modest station raised by destiny to the exalted dignity of a throne. She
was the favorite child of Leontius, an Athenian philosopher, who devoted
most of his time to training his daughter in the religion and philosophy
of his native city, and who sought to cultivate in her all that charm of
manner and richness of temperament which characterized the Greek women
in the best days of ancient Athens. The story goes that the old
philosopher was so confident that, because of her beauty and
intellectual gifts, a high destiny awaited his daughter, that he
bequeathed her as a legacy only a hundred pieces of gold, while he
divided the bulk of his estate between his two sons, Valerius and
Genesius. The brothers, being avaricious by nature and jealous of the
superior qualities of their sister, treated her with neglect and cruelty
in her distress. Athenais implored them to repair the obvious injustice
and to grant her her rights, representing to them how she did not
deserve this disgrace and that the indigence of their sister would be to
them, if not a cause of grief, yet certainly a continual reproach; but
her brothers would not listen to her appeals, and finally drove her from
the paternal mansion. Fortunately, a maternal aunt resided in Athens,
who received the disinherited maiden into her home and warmly espoused
her cause. She brought Athenais to Constantinople, where another aunt
dwelt, and made arrangements for the maiden to bring suit against the
hard-hearted brothers. To influence the decision, Athenais and her aunt
obtained audience with Pulcheria, and thus the link was formed which
joined the destinies of the young emperor and the hapless orphan.
The youthful plaintiff was her own advocate, and so effectually did she
argue her case that the Augusta, charmed by the penetration and
cleverness which her speech revealed, as well as by the wonderful beauty
and modest demeanor of the maiden, was irresistibly forced to the
conviction that this girl was the very one who embodied the ideals and
longings of the young prince. And, in fact, Athenais was physically and
intellectually endowed in a manner seldom equalled. Imagine a maiden of
tall and slender proportions of figure, of rare perfection of form, of
fair complexion, of dark and luminous eyes which revealed the sweetness
and subtlety of the spirit within, while the perfect outline of the
countenance was framed by a luxuriant abundance of golden locks,--and
you have some conception of the stranger who stood with queenly grace
before the proud Augusta. Furthermore, every word that she uttered
revealed the rare subtlety of understanding or warmth of sensibilities
of the petitioner, who was in every regard the perfect picture of a
symmetrically developed maiden. So soon as Pulcheria ascertained that
Athenais was of good family and was still unmarried, she began to carry
out her plans as a royal matchmaker. She aroused the curiosity of her
brother by her account of the charms of the Greek maiden, and the
recital inspired in the young prince a lively impatience to see
Athenais. He besought his sister to arrange an opportunity for him,
unobserved, to see the maiden, and Pulcheria readily devised a plan.
After having concealed Theodosius and Paulinus behind the tapestries in
her apartment, she summoned Athenais to come to her for a further
interview. Athenais entered the room, and the young men were so charmed
by the view that Theodosius, enamored of the maiden at first sight,
desired to make her his bride.
What must have been the emotions of the disinherited orphan, when the
Augusta, instead of granting her petition, told her that she was chosen
to be the bride of an emperor? Only one obstacle to the union presented
itself,--the pagan faith of the beautiful Athenian. While winning her
heart for himself, the pious Theodosius longed to win her soul for the
Saviour. To the patriarch Atticus was assigned the pleasing task of
convincing the beautiful maiden of the errors of paganism and of guiding
her spirit into the ways of eternal truth. The pure heart of the gentle
Athenais proved readily susceptible to the beauties of Christian
teaching; the waters of baptism were supposed to remove from her nature
the last vestiges of pagan unbelief; and in accordance with the wishes
of her betrothed, the converted Athenais received the baptismal name of
Eudocia.
Finally, on June 7, 421, the royal nuptials were celebrated with great
pomp, amid the rejoicings of the populace. The prudent Pulcheria,
however, withheld from the bride of the emperor the title of Augusta
until the union was blessed by the birth of a daughter, who was named
Eudoxia, after her grandmother, and who, fifteen years later, became the
wife of Valentinian III., ruler of the Western Empire.
The brothers of Eudocia richly deserved the resentment of the new
empress. They had fled from Athens when they heard of the elevation of
their despised sister, but she had them sought out and brought to
Constantinople. They entered into her presence trembling and
disconcerted; but instead of punishing them, as they felt they well
deserved, Eudocia received them in a friendly manner and forgave them
for their base conduct. Regarding them as the unconscious instruments of
her elevation, the new empress gave them part in some of the highest
offices of state.
Having become a Christian, Eudocia dedicated her talents to the honor of
religion and to the glory of her husband. She indited religious poems
which were the admiration of the age. She composed a poetical paraphrase
of the five books of Moses, of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and of the
prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. She devoted three books of verse to
the legend of Saint Cyprian, who was a martyr in the persecution
inaugurated by Diocletian. She wrote a panegyric on the Persian
victories of Theodosius; and there is extant from her pen a cento of
Homeric verse treating the life and miracles of Christ. She also
manifestly exerted a strong influence in the founding of the University
of Constantinople, if we judge from the preponderance of Greek chairs.
She also encouraged in every manner the cultivation of Greek letters;
and the support she gave to Greek poets and litterateurs gave umbrage to
the narrow religionists, who regarded everything Greek as pagan.
Eudocia, by her beauty and sprightliness, rapidly gained an ascendancy
over the weak but noble-hearted emperor, who had now two masters, his
sister and his wife. The new empress, in spite of her devotion to
religion, still retained some pagan leanings, and the monastic life of
the court began to undergo a change. Both the empress--sister and the
empress--wife were ladies of strong will, and Eudocia by degrees became
less sensitive to the gratitude she owed Pulcheria because of her
elevation. Hence, as each of the Augustæ endeavored to have her own way,
there arose discord in the imperial family. Intriguing courtiers and
bishops knew how to take advantage of the division of sentiment in the
royal household, and, while there was no public outbreak, the wheels of
government did not run so smoothly as when Pulcheria held uncontested
sway. The rivalry and dissension in the court between the two empresses
showed itself particularly in the religious controversies of the time,
and especially in the so-called Nestorian heresy regarding the dual
nature of Christ. Pulcheria throughout was opposed to Nestorianism, as
to every doctrine which flavored of Greek metaphysics, while Eudocia is
credited with being an advocate of the new doctrine. Cyril, the bishop
of Alexandria and the principal opponent of Nestorius, left no stone
unturned to win the favor and support of Pulcheria, while ecclesiastics
of the opposite party doubtless attempted the same with Eudocia.
The result of this conflict of opinion between the rival empresses was
that the policy of Theodosius was always wavering; he was consistent
neither in orthodoxy nor heterodoxy. At first a partisan of Nestorius,
he responded rather sharply to the appeals of Cyril; but he afterward
went over entirely to the opposite side--an indication that the
influence of Pulcheria was once more paramount.
Thus passed the first decade and a half of Eudocia's reign. Finally in
438 occurred an event of momentous interest to the entire Roman
world--the marriage of the princess Eudoxia with Valentinian III.,
Emperor of the West. As it seemed likely that Eudocia would never bear a
son to Theodosius, the union of the two reigning houses meant possibly
the reunion of the Empire under one emperor, should a son be born to the
newly married couple. Possibly feeling lonely after the marriage and
departure of her daughter; possibly tiring of the intrigues of the
court, Eudocia, with the concurrence of the emperor, shortly afterward
undertook a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem to discharge her vows and to
return thanks to the Deity for the welfare of her daughter.
Attended by a royal cortege of courtiers and eunuchs and slaves, the
Empress Eudocia set out on her journey. Her ostentatious progress
through the East hardly seems in keeping with the spirit of Christian
humility. One of the most impressive events of her journey was the
sojourn in Antioch, the metropolis of the Far East. Here she pronounced
to the senate, from a throne of gold, studded with precious gems, an
eloquent Greek oration, which was regarded as a marvel of Hellenic
rhetoric. In Antioch, probably far more than in Constantinople or
Alexandria, there was a hearty appreciation of Greek culture and art,
and many of the renowned rhetoricians of the day had in this city their
lecture halls, to which thronged enthusiastic students; and to the most
cultivated audience of the metropolis was granted the presence of an
empress glorying in her Athenian nativity, trained in all the rhetorical
art of the Greek, and combining in her own personality all that was most
pleasing in both pagan and Christian culture. The last words of
Eudocia's address--a quotation from Homer--are said to have occasioned
prolonged applause:
tautês toi geneês te kai aimatos euchonai einai--Iliad Z 211.
"I boast to be of your own race and blood."
Eudocia was also generous in her gifts to the city. She induced the
emperor to enlarge its walls, and herself bestowed upon it a donation of
two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public baths. She graciously
accepted the statues which were decreed to her in gratitude for her
munificence--a statue of gold erected in the Curia, and one of bronze in
the museum. To the empress, with her earlier love of the sacred
traditions of the city of the violet crown, her enthusiastic reception
in the most thoroughly Hellenized city of the Orient must have been a
most gratifying occurrence.
From Antioch the empress probably followed the pilgrims highway to the
Holy Land. There with doubly chastened soul the cultivated convert
visited the places hallowed by the Saviour's sufferings and glory. From
Bethlehem, where the Mother found shelter in a stable, and therein "in a
manger laid" the newborn Redeemer, to receive the adoration of the
shepherds, on through the country which the Lord travelled in His
mission, till finally she beheld Mount Calvary and looked upon the place
of the Sepulchre, now marked by the Christian temple raised by Helena.
Her presence brings to mind the visit of this Helena, the Emperor
Constantine's mother, one hundred years before, but the Greek matron
must have beheld it with very different emotions. She had been reared in
the philosophers' gardens of Athens, amid the glories of the Parthenon
and the many wonderful works of art which the Greek genius had created,
and in her new home in Constantinople she had not been altogether weaned
from the traditions of her youth. In glowing contrast to ancient Athens
she now saw a city whose prized monuments were the chapels erected on
spots rendered sacred by the footsteps of the Christ and the relics of
saints and martyrs. To this city she came as a Christian pilgrim, and
her devoutness of spirit showed that her heathen culture, in which she
took a pardonable pride, had been consecrated to the religion she
professed, and her endeavor to relieve the sufferings of the poor and
the unfortunate proved that she had learned the lesson of caring for
others from the example of the Master.
Her alms and pious foundations in the Holy Land exceeded even those of
the great Helena; and the destitute of the land had reason to be
grateful to the empress for her unbounded liberality. In return for her
zeal, she had the conscious satisfaction of returning to Constantinople
with some of the most sacred relics of the Church--the chains of Saint
Peter, the relics of Saint Stephen, and a portrait of the Virgin Mary,
reputed to be from the brush of Saint Luke. The first martyr's relics
were deposited with great ceremony in the chapel of Saint Laurence, and
the piety of the empress won for her the loving admiration of the devout
populace.
But this pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with its many tokens of the affection
of her subjects, and her triumphal return to the capital city, marks the
termination of the glory of the Athenian maiden as empress of the East.
Then began the rivalries and conflicts which finally brought about
Eudocia's downfall. To understand these we must first of all take into
consideration the difference of temperament of the two empresses.
Pulcheria was essentially Roman; Eudocia was essentially Greek.
Pulcheria belonged to the orthodox party which strictly condemned
everything which savored in the least degree of paganism; Eudocia
encouraged Greek art and letters and lent a friendly ear to the heresies
which were the product of Greek speculation. Pulcheria was puritanical
and austere in her manner of life, while Eudocia had a fondness for
dress and for the innocent gayeties of life which characterized the
women of her race. It was utterly impossible for two women of such
marked difference of temperament to live in perfect harmony under the
same roof.
Furthermore, during Eudocia's absence a new factor had entered
prominently into the life of the palace. The influence of the eunuchs,
which had been so marked during the reign of Arcadius, had not made
itself felt during the earlier years of Theodosius's reign, because of
the ascendency of the two women, but it gathered strength by degrees as
years passed. Antiochus was the first chamberlain to make himself
powerful, and upon his fall, the eunuch Chrysaphius, because of his
personal beauty and winning manner, won the favor of Theodosius and
acquired the art of bending the emperor to his will. Chrysaphius knew
also how to play the two empresses off against each other, so as to gain
his own ends.
It seems altogether probable that immediately after her return from
Jerusalem, the spouse of the emperor more than ever dominated the court
at Constantinople. An important indication of this was the prominence of
one of her favorites during the years 439-441--Cyrus of Panopolis, who
was a poet of renown, a "Greek" in faith, and a student of art and
literature. He won great popularity during his long tenure of office as
prefect of the city. He restored Constantinople on so magnificent a
scale, after it had experienced a disastrous earthquake, that the people
once cried out in the circus: "Constantine built the city, but Cyrus
renewed it."
The type of culture represented by Cyrus and Eudocia, and the manifest
sympathy between them, greatly offended the strictly orthodox, who
regarded it in the light of a Christian duty to sever all connection
with paganism, and who considered all tolerance of the Muses and Graces
of a more beautiful past to be a heinous sin. This religious party found
their ideal and their inspiration in Pulcheria, and she in consequence
became their natural leader. Hence, both their natural proclivities and
the zeal of their followers forced the two empresses into an attitude of
rivalry which could only be settled by the retirement or fall of one or
the other of them.
Shortly after her return it seems that Eudocia, in union with
Chrysaphius, succeeded in lessening the influence of Pulcheria. So
thoroughly did she control her weak but fond husband that Pulcheria
withdrew from the palace to the retirement of her villa at Hebdomon, and
it has even been asserted that Theodosius, at the request of his wife,
meditated making his sister take orders as a deaconess, so that she
would have to relinquish her secular power. Thus for a time Eudocia
experienced the keen delight of sole and uncontested power. But the
retirement of the Augusta, who had for so many years exercised the
paramount influence in the court, was the very step to arouse the
orthodox and to lead them to undertake every form of intrigue for the
ruin of Eudocia and the return of Pulcheria. The result was that, after
enjoying for a brief period the sole supremacy, Eudocia fell from the
loftiest heights of supreme authority into the deepest depths of
humiliation and sorrow.
The orthodox party, with a cleverness which discounted the aims of the
nobility, utilized the jealousy of Theodosius as the lever to overturn
the beautiful and talented empress. Paulinus had been the boyhood friend
of Theodosius, and their intimacy had grown with the passing of the
years. He had ardently approved the prince's determination to make the
Athenian maiden his wife, and had acted as his best man in the wedding
festivities. Owing to the affectionate relations between the two men,
Paulinus had enjoyed a free association with both emperor and empress,
unhindered by the restricting bonds of court etiquette; and his
relations with Eudocia were always of the most friendly and open-hearted
character. These relations the enemies of Eudocia seized upon for the
attainment of their ends, and their attempt succeeded only too well. It
is fitting to tell the story in the words of John Malalas, the earliest
chronicler who records it:
"It so happened," says the chronicler, "that as the Emperor Theodosius
was proceeding to the church _In Sanctis Theophaniis_, the master of
offices, Paulinus, being indisposed on account of an ailment in his
foot, remained at home and made an excuse. But a certain poor man
brought to Theodosius a Phrygian apple, of enormously large size, and
the emperor was surprised at it, and all his court. And straightway the
emperor gave one hundred and fifty nomismata to the man who brought the
apple, and sent it to Eudocia Augusta; and the Augusta sent it to
Paulinus, the master of offices, as being a friend of the emperor. But
Paulinus, not being aware that the emperor had sent it to the empress,
took it and sent it to the Emperor Theodosius, even as he was entering
the palace. And when the emperor received it, he recognized it and
concealed it. And having called Augusta, he questioned her, saying:
"'Where is the apple that I sent you?' And she said, 'I ate it.'--Then
he caused her to swear the truth by his salvation, whether she ate it or
sent it to some one; and she swore, 'I sent it unto no man, but ate it.'
And the emperor commanded the apple to be brought, and showed it to her.
And he was indignant against her, suspecting that she was enamored of
Paulinus, and sent him the apple and denied it. And on this account
Theodosius put Paulinus to death. And the Empress Eudocia was grieved,
and thought herself insulted, for it was known everywhere that Paulinus
was slain on account of her, for he was a very handsome young man. And
she asked the emperor that she might go the holy place to pray; and he
allowed her; and she went down from Constantinople to Jerusalem to
pray."
In the opinion of Gregorovius, Eudocia's apple of Phrygia eludes
interpretation as completely as Eve's apple of Eden, but Bury explains
the story as an example of Oriental metaphor. He recalls a parallel to
it in the Arabian Nights, and fancies that its germ may have been an
allegorical mode of expression in which someone covertly told the story
of the suspected intrigue. In Hellenistic romance the apple was a
conventional love gift, and when presented to a man by a woman signified
a declaration of love. Hence, as the basis of the tale was presumed to
be the amorous intercourse of Paulinus and the empress, we can conceive
one accustomed to Oriental allegory saying or writing that Eudocia had
given her precious apple to Paulinus, symbolizing thereby that she had
surrendered her chastity.
Such is the legend of the fall of the empress. All we know for certain
is that about this time a marked discord between husband and wife was
apparent, and that Paulinus, the emperor's boyhood friend and most
trusted confidant, was put to death by imperial order during the year
440.
History seems entitled to draw the conclusion that it was probably a
charge, whether true or false, of a criminal attachment between Eudocia
and Paulinus that led to the disgrace of the empress and the execution
of the minister; but the probabilities are all in favor of the innocence
of the Augusta. Eudocia had passed the age of forty when the breach with
her husband occurred, and Paulinus was an official of mature years. The
conduct of both had always been above reproach, and it was almost
inconceivable that either would have acted unbecomingly at this late
date.
For two or three years after the execution of Paulinus the empress
remained at court, under what circumstances and in just what relation to
the emperor we are not informed. It is evident, however, that her power
was gone. Feeling herself more and more relegated to the background, and
ever watched by hostile eyes, it was natural that she should find life
at Constantinople unbearable, and should long for a place where, far
from the turmoils and intrigues of the world, she might devote herself
to retirement and to pious practices. She therefore asked permission of
the emperor to be allowed to retire to Jerusalem and there pass the rest
of her life. After the tender bond of love which had for twenty years
united the Athenian maiden and the royal prince had once been violently
broken, there was no reason why her petition should be denied, and
Eudocia was granted the privilege of retiring to the sacred scenes whose
solitude and religious atmosphere had already appealed to her.
So, some years after her first visit to the holy city, Eudocia withdrew
thither for a permanent abode. But what a contrast had a few years
wrought! With what different emotions did she now visit the sacred
shrines! Then a beloved wife, a happy mother, an all-puissant empress!
Now a voluntary exile, a discredited wife, an empress but in name!
Theodosius left her her royal honors and abundant means for her station,
so that she could not only have a moderate establishment at Jerusalem,
but could also adorn the city with charitable institutions. Yet even
here the hatred of her enemies and the jealousy of the emperor followed
her. Though so far from Constantinople, court spies watched and reported
her every movement, and in their malignity they recounted to the emperor
such a slanderous picture of her life and doings that he, in the year
444, with newly awakened jealousy, had two holy men--the presbyter
Severus and the deacon John, who had been favorites of Eudocia in
Constantinople and had followed her to Jerusalem--executed by the order
of Saturninus, her chamberlain. This cruel deed, however, did not remain
unavenged, for Eudocia did not interfere when Saturninus, in a monkish
riot, or at the hands of hired murderers, lost his life. Theodosius
punished her for this with undue severity, by removing all the officers
who attended her and reducing her to private station.