The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-17
Theodore
The Contemporary Review.

The Contemporary Review.
Theodore was the daughter of q bear
keeper, attached to the Hippodrome at
Constantinople, and was n of three
sisters whom their mother sent on the
stage when they were still children ]
or 8 years old. With no talent either
for music OF 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 p%antomimes 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 il to have been more than
usually shameless and disgusting, but
the question, if delicately balanced less
or more, besides being now insolubley
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
in Egypt, found her way back to Con-
stantinople, where, according to a story
current long afterward in the city, she
sought to support herself by spinning
wool in a house near the edge of the
! Golden Horn. This looks like trying
to turn over a 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 Justiniun, who yielded at
once to her destinations. 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 we'll educated man,
already remarkable for his fondness
for theology and his assiduous attention
to public business. His passion leo
him to promise to marry the whilom
actress, but a law dating Gin substance,
from the time of Augustus, and re-en'
acted by later Emperors, forbade the
HulOl VI ocuhUOlS II utiO 49, "
exalted rank to women who had beer
on the stage. Nothing was left but t.
repeal the law, which the Emperor wa
compelled by the urgency OF his nephew
to do, and the statute may still be rea'
in the Corpus Juris which SO long he'll
sway over Continental Europe, q monu
I ment of Theodora's arts and Justinian'
i susceptibility. There had been, how
evor, q more serious obstacle to til
nuptials of the eager pair. The En-
press Euphemia was IN ignorant an
rustic person, who had risen in life to
( Late to acquire the polish Of the capita
: But she was pious, and she was respec
able to the backbone. She ha
$ probably heard of Theodora's earle
, fame, for the Court was like MOI
! Courts; anyhow she knew what Thee
q dora had been, and the idea OF he
! nephew marrying such a person WI
too shocking to be considered. Viii
> she lived she held out and kept HI
husband to his resistance; but when 81
. |, died he gave way, the law was repeale'
!. the marriage was solemnized, and whe
= in q few years the old Emperor die
Theodore was crowned along with h
: husband, and received the homage
the Senate, the priesthood and Il
people. A rise like this had new
- been seen before, not even in Consta
- tinople, and was never seen agal
- That such a person should have marie
: I'M Emperor was wonderful enoug
., % But that of all Emperors she shou
- have married Justinian, the studio
and pious Justinian-here was indie
~ matter for a hymn to Aphrodite. h
=. there been a poet to sing it.