[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The present work is an edited volume concerned with imperial and ‘near-imperial’ women during Late Antiquity (fourth to seventh centuries CE). The contributions present case studies generally focused on individual women that explore their roles, actions, and changing status within the late Roman court and beyond. The title of the volume is somewhat misleading: only three of the chapters take as their focus women who could be described as ‘empresses-in-waiting’, the rest discuss fully-fledged empresses. Several of these empresses, however, are relatively under-studied figures, such as Martina (discussed by Nadine Viermann) and Eusebia (discussed by Silvia Holm) which balances out the choice of title.
The book is divided into four sections: the Introduction by the editors and an overview article by Anja Wieber, ‘Section One: Political Agency and Power Brokerage’, ‘Section Two: Performance and Representation’, and ‘Section Three: Non- and Near-Imperial Women at the Imperial Court’. The volume is rounded off by a conclusion that draws unifying themes from the individual contributions. In terms of chronological coverage, the chapters focus mainly on the fourth century and the sixth and seventh centuries; the fifth century is largely absent. This is somewhat surprising in a book about women in the late Roman court given the prominence of various imperial women during the fifth century but is balanced by the fact that the conclusion by Julia Hillner refers at length to this period in her discussion of the volume’s main themes.
In their Introduction, the editors state that the aim of the volume is to “break through the barriers” created by the fact that almost all our sources about imperial and near-imperial women in Late Antiquity were written by male authors, and to “assess the power and agency” these women could assert within the patriarchal societies in which they lived. This is a laudable aim, but one that is not entirely fulfilled. Many of the contributions are traditional political histories and engagement with gender theory and the work of gender history in general is light. In the Introduction, for example, the editors note in a footnote (p.5, note 20) that almost universal male authorship of sources makes using texts to study women complex and often problematic. However, there are no citations for this and there is no discussion of the methodological impact of this problem on their stated aims. The reader may also expect a discussion of what terms like ‘power’, ‘agency’, or ‘performance’ mean to the editors in this gendered context, but this is not addressed (although Wieber touches on the question of power briefly in her chapter). This seems like an odd omission given the centrality of the intersection between gender and imperial status to the book and the at times ambiguous and complex nature of concepts like agency, especially for women.
The impact of uneven engagement with such literature is relatively mild for most of the contributions. However, in some cases the authors of primary sources appear to be subjected to insufficient critical scrutiny. One example is Christopher Lillington-Martin’s contribution on Antonina, friend of Theodora and wife of Belisarius. The author rightly acknowledges Procopius’ well-known misogynistic tendencies and his routine use of tropes drawn from ancient novels, Greek and Roman comedy, and mime, yet he presents Procopius’ characterisation of Antonina as nevertheless largely plausible and factual. The contribution characterises her murderous and adulterous machinations as an example of ‘agency’ and goes further than Procopius to suggest that Antonina’s daughter Joannina was fathered not by Belisarius but by her alleged lover – her adopted son Theodosius. The figure of Antonina is a fascinating one, but it is unclear to what extent (if at all) we can believe Procopius’ characterisation and it seems especially doubtful that we can read Procopius’ accusations as an example of Antonina’s agency.
I will not discuss here in detail the primary themes that emerge from the book, as this would simply repeat the content of Hillner’s conclusion. They can be summed up, per Hillner, thusly: 1) the significance of the rise of imperial women as co-rulers; 2) the importance of dynastic legitimacy to the role of imperial women, especially during regime change; 3) the routine violence experienced by imperial women and their attempts to avoid or mitigate it. Instead, I would like to highlight the approaches of some of the most successful contributions. Firstly, while I do not find the disconnect between title and content too irksome, the contributions on what truly could be considered ‘empresses-in-waiting’, Anicia Juliana (Geoffrey Nathan) and Matasuintha (Marco Cristini), are two of the most compelling of the volume. I therefore cannot help but think that if the editors had stuck more closely to the concept of ‘near-imperial’ women, the final product could have been highly innovative. Nathan’s contribution illuminates the opportunities that not-quite-imperial status presented to Anicia Juliana and paints one of the best pictures of the possibilities and limitations of female imperial authority through someone who did not possess it. Cristini offers a nicely balanced contribution on the little-studied figure of Matasuintha, daughter of Amalasuintha and granddaughter of Theoderic the Great that includes a translation of the surviving fragments of Cassiodorus’ praise of the princess. Cristini presents a refreshingly flexible assessment of the events of Matasuintha’s life and her possible motivations at different points, as well as critical consideration of the motivations of Procopius and Jordanes in writing about her. His suggestion that her reticence to marry Vitigis was at least partly based on an interest in the religious life, based on careful analysis of Cassiodorus, is persuasive.
Belinda Washington is successful in using the close analysis of a single source, John Chrysostom’s Letter to a Young Widow, to study the fates of various imperial women of the fourth century. She is able to find details about relatively little-known imperial women and to paint a bigger picture of the possibilities for fourth-century women during times of regime change. This contribution in particular speaks to the systematic violence faced and feared by imperial women in vulnerable positions. While their importance for establishing imperial legitimacy could make them important players (or pawns), sometimes their own political agency and connection to their sons made them too dangerous to let live, as in the case of Eutropia. John Chrysostom mentions these cases to console his addressee with tales of higher-ranking women who faced an even more wretched situation than she did. He also refers to two cases of non-imperial women who also faced danger and violence because of the actions of their husbands. Several times Chrysostom refers to the young widow’s potential frustration that her husband died before attaining the rank of prefect. Chrysostom’s method of consolation seems tinged with more than a little of ‘be careful what you wish for’, implying that with proximity to power comes danger. In this sense, this contribution could also be seen as considering a potential near-imperial woman in the person of the addressee of the letter, underlining the fact that women often suffered the consequences of the actions of their husbands or other male relatives, regardless of status.
Mads Ortving Lindholmer’s contribution differs from most of the others in taking a thematic approach and examining how Theodora’s involvement in imperial ritual shaped her prominence. Specifically, it examines Procopius’ statement in the Secret History that she was the first empress to take part in the imperial ‘admission’ (adoratio) ceremony alongside her husband (rather than separately from him) and that both Justinian and Theodora demanded a kind of exaggerated form of proskynesis. Ortving Lindholmer argues convincingly that this claim probably reflected a strong element of truth and that this choice to include Theodora in such a frequent imperial ceremony could have significantly increased her visibility and power in public spaces. This had the potential to extend Theodora’s power beyond simply her personal influence on her husband. It seems possible that Theodora’s personal talents and increasing role in ceremony may have paved the way for her niece Sophia to exercise her own abilities.
One of the most prominent and compelling figures to emerge from the volume is empress Sophia, who plays a starring role in the contributions by Silvio Roggo and Lewis Dagnall as well as Pavla Gkantzios Drápelová’s study of coinage. All three chapters confirm her as an enigmatic figure and make a useful trio when read together, even if the authors would perhaps ascribe Sophia different levels of importance within the imperial court. Roggo’s deconstruction of John of Ephesus’ claim that Sophia plotted to marry Tiberius (either to herself or her daughter Arabia) is convincing, showing clearly that John had personal reasons to denigrate Sophia and paint her as power-hungry. Despite this, the rest of Roggo’s discussion, as well as Dagnall’s analysis of her role in foreign policy and Gkantzios Drápelová’s description of her portrayal on coinage all show that she was a talented and influential figure even if her gender limited her active role in government after the death of her husband. Sophia’s status as Theodora’s niece was highlighted as one reason for her prominence, but she also appears to have been simply a politically astute woman and a capable diplomat. While family background and political context are important factors in establishing the prominence of imperial women, we should also not forget their personality and individual attributes.
The book is well-produced with no noticeable typographic errors, although colour pictures would have been desirable. Material and visual evidence as a whole do not play a great role in the book (with the notable exception of Gkantzios Drápelová’s study of coinage), although visual depictions of empresses are discussed in Wieber’s overview article and in Ortving Lindholmer’s contribution on Theodora (although one might have expected more consideration here of the Ravenna mosaic). Nathan’s chapter on Anicia Juliana naturally considers her building projects and her depiction in the famous dedication miniature from the Vienna Dioscurides manuscript. Nathan also presents and illustrates a marble bust as a possible (but in his words ‘deeply suspect’) depiction of Anicia Juliana. This bust, with unclear provenance and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, need not have been included, as it is dated to c.400—some 60 years before Anicia Juliana was born.[1] In addition, on p.207, note 16 states that “Technically, most women were perpetually minors in the sense that they needed a male guardian”. Guardianship had been of dubious relevance for women for centuries before Late Antiquity and was abolished entirely during this period. A recent article by Antti Arjava has convincingly pinpointed this removal to the 320s.[2]
Overall, this book provides a nice selection of studies on imperial and near-imperial women in Late Antiquity. Readers interested in Sophia and other empresses and ‘near-empresses’ of the sixth and seventh century will be particularly satisfied. While it does not quite reach the promise of its title or aims, this is a reality of most edited volumes and thus cannot be viewed as a major criticism. The volume addresses several important themes, as outlined above, but it is left to future work to tackle some of the bigger questions that unite gender, power, agency, and the imperial court in this period. Did the empress have more in common with the emperor, or with high-ranking non-imperial (or ‘near-imperial) women? Which was more important, gender or status? Did this change over time? As ever, we are faced perhaps with more questions than answers. This volume is a welcome contribution to a fascinating conversation.
Authors and Titles
Introduction
Empresses-in-Waiting? An Introduction (Christian Rollinger and Nadine Viermann)
Towards a History of Scholarship on Late Antique Imperial Women: From Theodora, the Tigress to Matronage (Anja Wieber)
Section 1: Political Agency and Power Brokerage
Empress with Agency: Eusebia’s Efforts to Consolidate the Constantinian Dynasty (Silvia Holm)
John Chrysostom’s Letter to a Young Widow: Reflections on Imperial Women’s Roles at Regime Change (Belinda Washington)
The Empress Sophia Reconsidered (Silvio Roggo)
The Empress Sophia and East Roman Foreign Policy (Lewis Dagnall)
Dynasty, Endogamy, and Civil Strife: Martina Augusta and the Role of Imperial Women in the Early Seventh Century (Nadine Viermann)
Section 2: Performance and Representation
Constructing Power through Rituals: The Case of Theodora (Mads Ortving Lindholmer)
Empresses on Early Byzantine Coins (Sixth to Seventh Centuries): Evidence of Power? (Pavla Gkantzios Drápelová)
Section 3: Non- and Near-Imperial Women at the Imperial Court
Augusta Unrealized: Anicia Juliana and the Logistics of Place (Geoffrey Nathan)
Antonina Patricia: Theodora’s Fixer at the Female Court and the Politics of Gender in Procopius (Christopher Lillington-Martin)
Matasuintha: From Gothic Queen to Imperial Woman (Marco Cristini)
Conclusion
Imperial Women after Curtains (Julia Hillner)
Notes
[1] E.g. Zanker, P. (2016). Roman Portraits: Stone and Bronze Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, No.91, pp.235-237.
[2] Arjava, A. (2024). The End of Tutela Mulierum. Journal of Roman Studies 114, pp.85-103.