pulcheria had heard about this young girl, who had only 100 coins to her name, and when she met her she was "astonished at her beauty and at the intelligence and sophistication with which she presented her grievance."[4] Upon reporting back to her brother, she told him she had "found a young girl, a greek maid, very beautiful, pure and dainty, eloquent as well, the daughter of a philosopher," and young Theodosius who was full of desire and lust fell in love instantly.[4]
Athenais had been raised pagan, and had to convert to Christianity in order to marry Theodosius II. The Emperor renamed her Eudocia and made her his wife. They were married on June 7, 421 and there were "reports that Theodosius celebrated his wedding with chariot races in the hippodrome."[5] Her brothers, who had rejected her after their father's death, were fearful of the punishment they thought they were going to receive since she became Empress, so they fled. However instead of punishing them, Eudocia called them back to Constantinople, and Theodosius rewarded them. He made Gessius praetorian prefect of Illycricum and made Valerius master of offices.[6] They were rewarded because Eudocia believed that their mean actions had come from jealousy of her destiny, not from a vengeful dark place. He also honored his best friend, Paulinus with master of offices, for he had helped find his wife.[6] However, this rags to riches story, though it claims to be authentic and is accepted among historians, leads one to believe that tale may have been twisted due to the detail of how the romance was portrayed. The earliest version of this story appeared more than a century after Eudocia's death in the "World Chronicle of John Malalas, an author who did not always distinguish between authentic history and a popular memory of events infused with folk-tale motifs."[6] The facts are that she was the daughter of Leonitius and she did originally have the name Athenais, according to the Greek historian Socrates of Constantinople, and a contemporary historian named Priscus of Panion; however they leave out any mention of Pulcheria's role in playing match-maker for her brother.[5] The historians Sozomen and Theodoret did not included Eudocia in their history because they were written after Eudocia had fallen into disgrace.[6]
Eudocia had three children with Theodosius II.[7] Licinia Eudoxia born in 422, was the oldest. Licinia Eudoxia had been betrothed to her cousin, the western emperor Valentinian III since her birth, and did marry on October 29, 437.[8] The second child Flaccilla, died in 431.[9] Arcadius was the only son and died in infancy. It was only a year after she gave birth to her first child, when Eudocia was proclaimed Augusta by her husband on January 2, 423.[10]
Upon being named Augusta, she succeeded her sister in law, Pulcheria who had been Augusta since 414. The relationship between the two women consisted of rivalry over power. Eudocia was jealous over the amount of power Pulcheria had within the court, while Pulcheria was jealous of the power Eudocia could claim from her. Their relationship created a "pious atmosphere" in the imperial court, and is probably an explanation as to why Eudocia traveled to the Holy Land in 438.[11] Eudocia went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 438, bringing back with her holy relics to prove her faith.[9] Her relationship with her husband had deteriorated, and with much plea from Melania, a wealthy widow from Palestine and good friend of Eudocia, Theosodius allowed her to go.[12] On her way to Jerusalem, she stopped in Antioch, where "she delivered an encomium of Antioch before the senate of the city, casting it in Homeric hexameters. In it she included the line 'Of your proud line and blood I claim to be.'"[13] Eudocia's original name may have been named after the great city of Athens, but she was born in Antioch despite what the traditional story may say. Citizens of Antioch received her message with positive attitude, and she influenced them to "erect two statues in her honor, a gold statue in curia and a bronze one in the museum."[14] She even convinced her husband to "extend the walls of Antioch to take in a large suburb."[15] Furthermore, she also influenced state policy towards pagans and Jews under her husband's reign, and used the powerful influence she had to protect them from persecution.[15] Eudocia also advocated for "reorganization and expansion" of education in Constantinople.[16] Eudocia had been raised and educated in traditional and classical sophist education from Athens, but her goal was to blend classical pagan education with Christianity. This was her way of using her power as Empress to honor teachers and education, something that was very important to her in her life.
Rumor has it that Eudocia was banished from the court towards the latter part of her life for adultery. Theodosius suspected that she was having an affair with his long time childhood friend, and court advisor Paulinus.[9] According to Malalas' account of this story, Theodosius II had given Eudocia a very large Phrygian apple, as a gift. One day, Paulinius had shown the emperor the same apple, not knowing that the emperor had given it to Eudocia as a gift. He recognized the apple, and confronted Eudocia who had sworn she had eaten it. Eudocia's denials made the emperor believe that she had fallen in love with Paulinus and was having an affair, that she would gave his best friend the same apple he had given her as a symbol of his love. Theodosius had Paulinius executed, and he dismissed Eudocia from the court in 443.[13] She lived the last part of her life in Jerusalem, where she focused on writing her own literature.
Eudocia died on October 20, 460 and was buried in Jerusalem in the Church of St. Stephens.[17] The empress never returned to the imperial court in Constantinople, but "she maintained her imperial dignity and engaged in substantial euergetistic programs."[18]
While Eudocia could have written a lot of literature after leaving the Court, only some of her work survived. Eudocia "wrote in hexameters, which is the verse of epic poetry, on Christian themes."[9] She wrote a poem entitled The Martyrdom of St. Cyprian in two books, of which 800 lines survived, and an inscription of a poem on the baths at Hammat Gader.[9] Her most studied piece of literature is her Homeric cento, which has been analyzed recently by a few modern scholars, such as Mark Usher and Brian Sower. Eudocia is an understudied poet and have been neglected due to "lack of complete and authoritative text.”[19]
There are three books, or volumes to this story. Although some of it has been lost, most of it has been paraphrased by Photius. This epic poem tells the story of how "Justa, the Christian virgin, defeated the magician Cyprian through her faith in God. Cyprian had been hired by Aglaidas to force Justa to love him. It ends with the conversation of Cyprian, his swift rise to Bishop, and Justa becoming a deaconess, with the new name, Justina."[20] This story is all fiction, although the parallels between Eudocia's character Justa and Eudocia herself are interesting, as they both converted to Christianity and changed their name upon succession to power. The poem is very long despite not all of it surviving the centuries, and can be found in a copy of Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by I. M. Plant.
The poem inscribed on the baths at Hammat Gader in Israel was very short, and can be included here, as evidence of her hexameter writing style. The poem was inscribed so visitors could read as they went into the pool.
The Homeric centos that Eudocia wrote is her most popular and most analyzed poem by modern scholars because Homer was a popular choice to write a centos on. Eudocia's particular centos is the longest Homeric cento, and consists of 2,344 lines.[20] This centos is a clear representation of who Eudocia was, and what she believed in. She wrote an epic poem combining her classical Athens educational background by doing a Homeric centos, but adding stories from the book of Genesis and the New Testament stories of the life of Jesus Christ.
Mark Usher analyzed this poem as a means to understand why Eudocia chose to use Homeric themes as a mean to express her biblical interpretations. According to Usher, Eudocia needed to convey human experience relating to the Bible. She used themes from the Iliad and Odyssey because "they contained all Eudocia needed to tell the Gospel story. Whenever and wherever Eudocia needed to express greatness, pain, truthfulness, deceit, beauty, suffering, mourning, recognition, understanding, fear, or astonishment, there was an apt Homeric line or passage ready in her memory to be recalled."[22] Eudocia's Homeric poetry is essential to understanding her as a Christian woman in early Byzantine Empire, and understanding her role as empress. Her classical educational background is clearly seen in her poetry, which captures her literary talent. She made a point to connect her background love for studying classical Greek literature, with her Christian beliefs.
Eudocia is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor.[23][24]
| Royal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Aelia Eudoxia |
Byzantine Empress consort 421–450 |
Succeeded by Pulcheria |