A Balanced Look at Justinian and Theodora? (a review of Theodora Empress of Byzantium)

This novel was well researched and clearly written by an author steeped in the deep complexities of the Byzantine Age, but I had a real problem with his apparent intention to "rehabilitate" the reputation of Empress Theodora, regardless of almost any degree of moral ambiguity and contradiction. It seemed as though the author could find no consistent world-view - no clear lens through which to interpret the life of this woman; one of histories trans-formative figures.

In the author's defense he isn't alone in this difficulty. The tremendous moral, political, and cultural complexities of the Byzantine Age often afflict those who attempt to chronicle them with a deep confusion!

Although the dominant perspective of the novel is clearly Catholic/historical and attempts to present Theodora as a defender of the faith, at other points I felt as though the author were presenting her from a modern feminist perspective. At yet other times I felt as if he were defending her from the charge of relentless and single-minded cruelty, of ruthless tyranny, and doing so from the perspective of a purely Machiavellian pragmatism! And these are just the beginning of the unresolved contradictions in the book.

My problem is not that I can't envision a person of that complexity. There is, obviously, virtually no limit to the potential complexities of the human personality. A failure to delve deeply enough into that complexity is, in my opinion, the failing here. The mystery of Theodora, the subject of the book, has defeated him. Her life remains an enigma that simply resists his every attempt to make it conform to some handy modern concept, to put it in some "box" where a modern reader can glance at it, understand it, and turn away content that their essential world-view hasn't been disturbed - because the far deeper truth is that if you look at Theodora's life and you aren't both confounded and deeply disturbed then you simply haven't been paying attention.

Brent Hightower
Copyright 2016 Brent Hightower
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