Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint by David Potter (review)

What was the Empress Theodora really like? She gazes pale faced and loaded with jewels out of the Ravenna mosaic with her retinue, the very face of Byzantium, or so it seems. Played on the stage by Sarah Bernhardt, she is also the subject of dozens of historical novels, some of them on my own shelves. Most retell the limited amount of information given about her by the sixth-century historian Procopius and especially the salacious details enjoyed by Edward Gibbon. A reformed performer and courtesan, for whose marriage to a future emperor the law had to be changed, Theodora was transformed into a model empress but, by providing a refuge for reformed prostitutes, recalled her earlier life. She also had her pet monks and clergy, apparently against the preferences of her husband. Her greatest moment was when she stiffened the resolve of the weak Justinian, persuading him not to flee in the face of dangerous rioting in the capital. Admittedly, this limited set of details forms the basis of a fascinating story, even if a biographer has to pad it out with speculation. But Potter’s learned yet highly readable book diverges from the familiar formula. Theodora is revealed as a skillful operator who knew how to build useful alliances and work through them. Procopius’s hostile version cannot be the whole story. To be an empress in Byzantium was to understand where power really lay, and some, like Theodora, exploited power to the full.