Women’s rights are said to be a modern movement, requiring the representation of women through a codified legal system. But if so, then Empress Theodora set the no-nonsense tone more than fifteen hundred years ago. She brought an unapologetic notion of equal rights for women when she sat on the throne and influenced sweeping reforms that should stun modern readers. And I hope you’ll share my outrage and frustration at her utter lack of recognition in history.

Her obscurity is most likely due to the obscurity of the Byzantine Empire. But I also think Theodora is marginalized because of prejudices toward her early life and career. You see, before she became an empress and epic reformist, she was a prostitute and infamous exhibitionist[i]. Empress Theodora came off as a salacious novelty, a Medieval prostitute-stripper who must have slept her way to the top. Moreover, we have a handful of lewd stories that have thoroughly defamed her. The scandalous gossip [ii]of her past is handed down to us by a single male source (who despised Theodora), which no doubt stirred the imaginations of historians through the centuries. I, myself, found the lurid tales of Theodora to be shocking and off-putting when I first read them. Not quite role model material for “decent” society.

But having written extensively about her, I’m happy to say that I’m past all that now. I want the world to get past it too. Instead, we should recognize how Theodora was exploited as a young woman and how her experiences served as a backdrop for the reforms she would influence. She dared to voice the real problems that women faced when no marketplace for such ideas existed. I can’t imagine an all-male government greeting her with open arms back in the Medieval era. Even so, Theodora designed real-world solutions, defined in legal terms, and ensured that her ideas became law[iii].

And she didn’t eff around about it. For one, she attempted to protect all women indiscriminately against sexual abuse—rich and poor, free or slave, citizen and criminal.

Under Empress Theodora, rape was made punishable by death and the rapist’s property was transferred to the rape victim[iv]. This law extended to anyone who was present during the rape, regardless of position or rank. Theodora also saw to it that women could own and inherit property[v], which is quite a breakthrough because it gave daughters and wives real social power. A family’s wealth could now continue through a daughter, and should a woman’s husband die, the wife could claim the property and fortune. This greater legal status alone gave women throughout the empire real power in real terms.

Unlike today, professional outlets for women were severely restrictive. Besides the socially acceptable “work-from-home-and-raise-a-family” jobs, such as weaving, innkeeping, or baking, the very concept of ‘professional women’ as a large and recognizable class didn’t exist with one exception. A large number of women worked in theaters and brothels. So, although this professional class of women carried a huge social stigma, their industry was one of the few places where women worked publicly outside the traditional family structure and earned real income.

Therefore, laws that addressed legal matters for this lowly and socially powerless group should be seen as bold and unashamedly supportive of women in general. Theodora meant to treat the professional woman of her society, sex workers though they may be, as professionals. She understood that these prostitutes, actresses, mimes, and singers earned incomes that could technically sustain them. Income should mean independence. But brothel keepers had legal and oppressive authority over these women. So, Theodora shifted the legal authority from the brothel keepers to the prostitutes.

Under the new laws, women could no longer be forced into prostitution[vi]. If a woman willingly chose prostitution but later wished to leave, Theodora’s laws made it illegal for a brothel-keeper to stop her. And Theodora followed up relentlessly to ensure enforcement of these new laws. When Theodora discovered that brothel keepers undermined the new laws by making girls swear oaths never to leave the brothels, she responded by rendering such oaths illegal[vii]. She mandated that the provincial governor and the head bishop had the responsibility to enforce this law, giving her direct oversight over a manageable number of men in high positions. She chose two men to enforce, because if the governor, himself, blocked a woman’s departure from a brothel, then the bishop could override the governor. You see, Theodora had once been a concubine in the service of one of these provincial governors. She knew only too well the kind of power these men had over women. So, she added some checks and balances. Pretty amazing.

Theodora didn’t stop there. She helped to overhaul the marriage laws of her time. These reforms should be regarded as revolutionary since they shattered the most powerful class barriers.

For centuries, there was a ban on intermarriage between the upper and lower classes[viii]. By law, a prostitute could never marry a nobleman. Such a rigid class system was characteristic of a Roman world view and regarded high title and rank as self-evident. Secondly, even under the new Christian perspective, prostitution was regarded as immoral and sinful. Therefore, when Theodora helped to facilitate the removal of the marriage ban, she did so without the support of either secular or religious tradition. Her personal world view alone guided the legal reform. By removing the marriage ban[ix], prostitutes could now marry into noble houses and gain legal status. Like it or not, this represents unparalleled social mobility for women at the time. It gave many women access to power.

By having the marriage ban removed, Theodora, herself, was finally free to marry into the upper classes, which paved the way toward her destiny as an empress. Quite a move. She then saw to it that her sister, her daughter, and numerous other theater friends all married into noble houses. Just like that, several women crossed an impossible barrier and gained incredible social power, and they achieved this change in fortune seemingly overnight.

Once, Theodora arranged a marriage between one of her theater friends (an ex-prostitute) and a nobleman named Saturnitus[x]. When Theodora heard that this Saturnitus complained that his prospective bride wasn’t a virgin, she had the nobleman brought before her, rolled in a blanket, and flogged with a cane. She asked Saturnitus just one question: why could he frequent the brothels with impunity and dare to demand virginity from his wife? Theodora didn’t believe in double-standards.

Other laws, too, applied to all women regarding marriage. In Byzantium, there was a law of ‘mutual consent’ in divorce cases. A divorce was granted only if both the husband and the wife agreed to void the marriage. By the way, this legal concept is still practiced in some countries today. If the wife seeks a divorce, but not the husband, she stays married against her will. You might point out that this law works in both directions. However, if a man was forced to stay in a marriage because his wife vetoed the divorce, especially back then, he could easily visit a brothel or tavern and enjoy a full life outside the home. Wives did not have this luxury. (They weren’t even allowed on the street without an escort[xi]). So, the law of mutual consent worked disproportionately against women.

So, Theodora struck down the law of mutual consent.

Secondly, women of the time were expected to offer a dowry to their grooms. By Theodora’s time, the custom had expanded to make it fashionable for men to offer something minor in return. This minor offering was called an “antenuptial.’ Under the new laws, the antenuptial had to be equal to the bride’s dowry. Equal to the bride. Theodora’s message is inspiring in its consistency.

She also knew that prospective brides could sometimes be pressured into a marriage. A woman might give consent initially when put on the spot, but as the marriage date grew near, she might think differently. Therefore, a new law came out that required the prospective bride to give her consent twice—once at the original proposal, and then again before the marriage took place. This allowed women to change their minds before entering into a lifelong commitment[xii].

Finally, in what I regard as a remarkable example of Theodora’s scope, sympathies, and real-world knowledge, she even dared to protect criminal women. In the Sixth Century, legal protection for male criminals was unheard of. That’s why I regard Theodora’s intervention on behalf of criminal women to be truly groundbreaking. If a woman required prison time, the new laws forbade her imprisonment in common jails where she had no protection from male guards who could abuse these women without recourse. Criminal women had zero voice in government. Well, until Theodora. She saw to it that criminal women were removed from common prisons and detained in a Nunnery (that she constructed), under the supervision of other women.

Empress Theodora was known to hold court in her opulent imperial bedchamber. The sight must have been spectacular. There, surrounded by a retinue of her most trusted women and eunuchs, Theodora ruled over what has been described as an almost “parallel government[xiii].” Many women (and men) came directly to Theodora to plead for justice, and the formidable empress meted out justice with purpose. To me, this bizarre audience chamber is a Sixth Century attempt at giving women representation and a voice. The scene in Theodora’s bedchambers mirrored the actual throne room of the Byzantine Empire, just a few hundred feet away. In the words of James Allan Evans, “In the eyes of the upper-class beholder, what Theodora represented was revolutionary.”

Theodora’s mark on history is a powerful, immovable example for us. The body of laws that came into being during her reign is known as the Corpus Juris Civilis and, according to Wikipedia: “The Corpus continues to have a major influence on public international law. Its four parts thus constitute the foundation documents of the Western legal tradition[xiv].” Uh, wow. If this is true…if the Corpus is at the heart of the Western legal tradition, then Theodora is at the heart of a womens’ tradition toward equal rights. Official credit for the Corpus goes to Emperor Justinian, and he deserves plenty of it. But no historian can doubt Theodora’s powerful presence in the laws that pertain to women.

History, it seems, remains uncomfortable with Theodora’s sexualized past but I think we’re missing the point. Instead of judging Theodora for the slanderous stories, we should recognize that she was part of an institutionalized system that exploited women. I see a direct and significant connection between her early life and the legal reforms she oversaw as an empress. Our culture is taking a second look at history and rediscovering the contributions of women throughout the ages. I say, look further eastward, beyond Europe and deeper into the past. In my view, Theodora is the real deal. She stands tall among the women of history and it’s time the world recognizes her accomplishments in full.

 

Douglas A. Burton is on a mission to introduce Theodora to as many people as possible. His upcoming novel, ‘Far Away Bird,’ which details her early life, comes out February 6^th, 2020. To read a brief excerpt, click here: Excerpt 1 (Training to be an informer). And if you liked the article, please share it.

 

[i] The Secret History, Procopius [9. p15]

[ii] The Secret History, Procopius [9. p15]

[iii] The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian p. 37

[iv] Codex Justinianus [Book IX Title 13]

[v] Novellae 5.2 cf. Evans (1996a), pp 209-10

[vi] Codex Justinianus [I.4.33]

[vii] Novellae 51

[viii] The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian p. 37

[ix] Codex Justinianus (Book V Title 4-23)

[x] The Secret History, Procopius [17. p24-26]

[xi] Constantinople: Birth of an Empire

[xii] The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire p. 27

[xiii] Theodora: Empress of Byzantium p.175

[xiv] Wikipedia ‘Corpus Juris Civilis’