As for the manner in which she treated Belisarius, Photius, and Buzes,
I have already spoken of it at the commencement of this work.
Two Cilicians, belonging to the Blue faction, during a mutiny, laid
violent hands upon Callinicus, governor of the second Cilicia, and
slew his groom, who was standing near him, and endeavoured to defend
his master, in the presence of the governor and all the people.
Callinicus condemned them to death, since they had been convicted of
several other murders besides this. When Theodora heard of this, in
order to show her devotion to the party of the Blues, she ordered that
the governor, while he still held office, should be crucified in the
place where the two offenders had been executed, although he had
committed no crime. The Emperor, pretending that he bitterly lamented
his loss, remained at home, grumbling and threatening all kinds of
vengeance upon the perpetrators of the deed. He did nothing, however;
but, without scruple, appropriated the property of the dead man to his
own use. Theodora likewise devoted her attention to punishing those
women who prostituted their persons. She collected more than five
hundred harlots, who sold themselves for three obols in the
market-place, thereby securing a bare subsistence, and transported
them to the other side of the Bosphorus, where she shut them up in the
Monastery of Repentance, with the object of forcing them to change
their manner of life. Some of them, however, threw themselves from the
walls during the night, and in this manner escaped a change of life so
contrary to their inclinations.
There were at Byzantium two young sisters, illustrious not only by the
consulships of their father and grandfather, but by a long descent of
nobility, and belonging to one of the chief families of the Senate.
They had married early and lost their husbands. Theodora, charging
them with living an immoral life, selected two debauchees from the
common people and designed to make them their husbands. The young
widows, fearing that they might be forced to obey, took refuge in the
church of St. Sophia, and, approaching the sacred bath, clung closely
to the font. But the Empress inflicted such privations and cruel
treatment upon them, that they preferred marriage in order to escape
from their immediate distress. In this manner Theodora showed that she
regarded no sanctuary as inviolable, no spot as sacred. Although
suitors of noble birth were ready to espouse these ladies, they were
married against their will to two men, poor and outcast, and far below
them in rank. Their mother, who was a widow like themselves, was
present at the marriage, but did not venture to cry out or express her
sorrow at this atrocious act. Afterwards, Theodora, repenting of what
she had done, endeavoured to console them by promoting their husbands
to high offices to the public detriment. But even this was no
consolation to these young women, for their husbands inflicted
incurable and insupportable woes upon almost all their subjects, as I
will describe later; for Theodora paid no heed to the dignity of the
office, the interests of the State, or any other consideration,
provided only she could accomplish her wishes.
While still on the stage, she became with child by one of her friends,
but did not perceive her misfortune until it was too late. She tried
all the means she had formerly employed to procure abortion, but she
was unable prematurely to destroy the living creature by any means
whatsoever, since it had nearly assumed the form of a human being.
Therefore, finding her remedies unsuccessful, she abandoned the
attempt, and was obliged to bring forth the child. Its father, seeing
that Theodora was at a loss what to do, and was indignant because, now
that she had become a mother, she was no longer able to traffic with
her person as before, and being with good reason in fear for the
child's life, took it up, named it John, and carried it away with him
to Arabia, whither he had resolved to retire. The father, just before
his death, gave John, who was now grown up, full information
concerning his mother.
John, having performed the last offices for his dead father, some time
afterwards repaired to Byzantium, and explained the state of affairs
to those who were charged with the duty of arranging admission to an
audience with the Empress. They, not suspecting that she would
conceive any inhuman designs against him, announced to the mother the
arrival of her son. She, fearing that the report might reach the ears
of the Emperor, ordered her son to be brought to her. When she saw him
approaching, she went to meet him and handed him over to one of her
confidants, whom she always intrusted with commissions of this kind.
In what manner the unfortunate youth disappeared I cannot say. He has
never been seen to this day--not even after his mother's death.
At that time the morals of women were almost without exception
corrupt. They were faithless to their husbands with absolute licence,
since the crime of adultery brought neither danger nor harm upon them.
When convicted of the offence, they escaped punishment, thanks to the
Empress, to whom they immediately applied. Then, getting the verdict
quashed on the ground that the charges were not proved, they in turn
accused their husbands, who, although not convicted, were condemned to
refund twice the amount of the dower, and, for the most part, were
flogged and led away to prison, where they were permitted to look upon
their adulterous wives again, decked out in fine garments and in the
act of committing adultery without the slightest shame with their
lovers, many of whom, by way of recompense, received offices and
rewards. This was the reason why most husbands afterwards put up with
unholy outrages on the part of their wives, and gladly endured them
in silence in order to escape the lash. They even afforded them every
opportunity to avoid being surprised.
Theodora claimed complete control of the State at her sole discretion.
She appointed magistrates and ecclesiastical dignitaries. Her only
care and anxiety was--and as to this she made the most careful
investigation--to prevent any office being given to a good and
honourable man, who might be prevented by his conscience from
assisting her in her nefarious designs.
She ordered all marriages as it were by a kind of divine authority;
men never made a voluntary agreement before marriage. A wife was found
for each without any previous notice, not because she pleased him (as
is generally the case even amongst the barbarians) but because
Theodora so desired it. Brides also had to put up with the same
treatment, and were obliged to marry husbands whom they did not
desire. She often turned the bride out of bed herself, and, without
any reason, dismissed the bridegroom before the marriage had been
consummated, merely saying, in great anger, that she disapproved of
her. Amongst others whom she treated in this manner was Leontius the
"referendary," and Saturninus, the son of Hermogenes the late Master
of Offices, whom she deprived of their wives. This Saturninus had a
young maiden cousin of an age to marry, free-born and modest, whom
Cyrillus, her father, had betrothed to him after the death of
Hermogenes. After the bridal chamber had been made ready and
everything prepared, Theodora imprisoned the youthful bridegroom, who
was afterwards conducted to another chamber, and forced, in spite of
his violent lamentations and tears, to wed the daughter of
Chrysomallo. This Chrysomallo had formerly been a dancer and a common
prostitute, and at that time lived with another woman like her, and
with Indaro, in the palace, where, instead of devoting themselves to
phallic worship and theatrical amusements, they occupied themselves
with affairs of State together with Theodora.
Saturninus, having lain with his new wife and discovered that she had
already lost her maidenhead, informed one of his friends that his wife
was no virgin. When this reached the ears of Theodora, she ordered the
servants to hoist him up, like a boy at school, upbraiding him with
having behaved too saucily and having taken an unbecoming oath. She
then had him severely flogged on the bare back, and advised him to
restrain his talkative tongue for the future.
In my former writings I have already related her treatment of John of
Cappadocia, which was due to a desire to avenge personal injuries, not
to punish him for offences against the State, as is proved by the fact
that she did nothing of the kind in the case of those who committed
far greater cruelties against their subjects. The real cause of her
hatred was, that he ventured to oppose her designs and accused her to
the Emperor, so that they nearly came to open hostilities. I mention
this here because, as I have already stated, in this work I am bound
to state the real causes of events. When, after having inflicted upon
him the sufferings I have related, she had confined him in Egypt, she
was not even then satisfied with his punishment, but was incessantly
on the look out to find false witnesses against him. Four years
afterwards, she succeeded in finding two of the Green faction who had
taken part in the sedition at Cyzicus, and were accused of having been
accessory to the assault upon the Bishop. These she attacked with
flattery, promises, and threats. One of them, alarmed and inveigled by
her promises, accused John of the foul crime of murder, but the other
refused to utter falsehoods, although he was so cruelly tortured that
he seemed likely to die on the spot. She was, therefore, unable to
compass the death of John on this pretext, but she caused the young
men's right hands to be chopped off--that of the one because he
refused to bear false witness; that of the other, to prevent her
intrigue becoming universally known, for she endeavoured to keep
secret from others those things which were done in the open
market-place.