Theodora

“First rate popular history/biography, evoking the Byzantine empire at its peak. A remarkable story in an entertaining, informative book.” —The Wall Street Journal

This is the biography of a Byzantine courtesan who rose from the gutter to the throne of an empire. It is a romantic and improbable story, and Theodora is an extraordinary woman, indeed. Her background and her many actions were scandalous, but she had qualities of greatness and this book sets the record straight. This account of her life is a pageant in which Emperors and barbarian kings, Popes and Patriarchs, eunuchs and generals, heretics and orthodox opponents, charioteers and ladies of easy virtue, saints and sinners move in a formal and splendid rhythm. This formality was often marred by violence: one of the worst riots in Byzantine history took place when Theodora had been empress for a short time, and during much of her reign there was war in Italy, marked by appalling suffering and barbarity. Toward the end of her life, Constantinople was devastated by Bubonic plague. Yet Theodora triumphed over every adverse circumstance, tough and clever to the end.

“ . . . Bridge’s book, with its exceptionally vivid and evocative style, brings the period alive.” —Library Journal

“Puts [Theodora] in her own time and place in the vast panorama of the golden age of an empire which lasted 1,100 years.” —Boston Herald

“Conveys the passion and the fervor of the sixth century A.D.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner