c. 500 C.E.–548 C.E.

Pantomime artist
Empress

Daughter of a Bear-Keeper.

The woman who would one day become empress of the Roman Empire was born as one of three daughters of the bear-keeper for the Green faction, the company which produced the chariot races and the amusements in the theaters of Constantinople. Her father died while Theodora and her sisters were still very young, and Theodora's mother quickly married again, anticipating that her new husband would take over her former husband's job. Her plan was thwarted, however, when the head ballet-master of the Green faction, who possessed the right to choose a new bear-keeper, was bribed into choosing another candidate. The change in fortunes left Theodora's little family destitute, but Theodora's mother was persistent in securing her young daughters' futures. She dressed them as suppliants and placed them before the section of seats in the Constantinople Hippodrome...