Author: Adelaide L. Rouse
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Author: David Potter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199392390
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Two of the most famous mosaics from the ancient world, in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, depict the sixth-century emperor Justinian and, on the wall facing him, his wife, Theodora (497-548). This majestic portrait gives no inkling of Theodora's very humble beginnings or her improbable rise to fame and power. Raised in a family of circus performers near Constantinople's Hippodrome, she abandoned a successful acting career in her late teens to follow a lover whom she was legally forbidden to marry. When he left her, she was a single mother who built a new life for herself as a secret agent, in which role she met the heir to the throne. To the shock of the ruling elite, the two were married, and when Justinian assumed power in 527, they ruled the Eastern Roman Empire together. Their reign was the most celebrated in Byzantine history, bringing wealth, prestige, and even Rome itself back to the Empire. Theodora was one of the dominant political figures of her era, helping shape imperial foreign and domestic policy and twice saving her husband from threatened deposition. She played a central role trying to solve the religious disputes of her era and proactively assisted women who were being trafficked. An extraordinarily able politician, she excited admiration and hatred from those around her. Enemies wrote extensively and imaginatively about her presumed early career as a prostitute, while supporters elevated her, quite literally, to sainthood. Theodora's is a tale of a woman of exceptional talent who overcame immense obstacles to achieve incredible power, which she exercised without ever forgetting where she had come from. In Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, David Potter penetrates the highly biased accounts of her found in the writings of her contemporaries and takes advantage of the latest research on early Byzantium to craft a modern, well-rounded, and engaging narrative of Theodora's life. This fascinating portrait will intrigue all readers with an interest in ancient and women's history.

Author: Cassiodorus
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520389700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Cassiodorus—famed throughout history as one of the great Christian exegetes of antiquity—spent most of his life as a high-ranking public official under the Ostrogothic King Theoderic and his heirs. He produced the Variae, a unique letter collection that gave witness to the sixth-century Mediterranean, as late antiquity gave way to the early middle ages. The Variae represents thirty years of Cassiodorus’s work in civil, legal, and financial administration, revealing his interactions with emperors and kings, bishops and military commanders, private citizens, and even criminals. Thus, the Variae remains among the most important sources for the history of this pivotal period and is an indispensable resource for understanding political and diplomatic culture, economic and legal structure, intellectual heritage, urban landscapes, religious worldview, and the evolution of social relations at all levels of society during the twilight of the late-Roman state. This is the first full translation of this masterwork into English.

Author: William James
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American letters
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Author: William James
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465575006
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 885

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"This book provides a chronological presentation and explanation of letters by William James from 1893-1910. Readers of this book will have seen that the center of his interest had always been religious and philosophical"--Create. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Author: Senator Cassiodorus
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Goths
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Author: Theodora O'Hare
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: David Stone Potter
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199740763
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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An authoritative portrait of one of the ancient world's most intriguing and powerful women.Despite very humble beginnings, Theodora rose to become empress of the Byzantine Empire at the acme of its power and influence. Raised in a family of circus performers in Constantinople, she later caught the attention of the future emperor Justinian while performing as a courtesan. The two weremarried soon thereafter, to the shock of the ruling elite. When Justinian assumed power in AD 527, they ruled the Empire together until her death twenty years later.Their reign was the most celebrated in Byzantine history, bringing wealth, prestige, and even much of the Italian peninsula back to the Empire. As Justinian's most trusted advisor, she discernibly influenced his rule. Her interest in social causes, for example, is seen in added legal protections forwomen and the lower classes. Theodora's most lasting impact was her unwavering support for the Christian sect of Monophysitism. Although her husband was orthodox, Theodora maintained her religious independence at considerable risk to herself. In Syria today, where the sect still thrives, she isrevered as a saint.In Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, renowned historian David Potter provides a fresh new account of her fascinating life and times. He penetrates the highly biased writings of her contemporaries and takes advantage of the latest research on early Byzantium to craft the most authoritative andengaging biography of Theodora to date. It will be of interest to all readers of women's history and ancient history.

Author: Emma Marshall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Author: Theodora Benson
Publisher: British Library Women Writers
ISBN: 9780712353984
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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'There was no one in the room. Blinds and curtains were closed; the light of the skies, if any, was shut out. ... Only the fire was alive, consuming its life--for what? Then the door opened and as Claudia came with hurried steps into the fire's glow, two open letters in her hand, the telephone began ringing. She shut the door and turned up the lights.' Claudia Heseltine returns to this moment three times in a series of parallel narratives. As the novel presses the re-set button, she accepts each invitation, one by telephone, two by letter, to a specific social event, and in doing so her life goes down a different path with its own possibilities and achievements, sorrows, and disappointments. This is an inventive novel, published in 1931, which contemplates the consequences of a single decision. Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1960s, offering escapism, popular appeal, and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise and inform.