The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-06-19
Theodore.
The Contemporary Review.

The Contemporary Review.
Theodore was the daughter of bear
keeper, attached to the Hippodrome at
Constantinople, and was one of three
sisters whom their mother sent on the
stage when they were still children 7
or s years old. With no talent either
for music or dancing, her fortune was
IN her face and her tongue. Her pretty
features, her nimble movements, her
audacious smartness in repartee, made
her the most popular and notorious in
the pantomimes Ito use the nearest
modern equivalent which delighted a
people whose taste had fallen below the
regular drama. Needless to say what
was the morality of the Byzantine
stage, or what was the life the young
actress led. Her enemies of later years
declared it to have been more than
usually shameless and disgusting, but
the question, if delicately balanced less
or more, besides being now insolu5le, |
need make little difference to our view
of her character. After some years she |
accompanied a wealthy Tyrian, as his |
mistress, to the Governorship of Trip
oil; quarreled with him, left him, and
after having been reduced to sad straits
i'll Egypt, found her way back to Con-
stantlnople, where, according to story
long afterward in the city, she
ought to support herself by spinning
wool in house near the edge of the
Golden Horn. This looks like irving
to turn over new leaf However, she
lid not conceal her charms Encour-
aged by the words of an Oriental for
June teller, who had promised her
wealth and power, she threw herself
n the way of Justiniln, who yielded at
,nce to her destinations. He was then
bout 40 years of age-probably some
wenty years her senior-nephew of the =,
eigning Emperor, and gathering into :
rs hands the reins of Government
which we're beginning to slip from the :.
rasp of his aged and ignorant uncle.
lie was an able and we'll educated man, =.
lready remarkable for his fondness >
Or theology and his assiduous attention :
} public business His passion led 4
i'm to promise to marry the whilom =
ctress, but a law dating (n substance)
ON the time of Augustus, and re-en-
,ted by later Emperors, forbade the 4,
MON OF Senators and other persons of Al
lalted rank to women who had been
! the stage. Nothing was left but to q. a.
peal the law, which the Emperor was "
mpelled by the urgency of his nephew =, 49,
do, and the statute may still be read ~.
the Corpus Juris which so long held &c
ray over Continental Europe, a monu- LII
emit of Theodora's arts and Justinian's
sceptibIlity. There had been, how do
or, more serious obstacle to the -
pitfalls of the eager pair. The EN- ~
ess Euphemia was an ignorant and
site person, who had risen in life too
10 to acquire the polish of the capital. .
it she was pious, and she was respect a"
lie to the backbone. She had sei
obably heard OF Theodora's earlier sy,l
ne, for the Court was like most WI
urts; anyhow she knew what Theo- D.,
"a had been, and the idea of her IL
ohew marrying such person was w
shocking to be considered. While
} lived she held out and kept her ~
'band to his resistance; but when she re
d he gave way, the law was repealed, e eu'
marriage was solemnized, and when &c
| few years the old Emperor died, 'n1
eodora was crowned along with her -
band, and received the homage of VII
Senate, the priesthood and the
pie. A rise like this had never in r
n seen before, not even in Constan- !
'ple, and was never seen again. Jouu
It such person should have married TN,
Emperor was wonderful enough. aa n'
that Of all Emperors she should SUI -
g married Justinian, the studious -
pious Justinian-here was indeed nUtl
ter for hymn to Aphrodite, had WI Il
o been q poet to sing it. Hasi