Surviving sources attribute to Empress Theodora (r. 842–856) a multitude of roles: she was the daughter of a provincial military officer, winner of a bride show, loving wife of an emperor, mother of seven children, enterprising ship-owner, widow, regent, nun, saint, and crypto-iconophile turned champion of the icons.1 Byzantine texts praise her most effusively for this latter role, as it was to be the pivotal achievement of her reign: she spearheaded the restoration of iconophile orthodoxy in 843 and concluded the protracted dispute over the use of religious images in devotion, the so-called Iconoclastic Controversy (726–843).2 A mid-ninth-century vita, for example, remarks that she was “… the aptly named Theodora,” because it was “she who was truly bestowed on the world by God as a divine gift of orthodoxy and who awarded total peace to the church….”3 Theodora’s motherhood, or more precisely her status as a widowed regent mother, undoubtedly facilitated her participation in the restoration of religious orthodoxy, and this chapter examines her role as a mother through a close examination of a handful of visual and textual representations.4 These include effigies stamped on gold coins and monumental inscriptions inlaid into a bronze door of Hagia Sophia during her lifetime, and a multilayered narrative incorporated into her posthumous vita. Not intended as a comprehensive survey of all visual and textual images of Theodora as a mother, this study demonstrates that these emphatic and highly public representations of Theodora’s motherhood emerged as responses to lurking threats to the exercise of imperial authority, dynastic continuity, and the volatility of the kinship system developed in the ranks of the elite in the early ninth century. As a result, Theodora’s representations helped to consolidate the authority of newly emerging dynasties in the ninth century, namely that of the Amorians (820–867) and the Macedonians (867–1056).
Theodora became empress when she married Theophilos (r. 829–842) in 830 after allegedly having been chosen in a bride show because of her exceptional beauty and comportment befitting an empress.5 Regardless of whether her selection in a beauty pageant is fact or fiction, this marriage clearly fits among the sustained attempts to create a family network within the military elite in the first half of the ninth century.6 Intricate kinship ties bound the families of Theophilos and Theodora to one another and to families of the elite. Theophilos’ imperial predecessors, Michael I Rhangabe (r. 811–813), Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820), and Michael II the Amorian (r. 820–829), did not come from imperial stock; their political rise is related to their service as military officers during the reign of Nikephoros I (r. 802–811) and to their complex kin network. Michael I was the son-in-law of Nikephoros, married to his daughter Prokopia at the time of his accession in 811. Michael I was deposed and followed by his own synteknos (godfather of one of his children) Leo V on the throne. Leo V was also godfather of Theophilos, the son of the next emperor, Michael II.7 The wife of Leo V, Theodosia, was the daughter of an influential official, Arsaber, who was even elevated as emperor in an ill-fated coup against Nikephoros.8 After the assassination of Leo V, his synteknos Michael II emerged as emperor. His first wife Thekla was the daughter of Bardanios Tourkos, another powerful general with imperial ambitions, who was allied with Leo and Michael.9 Michael II’s second wife was Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantine VI (r. 780–797) and granddaughter of the Empress Irene (r. 797–802).10 Theophilos, the son of Michael II and Thekla, became emperor upon the death of his father. Theophilos’ wife, Theodora, was the paternal niece of Manouel, who served as protostrator (equestrian official accompanying the emperor) during the reign of Michael I, and was strategos (general) under Leo V, Michael II, and Theophilos. Theodora’s father Marinos held the lower positions as tourmarches (military commander assisting the strategos) and droungarios (military rank below tourmarches) of Paphlagonia.11 During their 12-year marriage, Theodora and Theophilos had seven children: Constantine, Thekla, Anna, Anastasia, Maria, Pulcheria, and Michael.12 Their first son, Constantine, died young, and four of their daughters never married.13 After Theophilos’ premature death in 842, Theodora ruled as regent mother from 842 to 856 because his designated heir, Michael III, was only two years old when his father died.14 Clearly, the choice of Theodora as imperial bride was strongly motivated by the position of her family which included influential men of the military and bureaucracy, yet the bride show reported in several sources, including her vita, conceals the political reasons behind her selection.15 Women were important links among the families of the elite and imperial dynasties. Wives for emperors were selected either because of their ability to link the current ruler to the lineage of the previous dynasty or because they created a connection between the emperor and a powerful man of the military or bureaucracy.
Wife, Mother, and Widow: Visual Images of Theodora from Her Lifetime
Visual images of Theodora are significant because between the fall of Irene in 802 and the rise of the Macedonian Dynasty in 867 the effigies of Theodora and her daughters on coins and seals offer the only extant visual depictions of Byzantine imperial women in any medium. Coins and seals epitomize what one may describe as official imagery issued by the authority of the emperor. Although it is not clear what procedures were followed in designing coin and seal types and legends, and to what degree emperors, imperial family members, and advisors participated in this process, one may assume that rulers or their representatives would have been involved in decisions regarding new coin or seal designs.16 Theodora’s coin and seal images follow the iconography established for the numismatic representation of empresses by her predecessor, Irene.17 Yet, Theodora is never shown by herself on coins or seals: her images emphatically stress her roles as wife and mother.
The rare solidus of Theodora’s husband Theophilos (Fig. 1) carries an extensive family portrait: Theophilos, Theodora, and their daughter Thekla appear on the obverse and the daughters Anna and Anastasia on the reverse.18 Its iconography draws on coins minted by the Isaurian Dynasty (717–802) which often show multiple generations on a single coin, yet the selection of figures is unusual: imperial wives have not been shown on Byzantine coins since the mid-seventh century and images of daughters were typically not included on the coinage.19 It is difficult to contextualize this coin issue because the extant evidence does not permit a clear understanding of the order in which the children were born.20 Since only three of the seven imperial children appear on this issue, most scholars agree that it was minted after the deaths of the first son Constantine and his sister Maria and before the birth of the second son Michael, thus between 838 and 840.21 However, no scholarly consensus has been reached regarding the occasion that prompted the minting of these coins.22 Irrespective of the specific occasion for the issue, its message is clear: it emphasizes the importance of Theophilos’ family, celebrates Theodora’s motherhood even in the absence of a son, and establishes a hierarchy between the daughters, with Thekla granted greatest prominence. Theophilos’ crowded family portrait literally frames the emperor and his authority with women of his family: his wife and daughters cluster around his central figure.23 Therefore, Theophilos’ power is closely associated with his marriage, parenthood, and family: Theodora is presented as a fecund mother and the daughters are promoted as embodiments of dynastic stability and as potential carriers of the imperial bloodline through future marriages. The coins address concerns about dynastic stability and succession and convey the image of a healthy, vigorous, and bountiful imperial family. Given the volatility of imperial power in the first two decades of the ninth century, when five emperors came and went in quick succession, it is clear that Theophilos sought to establish stable dynastic succession following the model of the Isaurian emperors and women were of key importance for this enterprise. Moreover, considering the ephemeral and disastrous nature of the spiritual kinship ties forged among his male imperial predecessors who were bound to one another as synteknoi, Theophilos emphasized the greater permanence of blood ties created by the women in his family. Theodora’s fruitful motherhood, therefore, was cast as highly beneficial for the dynasty and was presented as a source of authority for herself and her husband. Although these coins were most likely not distributed widely, they probably circulated within the capital and among members of the imperial court and the elite who would have been awa...