The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-12-11
Theodore.
Tho Contemporary Review.

Tho Contemporary Review.
Theodore was tho daughter of bear
keeper, attached to the Hippodrome ut
Constantinople, and was one of three
sisters whom their mother sent on the
stage when they were still children
or 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 0o use the nearest
modern equivalent which delighted
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 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
stantinople, where, according to story
current long afterward ir the city, she
sought to support herself by spinning
wool in house near the edge of the
Golden Horn. This looks like trying
to turn over new leaf. However, she
did not conceal her charms. Encour-
aged by the words of an Oriental for
tune teller, who had promised her
wealth and power, she threw herself
in the way Of Justininn, who yielded at
once to her fascinations. He was then
about 40 years of age-probably some
twenty years her scnior--nephew of the
reigning Emperor, and gathering into
his hands the reins of Government
which we're beginning to slip from the
grasp of his aged and ignorant uncle.
He was an able and well-educated man,
already remarkable for his fondness
for theology and his assiduous attention
to public business. His passion led
him to promise to marry the whilom
actress, but law dating lin substance)
from the time of Augustus, and re-en-
acted by later Emperors, forbade the
union OF Senators and other persons oi
exalted rank to women who had beer
! on the stage. Nothing was left but tc
repeal the law, which the Emperor wa'
compelled by the urgency of his nephew
to do, and the statute may still be reaC
in the Corpus Juris which so long helC
, sway over Continental Europe, a monu
, ment OF Theodora's arts and Justinian.
III FVI,or, 1,oI
evor, more serious obstacle to th,
: : nuptiais OF the eager pair. The En-
press Euphemia was ar ignorant ant
, rustic person, who had risen in life to-
late to acquire the polish of the capital
But she was pious. and she was respect
able to the backbone. She ha,
: probably heard OF Theodora's Garlic
! fame, for the Court was like mos
Courts: anyhow she knew what Theo
dora had been, and the idea of he
! nephew marrying such q person wa
. too shocking to be considered. Will
she lived she held out and kept he
husband to his resistance; but when sh
died he gave way the law was repealed
the marriage was solemnized, and whe
y in a few years tie old Emperor died
Theodore was crowned along with he
| husband, and received the homage c
: the Senate, the priesthood and til
. people. A rise like this had ncve
= been seen before, not even in Constar
: tinpple, and was never seen agar
y That such person should have Marie
an Emperor was wonderful enough
!. But that Of ali Emperors she shout
. have married Justinian, The studiou
!, and pious Juatinian--here was ipdee
u matter for q hymn to ,phrodite, ha
= !, there been poet to sins it.