Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium

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Leicester University Press, 2001 - History - 194 pages
The role of the Byzantine emperor has been exhaustively analyzed; the place of the Byzantine empress -- often perceived as an appendate to male imperial power -- is more problematic.

Elizabeth James begins her study with Helena, mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, and ends with Eirene, the only woman to rule as an "emperor" in Byzantium. More than simply a biography of each empress in the period between the fourth and eighth centuries, this book analyzes the nature of female imperial power during that time. What rights and responsibilities, what access to power, if any, did the office of empress carry?

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Contents

Will the Real Byzantine Empress Please Stand Up?
1
Defining the Good and the Bad Empress
11
The Empress in Monumental Art
26
Copyright

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