Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

146 6. emperor and court
the support of civil servants who headed the great imperial bureaux and
worked closely with the ruler, especially the magister officiorum, the praetorian
prefect of the east, and the quaestor. 62 Down to the 470s, extraordinary
power lay also with the powerful professional and social group of the magistri
militum. Though they were often barbarians and Arians by religion, like
Ricimer in the west or the Ardaburs in the east, they acted as powers behind
the throne, established marriage alliances with Roman families and claimed
the ceremonial perquisites befitting their position in public life. 63 But the
court comprised more than just the key bureaucrats and generals. One
figure late antique lobbyists rarely neglected as much as modern historians
was the empress.
The prominence and political significance of empresses advanced markedly:
they gained control of their own cubiculum, which paralleled the
emperor’s, and efforts to influence the court regularly targeted them. 64
Justinian required his officials to swear a religious oath of allegiance to ‘Our
most divine and most pious Lords Justinian and Theodora’, and from
Justin II – whose wife’s statue often flanked his own even as her portrait
joined his on the bronze coinage – the Augustae always figured next to their
husbands in legal oaths confirming citizens’ public business. 65 The fourteen
empresses known from 425 to 600 derived their emperor-like legal
status from the emperor. 66 The Augusta issued coinage – or at least some
coins were issued in her name – authenticated documents with lead seals, 67
wore imperial insignia, and disposed of dedicated revenues and the appropriate
staff. With two exceptions (Pulcheria and Honoria), her title was
linked to marriage to an emperor. 68 The cases of Eudocia in 423 and
Eudoxia in 439 suggest a link between the birth of a child and the granting
of the title.
The place that family ties held at court is underscored by the fact that the
majority of Augustae themselves stemmed from the imperial family: seven
were emperors’ children (Pulcheria, Placidia, Honoria, Licinia Eudoxia,
Euphemia, Ariadne and Constantina) and one, Sophia, a niece. 69 Thus,
women supplied a family continuity that the emperors generally lacked.
Unlike their husbands, moreover, many empresses grew up in an imperial
capital or even, like the girls from the imperial family, at the heart of palace
society. Once a woman rose to the purple, she tended to stay there, for the
Augustae outlasted emperors, averaging over twenty years in their position
(see Table 1 below). Background and longevity enabled empresses to help
62 ACO 1.4.pp.224–5; Epist. Austras. xxxiv,xxxv.
63 Demandt (1970), (1986); McCormick (1989).
64 CJ xii.5.3 and 5. ACO 1.4.pp.224–5; Epist. Austras. xxix,xxx and xliv;Greg.I,Reg. v.38.
65 Nov. viii.1; Cameron (1980) 70–1; Morrisson (1970) 124–5, also 166 and 179; Worp (1982).
66 Digest i.3.31. 67 Licinia Eudoxia: Zacos, Veglery and Nesbitt (1972–84) no. 2759.
68 Bury (1919).
69 Also, perhaps, Nepos’ anonymous wife, a relative of Verina: PLRE ii s.v. Nepos 3.
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