Theodora (Civ6)/Civilopedia

A former actress (and brothel worker), Theodora (c. 500-548) rose to hold a powerful influence over her husband, the Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire. She was instrumental in fortifying what would become Orthodox Christianity and in building the backbone of the Byzantines in an era of collapse elsewhere in the Empire.
The early first millennium AD was a difficult one for the Byzantines. With the West splintered into hundreds of smaller kingdoms, the East rich but full of potential enemies, and the North still full of potentially dangerous barbarian tribes, Constantinople needed a vision for a path forward. And Justinian (r. 527-565) provided that path.
The Eastern Roman Empire was divided on several grounds – linguistically, between Greek and Latin, religiously, between Chalcedonian and Miaphysite branches of Christianity, between various classes within the cities, and regionally. Justinian embarked upon the Renovatio Imperii, the “restoration of the Empire”, a reconquest and solidification campaign involving expansion against enemies on all sides – those groups who were dismantling the Western Roman Empire. Significantly, this meant the reconquest of Italy and Spain, as well as the barbarian kingdoms of the Vandals in North Africa. At home, Justinian wrote a code of laws to stand the test of time until the present, and (using money gained by the reconquest of the West) built wonders in the capital, such as the Hagia Sophia.
Theodora was a Greek, the daughter of a bear trainer in Constantinople. She enters history working in a brothel as an actress performing relatively salacious shows, and grew close with a group of dancers from the Blue faction – a chariot-racing team. In essence, cheerleaders. From there, Theodora caught Justinian’s eye, so much so that he amended the law prohibiting high-ranking individuals from marrying actresses, after which he promptly married her.
Her first test came in the Nika riots, a conflict between Blue and Green chariot fans that nearly destroyed Constantinople. When Justinian and his councilors were preparing to flee the capital as the mobs descended into anarchy, Theodora appealed to his sense of authority – to flee would be worse than death, she said, or, more poetically, “royal purple is the noblest shroud.”
The gambit was successful – Justinian cracked down on the riots and re-established his power. From there, Theodora was always at his side, and her influence can be seen in his reforms of marriage codes, her own charity towards young women and girls born into situations similar to her own, and in constant court machinations.
Religiously, she clashed with her husband, promoting Miaphysite Christianity at a time when it was being actively suppressed. The difference between the two branches may seem obscure now, but it was a matter of life and death in the 500s. In essence, at the Council of Chalcedon, priests had decreed that Jesus was one person with a separate human and divine nature, whereas Miaphysites held that he had but one nature, one that was both fully human and fully divine. Today, Miaphysite philosophy forms the core of Ethiopian Christianity, whereas Chalcedonian philosophy informs both Catholicism (and Protestantism) and Eastern Orthodoxy (Greece and Russia).
Before her death at the likely age of 48, Theodora helped to keep a poly-religious, poly-ethnic (Justinian spoke Latin, whereas Theodora was Greek) state intact at a moment when it could very well have spiraled out of control. This is, in a sense, the old order of things that would become less broad and more narrowly focused as the forces chipping away at Byzantium grew stronger and provoked more and more stubborn responses – as in the reign of Basil II.