Abstract
The article reviews the early years of the Empress Athenais-Eudocia (5th century AD) and dwells on the questions of her origin, social status, education and ascension to the throne. The author suggests that AD 401 is the terminus post quem for the birth of Athenais (she could be born around AD 405); the social status of her family was suffi ciently high and she had some relations at the court. Most likely, her birthplace was Athens; the suggestions about her connections with Antioch and Alexandria do not have reliable grounds. She could belong to the same circle as that of Synesius of Cyrene (her uncle Asclepiodotus might be the addressee of one of Synesius՚ letters). The people, who were loyal to the Christian State and willingly converting to Christianity, but rather liberal towards its doctrine, can be described as “Christian Hellenists”. After her father’s death Athenais came to Constantinople, where the Christian Hellenists arranged her marriage with Theodosius II. The role, attributed to the emperor’s sister Pulcheria in the arrangement of this matrimony, is greatly exaggerated and associated with subsequent historical forgery that took place during the reign of Pulcheria. This marriage was based on the proximity of the intellectual interests the bride and the groom shared, because Theodosius II was a kind of a late-antique scholar. The author suggests that the most signifi cant impact on Eudocia had Theodosius II himself; it could be seen in her conversion to Christianity and in transmitting his own ideas. The name “Eudocia” (“Grace” or “Benevolence”) received by Athenais at the baptism might have sounded as the program of the reign of Theodosius II.
Keywords
Empress Athenais-Eudocia, Theodosius II, Pulcheria, Synesius of Cyrene, Byzantine history, Late Antiquity, Christianity
Aleksandrova, T.L. 2016: Feodosiay II i Pul’hreriya v izobrazhenii Sozomena (k probleme datirovki «Cerkovnoy istorii»). Vestnik drevney istorii 2, 371–387.
Berger, A. (ed.) 2013: Accounts of Medieval Constantinople (the Patria). Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 24. Cambridge–Massachusets–London.
Burgess, R.W. 1993–1994: The Accession of Marcian in the Light of Chalcedonian Apologetic and Monophysite Polemic. Byzantinische Zeitshrift 86/87, 46–68.
Cameron, A. 1982: The Empress and the Poet: Paganism and Politics at the Court of Theodosius II. Yale Classical Studies 27, 217–289.
Cameron, A. 2011: The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford.
Dindorf, L. (ed.) 1831: Ioannis Malalae Chronographia. Bonn.
Dindorf, L. (ed.) 1870: Eunapius. Fragmenta Historica. Historici Graeci Minores. Vol. 1. Leipzig.
Grierson, Ph., Mays, M. 1992: Catalogue of the Late Roman Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, from Arcadius to the Ascension of Anastasius. Washington.
Hansen, G.H. 1995: Socrates Scholasticus. Kirschengeschichte. Berlin.
Harris, J. 2013: Men without Women: Theodosius՚ Consistory and the Business of Government. In: C. Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge.
Henry, R. (ed.) 1960: Photius. Bibliothèque. Vol. 2. Paris.
Holum, K.G. 1977: Pulcheria᾽s Crusade a.d. 421–422 and the Ideology of Imperial Victory. Greek-Roman and Byzantine Studies 18, 153–172.
Holum, K.G. 1982: Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity. Los Angeles.
Krivushin, I.V. (red.) 2010: Evagrij Shrolastik. Cerkovnaya istoriya. Saint-Petersburg.
Lourié, B. 2007: L՚Histoire euthymiaque – l՚oevre du patriarche Euthymios. Euphemios de Constantinople (430–496, +515). Warszavskie Studia Teologiczne XX, 2, 189–221.
McEvoy, М. 2013: Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367–455. Oxford.
Millar, F. 2006: А Greek Roman Empire. Power and belief under Theodosius II (408–450). Berkley– Los Angeles–London.
Sironen, E. 1990: An Honorary Epigram for Empress Eudocia in the Athenian Agora. Hesperia 59, 371–375.
Van Nuffelen, P. 2013: Olympiodorus of Thebes and Eastern Ttriumphalism. In: C. Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge.
Witby, M. 2013: Writing in Greek: Classicism and Compilation, Interaction and Transformation. In: C. Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge.