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148 6. emperor and court
Her correspondence with the Persian king fits this pattern, since it was motivated
by her husband’s declining health. Theodora, on the other hand, may
have intervened in diplomacy with Ostrogothic Italy and Persia on her own
account. 73 According to Procopius, Theodora’s religious differences with
her husband were consciously manipulated to capture the political loyalty of
her fellow Monophysites. In any event, her co-religionists treasured her
memory. 74
But the empresses’ greatest influence may have come from the links
between kinship and imperial politics, for Augustae had a voice in marriages
involving the imperial family. According to one tradition, Pulcheria
was responsible for finding a wife for her brother; as long as she lived,
Lupicina Euphemia bitterly and successfully opposed her nephew’s desire
to marry Theodora. And Theodora herself arranged or vetoed marriages
involving the imperial family, most of which, like Artabanes’ plan to marry
Justinian’s niece Praeiecta, had clear political implications. 75
Household and the central institutions of government meshed within
the palace and so magnified the significance of family connections.
Whatever the constitutional mythology of the period, imperial children
enjoyed presumptive claims on the purple. Thus, Zeno’s homonymous son
was expected to succeed his father, who promoted both his career and his
physical fitness to that end, even while anonymous members of the court
schemed against him. 76 The birth of a son to Maurice and Constantina was
hailed as the first male heir born to the purple since Theodosius II; he was
therefore baptized Theodosius. 77 Marriage into the imperial family was a
highly advantageous affair, and marriage to an emperor’s daughter allowed
the son-in-law to hope for the purple, an expectation that in fact materialized
for Maurice after his engagement to Tiberius’ daughter.
One individual’s promotion was a boon for the whole family. After his
accession, Anastasius’ relatives received consulates and high offices and
concluded marriages with illustrious families: nine relatives obtained the
consulate between 500 and 518, a niece married into the blue-blooded
Anicii, creating connections with the Valentinian and Theodosian houses,
while two other nieces wed leading generals and thereby coupled the
emperor’s family to the social group of the magistri militum. 78 Nor was this
an isolated phenomenon. Even disregarding Justinian’s career, Justin I’s
peasant kin rapidly experienced high office, wealth, and brilliant marriages
to the capital’s great families: Justinian’s cousin Boraides was enriched, and
his sister Vigilantia, whom one poet took the liberty of calling a queen, saw
her children make brilliant matches, while her son became Justin II.
73 Menander fr. 18.1–2; Procop. Secret History 16.1–5; 2.32–6. 74 E.g. John Eph. V.SS. Or. xlvii.
75 Pulcheria: Malalas 352; Cameron, Alan (1981) 275–7, contra Holum, Empresses 115; PLRE ii s.v.
Euphemia 5; Procop. Wars vii.31.2–14, esp. 5 and 14. 76 Malchus, fr. 8.
77 John Eph. HE iii.5.14. 78 Cameron, Alan (1978); cf., however, PLRE ii.
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