Powerful Byzantine Emperors by influential WomenTraditionally, the line of Byzantine emperors is hel

Powerful Byzantine Emperors by influential WomenTraditionally, the line of Byzantine emperors is held to begin with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who rebuilt the city of Byzantium as an imperial capital, Constantinople, and who was regarded by the later emperors as the model ruler. His mother Saint Helena was traditionally associated with finding the relics of the true cross in Jerusalem. When Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which guaranteed religious tolerance for Christians, he influenced by his mother Helena. Justinian I codified Roman Law, unified law in order to organise the empire. During his reign, Justinian reorganized the government of the Byzantine Empire and enacted several reforms to increase accountability and reduce corruption. His wife Theodora participated in Justinian’s legal and spiritual reforms, and her involvement in the increase of the rights of women was substantial. She expanded the rights of women in divorce and property ownership, instituted the death penalty for rape, forbade exposure of unwanted infants, gave mothers some guardianship rights over their children, and forbade the killing of a wife who committed adultery.Theodosius II is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code & the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople and presiding over the outbreak of 2 great Christological controversies (Nestorianism and Eutychianism.) Thanks to his sister Aelia Pulcheria, who proclaimed herself regent over her brother when she was fifteen, Theodosius became a gentle, scholarly, easily dominated man who allowed his government to be run by a succession of relatives and ministers. As Emperor Theodosius regent, Pulcheria almost certainly gave the young emperor his ‘identity’, teaching him how to behave amongst other things.Leo IV was an iconoclast emperor whose reign marked a transition between the period of Iconoclasm and the restoration of the icons. His reign, a short five years, was overshadowed by his wife Irene of Athens, a strong iconodule, who after Leo’s death succeeded to power as regent for her son Constantine VI and as empress. Irene was the first woman to be sole ruler of the Byzantine empire who ruled for ten years, displaying firmness and intelligence, and summoned the council at Nicaea in 787, which formally revived the adoration of images and reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome. -- source link

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