Author’s Note
I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE THEODOSIAN WOMEN—Pulcheria, Athenais, and Placidia—many years ago, when writing my first book, Selene of Alexandria, which featured a fictional student of the historical Hypatia, Lady Philosopher of Alexandria. While researching the life and times of Hypatia, I kept running across these great women who ruled the failing Western Roman Empire and set the stage for the rise of the Byzantine Empire in the East.
It wasn’t just the dry fact of their power; they each had compelling human stories. Pulcheria outwitted the Constantinople court worthies to claim sole regency over her brother and the Empire at the tender age of fifteen. Athenais, the beautiful but impoverished daughter of a pagan Athenian scholar, captured the heart of a Most Christian Emperor. Placidia, held hostage for five years by the Goths, married their king for love. Why hadn’t I heard of these women before?
I originally planned a single book, telling their intertwining stories, but soon found I had far too much material. Each woman deserved her own story. This is the second in a set of three books about the Theodosian women. Twilight Empress (Book One), about Placidia, came out in 2017. I hope to finish the book on Athenais in the next couple of years.
Throughout the series I attempt to stay close to known historical facts. Dates for wars, births, deaths, Church convocations, etc. are generally known. Quoted letters and sermons are shortened and the language somewhat modernized, but they come from primary sources. However, the fifth century was a notoriously chaotic time, as the Roman Empire reeled under repeated attacks by barbarians and failed leadership over the course of several decades. Primary sources are scant, lean heavily toward Church documents rather than secular historians, and are sometimes contradictory. Primary historians discussed Theodosius II’s paternity settling on a mysterious “Count John” as their favorite candidate for baby daddy. Did Arcadius know or believe his wife unfaithful? Was she? We have no way of knowing. Modern scholars occasionally interpret the primary sources differently. Where there is disagreement, I chose the interpretation that best suited my story.
Most of the fun personal incidents used to color this story are attested to and accepted by most people as true. Pulcheria most likely tricked Theodosius into selling his wife to her as a slave. The army probably discovered three protective silver statues at the Hunnish border and demanded their return. Honoria did send a ring to Attila the Hun and ask for his “protection.”
But did King Gaeseric of the Vandals tell Marcian he would be Emperor? Did the Virgin Mary save young Theodosius from assassination and protect the walls of Constantinople prior to Attila’s invasion? Those stories, along with “the Golden Apple of Discord” that brought about Athenais’ downfall, are likely apocryphal. Where the Virgin Mary appeared, I created less miraculous source material for the story, substituting Pulcheria for the Virgin Mary in a way that the legend could grow from the facts. There is no historical basis for that substitution—just artistic license.
I left the “Golden Apple of Discord” pretty much as told, because it tickled me. Most historians consider the story apocryphal because variations exist in several histories about other people. There was even one in which Theodosius presented the apple to Pulcheria and she sent it to her lover Marcian, whom she would shortly marry and raise to be Emperor. That version shows up as one of the “vicious rumors and graffiti” Pulcheria fought against after her marriage to Marcian.
A popular story—sometimes repeated as history—is a sweet romance telling how Athenais met Theodosius. Supposedly, when her father died, he left his money to his sons and told the beautiful Athenais her face would be her fortune. She sued her brothers for her share of the inheritance taking her complaint to the imperial court, where Pulcheria heard her argue so eloquently she thought the girl a fit consort for her brother. Pulcheria introduced Athenais to Theodosius; they fell in love and married shortly after. Given the politics of the times and the animosity between the two women, most historians believe this story is a fable circulated for the masses. This is another case where I took literary license to fill in the unknown with a more likely political motivation and outcome. How close I came to truth is unknowable.
Because I covered nearly fifty years in the book, I necessarily limited the number of historical characters. Anthemius and his son Isidorus stand in for a multitude of courtiers of the “Hellene” faction in the ever-changing world of politics. Likewise, General Ardaburius and his son General Aspar represent the military. They were both at all the battles where I placed them and earned all the honors I gave them but their personal and political relationships with the imperial family are unknown.
My biggest challenge was simplifying the early Church battles over doctrine. What was to become the Catholic Church (and later the Eastern Orthodox Church in Byzantium) was in its infancy but gaining enormous political power. Six different archbishops served in Constantinople during Placidia’s political life with hundreds of others in sees across the Eastern empire. Philosophical differences over the meaning of a single word from much copied/translated early gospels sprouted into internecine religious warfare, resulting in accusations of heresy, ecumenical trials, excommunications, and frequently violence and riots among the faithful. I sympathized with a ruler’s impatience with such turmoil and the need to impose their will on the Church to have peace in the land. Both Constantine the Great and Pulcheria Augusta influenced the early direction of Christianity in profound ways. But those struggles don’t always make for fun reading, so please forgive me for losing the nuance in very complicated religious controversies.
History has generally treated Pulcheria more kindly than her Aunt Placidia (Twilight Empress), who ruled in the failing West. Primary sources (mostly churchmen) admired Pulcheria’s asceticism and good works. They considered Pulcheria an excellent role model of a Christian woman and ruler and found Placidia’s more conventional secular rule less satisfactory. The particularly lauded Pulcheria for her efforts to enforce orthodoxy and rout out heresies at the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. Aelia Pulcheria Augusta is recognized as a saint by both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
It’s the novelist’s job to create interesting characters that would plausibly do the things that history says they did. I wanted to go beyond the halo awarded Pulcheria. Even saints have flaws and make mistakes. Her religiosity—considered extreme in our modern Western world, where religious fanaticism is usually feared—makes it difficult for some people to sympathize with Pulcheria. After much study, I saw a fierce and brilliant woman, scarred by a lonely, frightening childhood, who used the levers of power available to her in a time when women—even imperial women—had little power over their lives. Pulcheria secured her brother’s reign, insured her own and her sister’s independence, and cared for her people with her own sweat and riches. She put her stamp on the early Christian Church, influencing its direction more than any other woman (and most men) for centuries before and after. Her fusion of government and Church signaled the dawn of the Byzantine Empire, which continued for a thousand years after the “fall” of Western Rome.
I hope I humanized Aelia Pulcheria Augusta, a fascinating woman, empress, and saint.
Brooklyn, NY
March 2020
P.S. I would love to hear from you about your reactions to the story and characters. You can write me at faith@faithljustice.com. Although my daughter had to drag me into the social media scene, you can also find me on Twitter (@faithljustice) and Facebook. Tell me what you liked, what you loved, even what you hated.
Finally, I need to ask a favor. I’d love a review of Dawn Empress. Please give your feedback at your favorite book review sharing site. No need for a literary critique—just a couple of sentences on what you liked/didn’t like and why. Reviews can be tough to come by these days and having them (or not) can make or break a book. So, I hope you share your opinion with others.
As my gift to you, stop by my website and pick up a free eBook. Angel of the Marshes tells the backstory of the character that helped Placidia take back Ravenna in a bloodless coup. Primary writers of the time said “The Lord sent an angel to guide her armies through the marshes.” Was he an angel? Or more of a scamp?
Thank you for reading Dawn Empress.