Blönnigen, Agnes
30.03.2025
Blönnigen, Agnes (2025). Theodora I. – Dämonin oder würdige Kaiserin? Zur Ambivalenz einer byzantinischen Frau. Ars docendi, 22, marzo 2025.
In his Anekdota and his Bella, Procopius, a historian in the 6th century AD, repeatedly reports anecdotes and stories about Theodora I, empress and wife of the then emperor Justinian I. The ambivalence of her personality is striking: sometimes she presents herself as a dignified empress, but sometimes Procopius also portrays her as a demon who is unjustly in power. The extent to which this fits together and whether a complete picture of the empress nevertheless emerges is analyzed in the following paper. Mrs Blönnigen is a research assistant at the Catholic University of Eichstätt.
In his Anekdota and his Bella, Procopius, a historian in the 6th century AD, repeatedly reports anecdotes and stories about Theodora I, empress and wife of the then emperor Justinian I. The ambivalence of her personality is striking: sometimes she presents herself as a dignified empress, but sometimes Procopius also portrays her as a demon who is unjustly in power. The extent to which this fits together and whether a complete picture of the empress nevertheless emerges is analyzed in the following paper. Mrs Blönnigen is a research assistant at the Catholic University of Eichstätt.
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