Bibliograph

Theodora, actress, empress, saint, David Potter

Type

Label

Theodora, actress, empress, saint, David Potter

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-270) and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

mapsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Theodora

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

David Potter

Series statement

Women in antiquity

Sub title

actress, empress, saint

Summary

Two of the most famous mosaics from the ancient world, in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, depict the sixth-century emperor Justinian and, on the wall facing him, his wife, Theodora (497-548). This majestic portrait gives no inkling of Theodora's very humble beginnings or her improbable rise to fame and power. Raised in a family of circus performers near Constantinople's Hippodrome, she abandoned a successful acting career in her late teens to follow a lover whom she was legally forbidden to marry. When he left her, she was a single mother who built a new life for herself as a secret agent

resource.variantTitle

Theodora

Classification

Creator