the empress euphemia—her opposition to the marriage of justinian and theodora—justin repeals the law prohibiting the marriage of a patrician with a stage-performer—justinian and theodora colleagues on the throne—death of justin—effect of the marriage—adulation of the senate, clergy, people, and army—general feeling of discouragement—personal advantages of theodora—pretended antagonism between her and justinian—theodora deceives the christians and the factions—consolidation of despotism.

as long as the empress euphemia was alive, justinian could not contrive to marry theodora. though she did not oppose him on any other point, she obstinately refused her consent to this one thing. she was altogether free from vice, although she was a homely person and of barbarian descent, as i have already said. she never cultivated any active virtues, but remained utterly ignorant of state affairs. she did not bear her own name, which was a ridiculous one, when she came to the palace, but was renamed euphemia. soon afterwards, however, she died.

justin was in his second childhood and so sunk in senility that he was the laughing-stock of his subjects. all despised him utterly, and disregarded him because he was incompetent to control state affairs, but they paid their court to justinian with awe, for he terrified them all by his love of disturbance and reckless innovations.

he then resolved to bring about his marriage with theodora. it was forbidden by the most ancient laws of the state that anyone of the senatorial order should marry a courtesan; so he prevailed upon the emperor to repeal the existing law and introduce a new one, whereby he was allowed to live with theodora as his legitimate wife, and it became possible for anyone else to marry a courtesan. he also straightway assumed the demeanour of absolute despot, veiling his forcible seizure of power under the pretext of reasons of state. he was proclaimed emperor of the romans, as his uncle’s colleague. whether this was legal or not may be doubted, since he owed his election to the terror with which he inspired those who gave him their votes.

so justinian and theodora ascended the imperial throne three days before easter, at a time when it is forbidden to make visits or even to greet one’s friends. a few days later justin was carried off by disease, after a reign of nine years, and justinian and theodora reigned alone.

thus did theodora, as i have told you, in spite of her birth and bringing-up, reach the throne without finding any obstacle in her way. justinian felt no shame at having wedded her, although he might have chosen the best born, the best educated, the most modest and virtuously nurtured virgin in all the roman empire, with outstanding breasts, as the saying is; whereas he preferred to take to himself the common refuse of all mankind, and without a thought of all that has been told, married a woman stained with the shame of many abortions and many other crimes. nothing more, i conceive, need be said about this creature’s character, for all the vices of his heart are thoroughly displayed in the fact of so unworthy a marriage. when a man feels no shame at an act of this kind, and braves the loathing of the world, there is thereafter no path of wickedness which may not be trodden by him, but, with a face incapable of blushing, he plunges, utterly devoid of scruple, into the deepest baseness.

however, no one in the senate had the courage to show dissatisfaction at seeing the state fasten this disgrace upon itself, but all were ready to worship theodora as if she had been a goddess. neither did any of the clergy show any indignation, but bestowed upon her the title of “lady.” the people who had formerly seen her upon the stage now declared themselves, with uplifted hands, to be her slaves, and made no secret of the name. none of the army showed irritation at having to face the dangers of war in the service of theodora, nor did anyone of all mankind offer her the least opposition. all, i suppose, yielded to circumstances, and suffered this disgraceful act to take place, as though fortune had wished to display her power by disposing human affairs so that events came about in utter defiance of reason, and human counsel seemed to have no share in directing them. fortune does thus raise men suddenly to great heights of power, by means in which reason has no share, in spite of all obstacles that may bar the way, for nothing can check her course, but she proceeds straight on towards her goal, and everything makes way for her. but let all this be, and be represented as it pleases god.

theodora was at this time handsome and of a graceful figure, but she was short, without much colour, but rather of a pale complexion, and with brilliant and piercing eyes. it would take a life-time to tell of all her adventures during her theatrical life, but i think what little i have selected above will be sufficient to give an indication of her character. we must now briefly set forth what she and her husband did, for during their married life neither ever did anything without the other. for a long time they appeared to all to be at variance both in their characters and in their actions; but afterwards this disagreement was seen to have been purposely arranged between them, in order that their subjects might not come to an agreement and rise against them, but might all be divided in their opinion. first, they split up the christians into two parties and brought them to ruin, as i shall tell you hereafter, by this plan of pretending to take different sides. next they created divisions amongst the state factions. theodora feigned to be an eager partisan of the blues, and gave them permission to commit the greatest atrocities and deeds of violence against the opposite faction, while justinian pretended to be grieved and annoyed in his secret soul, as though he could not oppose his wife’s orders; and often they would pretend to act in opposition. the one would declare that the blues must be punished because they were evil-doers, while the other pretended to be enraged, and angrily declared that she was overruled by her husband against her will. yet, as i have said, the blue faction seemed wondrously quiet, for they did not outrage their neighbours as much as they might have done.

in legal disputes, each of them would pretend to favour one of the litigants, and of necessity made the man with the worse case win; by this means they plundered both the parties of most of the disputed property. the emperor received many persons into his intimacy, and gave them appointments with liberty to do what they pleased in the way of violent injustice and fraud against the state; but when they were seen to have amassed a considerable amount of wealth, they straightway fell into disgrace for having offended the empress. at first justinian would take upon himself to inquire kindly into their case, but soon he would drop the pretence of good-will, and his zeal on their behalf would throw the whole matter into confusion. upon this, theodora would treat them in the most shameful way, while he, pretending not to understand what was going on, would shamelessly confiscate their entire property. they used to carry on these machinations by appearing to be at variance, while really playing into each other’s hands, and were thus able to set their subjects by their ears and firmly establish their own power.