# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Eudocia, Athenian sophist and philosopher

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EUDOCIA,
Whose name was originally Athenais, was the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist and philosopher. She was born about 393, and very carefully educated by her father. Her progress in every branch of learning was uncommon and rapid. Her father, proud of her great beauty and attainments, persuaded himself that the merit of Athenais would be a sufficient dowry. With this conviction, he divided, on his death-bed, his estate between his two sons, bequeathing his daughter only one hundred pieces of gold.
Less sanguine in the power of her charms, Athenais appealed at first to the equity and affection of her brothers; finding this in vain, she took refuge with an aunt of hers, and commenced a legal process against her brothers. In the progress of the suit, Athenais was carried by her aunts to Constantinople. Theodosius the Second at this time divided with his sister Pulcheria the care of the empire; and to Pulcheria the aunts of Athenais appealed for justice. The beauty and intellect of the young Greek interested Pulcheria, who contrived that her brother should see her and hear her converse, without being himself seen. Her slender and graceful figure, the regularity of her features, her fair complexion, golden hair, large blue eyes, and musical voice, completely enraptured the young king. He had her instructed in the principles of the Greek church, which she embraced, and was baptized, in 421, by the name of Eudocia. She was then married to the emperor amid the acclamations of the capital, and after the birth of a daughter, received the surname of Augusta.
Amidst the luxuries of a court, the empress continued to preserve her studious habits. She composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the New Testament; also of the prophecies of Daniel and Zachariah; to these she added a canto of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of Christ; the legend of St. Cyprian; and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius.
"Her writings," says Gibbon, "which were applauded by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by the candour of impartial criticism."
After the birth of her daughter, Eudocia requested permission to discharge her grateful vows, by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In her progress through the East, she pronounced, from a throne of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the Senate of Antioch, to whom she declared her intention of enlarging the walls of the city, and assisting in the restoration of the public baths. For this purpose she allotted two hundred pounds of gold. Her alms and ​munificence in the Holy Land exceeded that of the great Helena. She returned to Constantinople, covered with honours, and laden with pious relics.
Ambition now awoke in the heart of Eudocia; aspiring to the government of the empire, she contended for power with the princess, her benefactress, whom she sought to supplant in the confidence of the emperor. But, in 445, an unlucky accident exposed her to the emperor's jealousy. He had given her an apple of extraordinary size, which she sent to Paulinus, whom she esteemed on account of his learning. Paulinus, not knowing whence it came, presented it to the emperor, who soon after asked the empress what she had done with it. She, fearing his anger, told him that she had eaten it. This made the emperor suspect that there was too great an intimacy between her and Paulinus, and, producing the apple, he convicted her of falsehood.
The influence of Pulcheria triumphed over that of the empress, who found herself unable to protect her most faithful adherents: she witnessed the disgrace of Cyrus, the praetorian prefect, which was followed by the execution of Paulinus, whose great personal beauty and intimacy with the empress, had excited the jealousy of Theodosius.
Perceiving that her husband's affections were irretrievably alienated, Eudocia requested permission to retire to Jerusalem, and consecrate the rest of her life to solitude and religion; but the vengeance of Pulcheria, or the jealousy of Theodosius, pursued her even in her retreat. Stripped of the honours due to her rank, the empress was disgraced in the eyes of the surrounding nations. This treatment irritated and exasperated her, and led her to commit acts unworthy her profession as a Christian or a philosopher. But the death of the emperor, the misfortunes of her daughter, and the approach of age, gradually calmed her passions, and she passed the latter part of her life in building churches, and relieving the poor.
Some writers assert that she was reconciled to Theodosius, and returned to Constantinople during his life; others, that she was not recalled till after his death. However this may be, she died at Jerusalem, about 460, at the age of sixty-six, solemnly protesting her innocence with her dying breath. In her last moments she displayed great composure and piety.
During her power, magnanimously forgetting the barbarity of her brothers, she promoted them to the rank of consuls and prefects: observing their confusion on being summoned to the imperial presence, she said, "Had you not compelled me to visit Constantinople, I should never have had it in my power to bestow on you these marks of sisterly affection."