IX
THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA
From the story of Christian Womanhood in Old Rome on the Tiber we pass
naturally to the story of Christian Womanhood in that New Rome on the
Bosporus, where Constantine the Great had established an imperial city
which was destined to be the centre of the religious and political life
of the civilized peoples of the East for over a thousand years, and to
keep alive during the Dark Ages the torch of civilization.
The victories of the Cæsars in the extensive domain Hellenized by
Alexander the Great had been surpassed only by the victories of the
Christ, and in Constantinople the authority of Church and State blended
in one inseparable union and determined the destinies of millions of men
and women in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
As Greek culture was ever an important factor in the eastern half of the
Roman Empire, the story of the Christian women of the East is but a
continuation of the story of Greek women. Hence, it is our task to
consider how Hellenized womanhood was affected by that new principle
which had entered into the world.
Christianity, with its emphasis on the affections, naturally appealed to
women, who, says Aristotle, "are creatures of passion, as opposed to
men, who are capable of living by reason." And from the days of Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, the women of antiquity accepted in large numbers
the new teaching. They found that their lives were uplifted by it, their
activities enlarged, their influence among men strengthened.
The status of woman among Oriental peoples was consequently considerably
changed. The recognition, so slowly won, that women had immortal souls
equalized them with the other sex, and with the permeation of
Christianity into the life of paganism began the real emancipation of
the female sex. Functions beyond those of housewifery and maternity were
conceded to woman. Chrysostom, in a letter to a Roman lady, after
speaking of the division of duties assigned by nature to men and women,
says that the Christian life had extended woman's sphere beyond the
duties of the home, and had given her an important part to perform in
the work and struggles of the Church for the elevation of mankind. Her
chief function, in his opinion, was that of consoler and ministering
angel. Thus woman was acknowledged to have a mission--a view that has
prevailed through all the Christian ages. In the pursuit of this idea,
many of the loveliest and most highly endowed women of ancient times
devoted themselves to the relief of sickness and suffering and extended
the influence of the Church by this exhibition of the spirit of
humanity.
Christianity was gradually transforming the spirit of the ancient world.
But these earlier centuries of the Christian era were a season of
twilight during which light and darkness mingled.
Paganism and
Christianity were waging a silent but determined warfare, and the
latter, by absorbing the best that was in the former, left it but a
hollow shell, the connotation of worldliness and unbelief. The ethical
philosophy of the Greeks and the moral teachings of the Stoics and the
Epicureans had found their logical end in the philosophical doctrines of
Christianity and had prepared the way for the acceptance of the latter.
Christianity continued the idea of conformity to the divine government
of the world taught by the Stoics, and the insistence on friendship and
brotherly love emphasized by the Epicureans, and had given life to these
doctrines by the presentation of a divine example. This evolution of the
highest ethical ideas of the ancients in the nobler spirit of
Christianity had its logical outcome in the prevailing institutions of
the Christian world. Stoicism developed into the asceticism that
appealed so strongly to many consecrated men and women, and Christian
Epicureanism showed itself in the many brotherhoods and sisterhoods
which labored for the betterment of humanity in the care of the sick and
the unfortunate.
One of the effects of the Stoical idea combined with the new conception
of the mission of woman was the prevalence of celibacy.
Many women chose
to devote their time to good works rather than to the cares of family
life. Furthermore, "the horror of unchastity--the desecration of the
body, the temple of the soul--which had taken possession of the age with
a sort of morbid excess led to vows of perpetual virginity."
This emphasis on the unmarried life was unfortunate for the race, as it
conduced to degeneracy and depopulation; but it produced many examples
of consecrated and devoted women, who have merited the homage bestowed
on them by later ages.
As regards the relation of the sexes, the greatest contrast lay in the
Christian conception of a purified spiritual love, as compared with the
carnal and sensual love of the pagan peoples. This is illustrated by the
popularity of the celebrated legend of Cyprian and Justina, which was
later versified by the Empress Eudoxia.
Justina was a young and beautiful maiden of Corinth, who was
passionately loved by a handsome pagan youth, Aglaides.
Every effort to
win the maiden's affections, which were given to Christ, proving of no
avail, Aglaides determined to enlist in his cause the powers of
darkness. To this end he engaged the services of a powerful magician,
Cyprian by name, who was versed in all the magic lore of the Chaldeans
and the Egyptians. The wizard's art devised every form of temptation,
but the demons who were called up to accomplish the maiden's ruin fled
at the sign of the Cross which she made; and Justina emerged from the
ordeal pure and spotless, untainted by all the arts of the Evil One.
Cyprian, overcome by the beauty and innocence and unbounded faith of the
maiden, was himself inspired with the purest and most intense love for
Justina, and, renouncing all his arts, was converted to Christianity.
The devoted pair suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of Diocletian.
Such Christian ideals, opposing all that was basest in paganism,
naturally developed a new and an exceedingly high type of womanhood. Of
the women of the provinces we know almost nothing, for the records of
the Eastern Empire centre about the capital city. We may be sure,
however, that throughout the Orient Christian womanhood exhibited its
characteristic traits of piety and unselfishness. In Constantinople,
though an intensely religious city, paganism for centuries continued to
exert a marked influence, and the type of woman there varied in
accordance with the proportions of the two ingredients--
Christianity and
paganism--in the mental and spiritual aggregate of the individual woman.
Some, to avoid the vanities and temptations of the world, lived lives of
retirement in secluded monasteries; others, often of prominent social
position, partook not of the gay life of the city, but gave themselves
up to good works, ministering to the sick, providing for the poor,
uplifting the fallen; while others, chiefly in the court circles, knew
how to combine with their devotion to all the vanities and frivolities
of high life a strict attention to the external duties of Christianity.
The religious sisters of the day were an important factor in the society
of Constantinople, and the exercise of their spiritual duties often
brought them before the public in a manner inconsistent with the
prevailing ideas of female retirement. A popular priest or bishop became
the target of admiration on the part of enthusiastic women, who would
gather about him and espouse his cause in a way that was often more
embarrassing than helpful. As Jerome in Old Rome, so Chrysostom in New
Rome was the centre of such a spiritual circle.
These various types of Christian womanhood present themselves in the
reign of Arcadius, the first independent emperor of the Eastern Empire
so called, and we are indebted to the sermons of the patriarch
Chrysostom for many glimpses into their lives. Far more than in Old Rome
the influence of women made itself felt in the government at
Constantinople, and under almost every dynasty and throughout the
centuries of its existence we find remarkable ladies of the imperial
house playing a prominent part in politics as well as in religion.
The keynote of this new departure was struck by Eudoxia, empress of
Arcadius, and the influence of her personality and her example upon her
successors was marked. Hence, her career and that of the women of her
time constitute the initial stage in the prominence of Christian women
of the East.
Owing to the intellectual weakness of Arcadius, who inherited the
eastern half of the Empire upon the death of Theodosius the Great in
395, the administration really fell into the hands of his minister,
Rufinus, a vicious and avaricious man. Having the entire control of the
army and an unbounded influence over the emperor, Rufinus cherished the
hope that he might himself become a wearer of the purple as the
colleague of Arcadius. To facilitate this end he fostered the scheme of
uniting Arcadius in marriage to his only daughter; once the emperor's
father-in-law, it would be but a step further to become a sharer of the
purple.
While Rufinus, in secret with his confidants, nurtured this idea, the
wily head of the opposite party of the court, getting an inkling of it,
set everything in motion to turn the eyes of the inexperienced youth
toward another maiden. The eunuch Eutropius, the grand chamberlain of
the palace, a bold old man with Oriental craftiness, determined that to
himself, and not to Rufinus, should the emperor be bound. Hence, while
the old warrior was on a journey to Corinth avenging a private injury,
Eutropius fixed the attention of the emperor upon Eudoxia, a maiden of
singular beauty, the daughter of Bauto, a distinguished Frankish
general, and reared since her father's death by the family of the sons
of Promotus, an ancient Roman patrician. Eudoxia was at that time at the
dawn of perfect womanhood. Her education had been received under the
auspices of her rich and noble patrons, and in native gifts, as well as
in beauty, she seemed destined by the Fates to be the consort of an
emperor. Eutropius, by showing him her portrait and by glowing
descriptions of her charms, inflamed the heart of the young ruler with
his first passion, and he entered eagerly into the plans of Eutropius to
make Eudoxia his wife.
Rufinus meanwhile returned, and prepared the ceremonies of the royal
nuptials, as he fancied, of his daughter. "A splendid train of eunuchs
and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp, from the gates of the palace,
bearing aloft the diadem, the robes and the inestimable ornaments of the
future empress. The solemn procession passed through the streets of the
city, which were adorned with garlands and filled with spectators; but
when it reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the principal eunuch
(Eutropius) respectfully entered the mansion, invested the fair Eudoxia
with the imperial robes and conducted her in triumph to the palace and
bed of Arcadius." The particulars of the ceremony show that the hymeneal
rites of the ancient Greeks, in which the bride was, as it were,
forcibly conducted to the house of her husband, were still practised,
though without idolatry, by the early Christians.
The secrecy and success of the conspiracy brought great chagrin to the
overconfident Rufinus. He felt keenly the insult to himself and his
daughter, and he feared the growing power of Eutropius and the new
empress. Yet he merely tightened his grip upon the government and
continued to be a formidable factor in the intrigues of the palace.
The Empress Eudoxia rapidly adapted herself to her new life and
displayed a superiority of sense and spirit which enabled her to
maintain over her fond and youthful husband the ascendancy that her
beauty had at first created. She soon made it evident that she would be
under the control of no intriguing courtier, but that she herself would
be a dominant factor in the life of the court. Rufinus continued his
plots against the throne of Arcadius, but was constantly thwarted by the
empress, assisted by Eutropius, and their counterplays finally brought
about the minister's assassination.
After the murder of Rufinus, the empress endeavored to hold the balance
of power between the three political parties of the day-
-the German
party, headed by Gainas the Goth, which largely embraced the military
forces of the Empire; the party of Eutropius, who had under his control
the civil officers of the state; and the senatorial party, under the
leadership of the prefect Aurelian, who abhorred alike the growing
influence of the Goths and the bed-chamber administration of Eutropius.
Eudoxia naturally inclined to the third of these parties: she
strenuously opposed the Germans, who, under the leadership of Gainas,
demanded freedom for Arian worship, and she sought to overcome the
influence of her quondam benefactor Eutropius, that she herself might
have absolute dominion over her imperial husband. Hence, these three,
the empress, Eutropius, and Gainas, as Hodgkin remarks,
"kept up a vivid
game of court intrigue and disputed with varying success for the chief
place in that empty chamber which represented the mind of the emperor."
Eudoxia first combined with Gainas to get rid of their powerful rival
Eutropius, though she owed her own position to the machinations of the
wily chamberlain. Gainas instigated a revolt among the Ostrogoths under
their commander Tribigild, and when sent out against them he took no
active measures to suppress their incursions; the Goths, at the
instigation of Gainas, finally sent word to the emperor demanding the
death of Eutropius as the condition of their retiring.
Eudoxia, from the
palace, joined in the demand and presenting her infant children,
Flacilla and Pulcheria, to their father, with a flood of forced tears,
implored his justice for some real or imaginary insult which she
attributed to the audacious eunuch. The tears of the empress succeeded
where the demand of Tribigild had only caused hesitation, and Arcadius
signed the death warrant of his favorite. The people rejoiced at the
downfall of the minister, whose venality and injustice had aroused the
public hatred. Eutropius fled for refuge to the Church of Saint Sophia,
where he was protected by the patriarch Chrysostom. So good an
opportunity, however, for impressing the lesson of the fatuity of human
greatness was not to be lost, and while the cowering chamberlain lay in
humiliation before the altar, Chrysostom preached to a crowded
congregation from the text: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,"
illustrating every argument of his sermon by pointing to the fallen
Eutropius--yesterday prime minister of the emperor--to-day a hounded
criminal. Chrysostom finally gave him up on condition that he be not put
to death, and Eutropius was banished to Cyprus; but the empress and his
enemies would not be satisfied with anything less than his death, and he
was later recalled and executed at Chalcedon in A. D.
399.
Not long afterward, Gainas met with a like evil destiny, and Eudoxia was
left without a rival to dispute her control over the emperor. The weak
Arcadius was permitted to spend the remaining years of his life in ease
and tranquillity under her mild but absolute control.
Henceforth the
empress was the most conspicuous figure of the court.
Possessing
limitless power, it was natural that she should become haughty and
rapacious. Endowed with rare beauty and remarkable cleverness, she gave
the tone to the court society of Arcadius's reign.
Unfortunately, she
was fond of all the frivolities of life, and sought at the same time to
promote worldliness and religion. Hence, her influence on the ladies of
the court was such as to bring upon her the censure of the austere
Patriarch of Constantinople, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for
many glimpses into the life and manners of the fifth century.
The empress was surrounded in the royal palace by a splendor which
rivalled that of Persia. Oriental richness and luxury characterized all
its appointments. We find exhibited in the court life of the day a
blending of the voluptuousness of the East with the refinement of the
Greeks and the luxury of the Romans. Thousands of eunuchs, parasites and
slaves, carried out the wishes of the empress. In her royal apartments
"the doors were of ivory, the ceilings lined with gold, the floors
inlaid with mosaics, or strewed with rich carpets; the walls of the
halls and bedrooms were of marble, and wherever commoner stone was used
the surface was beautified with gold plate. The beds were of ivory or
solid silver, or, if on a less expensive scale, of wood plated with
silver or gold. Chairs and stools were usually of ivory, and the most
homely vessels were often made of the most costly metal; the
semicircular tables or sigmas were so heavy that two youths could hardly
lift one. Oriental cooks were employed; and at banquets the atmosphere
was heavy with the perfumes of the East, while the harps and pipes of
the musicians delighted the ears of the feasters."
Equal attention was paid to the details of dress. The empress was
renowned for the gorgeousness of her toilets, which enhanced her
personal charms and made her appear the most fascinating lady of her
court. Her imperial robes were of the richest character, consisting of
purple fabrics, embellished with gold and precious gems.
Such was the external splendor of the court. The Bishop Synesius
censures the elaborate court etiquette which surrounded the emperor and
empress, keeping them from the knowledge of outside affairs and making
them the victims of eunuchs and courtiers. He criticises severely the
sensual retirement in which they lived and attributes it to the desire
to appear semi-divine.
Some idea of the importance of the empress in affairs of state and of
the court etiquette which attended an audience with her can be gained
from the extant narrative of Marcus the deacon, who recounts incidents
in the visit of Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza, when he and others came to
Constantinople to seek redress from the emperor for injuries inflicted
by the heathen on the Christians in Palestine. Knowing that the empress
was the real power, the bishop appealed to her, and the narrative tells
of his audiences with her and how she obtained for him a favorable
answer to his petition. As nothing is more effective in conveying an
idea of the ways and manners of an age than the actual words of a
contemporary writer, I present a rather free translation of Marcus's
narrative.
Upon their arrival at Byzantium, the bishop and his party were honorably
received by the Patriarch John Chrysostom, who expressed regret that he
could not in person present them to the emperor, because of the royal
indignation the empress had excited against him. But he secured the
services of the eunuch Amantius, chamberlain of the empress, who
arranged for them an audience with Eudoxia.
Amantius took the two bishops and introduced them to the empress, and
when she saw them she saluted them first and said: "Give me your
blessing, fathers," and they did obeisance to her. Now she was sitting
on a golden sofa, and she said to them: "Excuse me, priests of Christ,
on account of my situation, for I was anxious to meet your sanctity in
the antechamber. But pray God in my behalf that I may be delivered
happily of the child which is in my womb." And the bishops, wondering at
her condescension, said: "May He who blessed the womb of Sarah and
Rebecca and Elizabeth, bless and quicken the child in thine." After
further edifying conversation she said to them: "I know why ye came, as
the castrensis Amantius explained it to me. But if you are fain to
instruct me, fathers, I am at your service." Thus bidden, they told her
all about the idolaters, and the impious rites which they fearlessly
practised and their oppression of the Christians, whom they did not
allow to perform a public duty, nor to till their lands,
"from which
produce they pay the dues to your imperial sovereignty."
And the empress
said: "Do not despond; for I trust in the Lord Christ, the Son of God,
that I shall persuade the emperor to do those things that are due to
your saintly faith and to dismiss you hence well treated. Depart, then,
to your privacy, for you are fatigued, and pray God to cooperate with my
request." She then commanded money to be brought, and gave three darics
apiece to the most holy bishops, saying: "In the meantime take this for
your expenses." And the bishops took the money, and blessed her
abundantly, and departed. And when they went out they gave the greater
part of the money to the deacons who were standing at the door,
reserving little for themselves.
And when the emperor came into the apartment of the empress, she told
him all touching the bishops, and requested him that the heathen temples
of Gaza should be thrown down. But the emperor was put out when he heard
it, and said:
"I know that city is devoted to idols, but it is loyally disposed in the
matters of taxation and pays a large sum to the revenue.
If then we
overwhelm them with terrors of a sudden, they will betake themselves to
flight, and we shall lose so much of the revenue. But if it must be, let
us afflict them partially, depriving idolaters of their dignities and
other public offices, and bid their temples be shut up and be used no
longer. For when they are afflicted and straitened on all sides, they
will recognize the truth; but an extreme measure coming suddenly is hard
on subjects." The empress was very much vexed at this reply, for she was
ardent in matters of faith, but she merely said: "The Lord can assist
his servants, the Christians, whether we consent or decline."
We learned these details from the chamberlain Amantius.
On the morrow
the Augusta sent for us, and having first saluted the holy bishops
according to her custom, she bade them sit down. And after a long
spiritual talk, she said: "I spoke to the emperor, and he was rather put
out. But do not despond, for, God willing, I cannot cease until ye be
satisfied and depart, having succeeded in your holy purpose." And the
bishops made obeisance. Then the saintly Porphynus, pricked by the
spirit, and recollecting the word of the thrice-blessed anchoret
Procopius, said to the empress: "Exert yourself for the sake of Christ,
and in recompense for your exertions he can bestow on you a son whose
life and reign you will see and enjoy for many years."
At these words the empress was filled with joy, and her face flushed,
and new beauty beyond that which she already had passed into her face;
for the appearance shows what passes within. And she said: "Pray,
fathers, that, ac