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Another reprint from another one of my early stories. This one is quite quick and concise, and I was lucky enough to get artwork (shown below) provided by Andromeda Spaceways (original print here).

Fun fact: A Possible Serenity sat in queue for 7 months. Publishing is a slow business, even when your stories are short.

A Possible Serenity

by S Dean

Absalom’s  daughter  came  into  existence  under  his  watchful  gaze.  For  sixty seconds, Serenity’s world comprised a womb of light, until Absalom pressed a lever down to open the capsule lid, expanding her universe to an entire room.

Timing was crucial. The first attempt, he had  unbolted  the  capsule  too  soon and found only disappointment as she decohered from shock. Repeated endeavours refined his parameters for when it was safe to open the capsule lid. Less than fifty seconds was always fatal, but so was more than ninety. Serenity needed to be observed in the right duration, to have any chance at stabilising.

“Gentle, now.” Absalom leaned into her field of view, and checked the safety restraints. He’d installed them after previous versions had panicked and flailed. “You’re not stable enough to go anywhere yet.”

“Where am I?” Serenity craned her head up and around. Absalom was careful to adjust things as little as possible between his many attempts. Consoles stayed against one wall, spare equipment on the other. Output screen behind  her, where she couldn’t see it. Trailing wires tethered her capsule to his computer workstation.

“You are somewhere safe.” The familiar words rolled out  of  him by rote. “You are my daughter, turning twenty-four next month. You assist me with my research, and there was an accident in my lab. It was very serious. We must establish your quantum existence in the next few minutes or you will decohere again. When we’ve done that, I can explain everything else. Do you understand?”

Serenity looked at Absalom’s hands, as dark as her own but veined and dry with age, then at the crumpled grey lab coat—a match for her grey pyjamas— and up at deep-set eyes in a face wracked with exhaustion.

Absalom, meeting her gaze, attempted a smile.

Her brow creased. “Where’s… Mum?”

“She’s just in the next room.” Absalom stuck tiny pads with trailing wires to her neck, temples, and wrists. One of the screened-off machines began ticking, registering life signs. Observing, measuring, quantifying.

A selection of items were laid out on the bench next to the capsule. Absalom showed her the first: a battered stuffed dog, ravaged by a child’s love.

“Pups!” she exclaimed, and her life signs flickered erratically. “Where’d you find him? Could have sworn I threw him out.”

“You did, but I rescued him in secret,” Absalom lied. His Serenity had never thrown Pups away, no matter its poor condition. Such a stubborn girl.

“I’m glad you did,” she said.

“Dad knows best,” Absalom said with a wink, then took out a vidgraph of her sixth birthday, surrounded by little friends. Himself in the back. Smiling. Gripping a cake-knife. The scene sprang to life, playing out.

“Huh? That’s not right,” she said, wary and confused once more. “I was sick, you had to cancel… I don’t remember this.”

“Don’t you? Never mind.” Absalom put the vidgraph away before she could get distressed and discreetly scribbled a note in his log. He had tried to stick to key events, since the quantum changes between possible Serenitys were usually small. But the multiverse was infinite in its variety.

He moved quickly to distract, and showed a vidgraph of her high school graduation. “How about this?”

“I… do remember that,” she said, and Absalom relaxed a little. “I think, anyway. Are there any more of those pictures?”

“Of course, Serenity.” Together, in pieces and careful words, they reconstructed her life through the various vidgraphs and trinkets he’d collected. He snuck periodic glances at her life sign measurements. The results were good, stabilising significantly faster than any previous attempt, even with the early hiccups. He breathed in a moment of peace. A possible success? He hoped so.    He hoped so.

“And what about this?” Absalom held up her lab badge.

“Summer break, from university.”  Serenity fidgeted. She never liked to be  still for very long. “I remember now. You and Mum wanted help with research. On—” she wavered briefly—“Schrödinger’s Engine.”

A thrill ran through him, at mention of the engine. “Very good, you remember.”

“But how did I get here, in this thing? What actually happened?” She eyed   the console. “Isn’t that part of the Engine? Where’s the rest of it?”

“I told you.” Absalom could feel his smile threatening to flatten. “There was an accident… it’s very complicated. There’ll be time enough to explain it later.”

But Serenity wouldn’t let it go; never did, any of the times. “I don’t remember an accident. The last thing I remember was you and I arguing.” She paused. “Why isn’t Mum here? She practically built this thing. If something went wrong—”

“She’s just in the next room. We made an important discovery, and it’s keeping her busy.”

Serenity frowned. “More important than my accident?”

“Listen.” Absalom would never get tired of telling her, afresh. “Serenity, my dear. I was right, and you were wrong. Schrödinger’s Engine works!”

“What?” She blinked in rapid succession, thrown by the change of topic. “No way. We tested every substance we could. Everything collapsed into nonexistence, every time.”

“Consciousness makes the difference, just as I theorised.” Absalom preened at his labcoat with both hands. “Oh, what a breakthrough! And  to  think,  all those months we wasted, experimenting with inanimate materials.”

“What breakthrough?” She didn’t seem to share his excitement; most of the Serenitys didn’t. No one understood the hunger for knowledge that never gave him peace; the wolf in his mind.

Absalom beamed. “You, of course. I put you in a state of quantum superposition, using Schrödinger’s Engine, and then brought you back. Reconstituted from infinite possibility.”

“Wait… you tested it on me?”

“Don’t worry, my dear. You’re here now. It worked. Your consciousness allows you to reform, a kind of self-observation effect. Isn’t that fantastic?” Irrational guilt had troubled him some, with earlier incarnations, but Absalom had learned across hundreds of attempts to put such things behind him. It would be for the best, in the end. When he fixed it. When it was right.

“Are you seriously telling me,” she said, voice rising to match her pulse, “that you’ve replaced me with a different self, without my consent? Just to prove me wrong? What the hell!”

“Not just for me—but for society. The applications are endless!” Absalom jerked to his feet, pacing and pacing. His shoes had  worn  grooves  into  the  floor from repeated passage. “Imagine placing a violent criminal into a state of quantum superposition, and having another version of him emerge. One who is law abiding, kind, sane. Imagine decohering every sick or disabled child, every corrupt politician or uncouth citizen, in that same way, to re-select their best possible self. Imagine, Serenity, imagine—but maybe you can’t. Your mother couldn’t. She wanted to pull the plug. How could she want that?”

Serenity stared. “Where is Mum?”

“Mum had an accident, too.” Absalom hadn’t meant to hurt his  wife,  but she’d been hysterical over Serenity. Swearing, screaming, call him a murderer. “She’s resting, in the next room.”

What? Dad, let me go help her! Let me out of this thing!”

“Aha, yes. This is rather embarrassing.” Absalom stopped pacing and consulted his notes. “Serenity, my dear, I can’t seem to get the calibrations quite right for the Engine. Consequently, I cannot let  you  out  of  the  capsule  until you have achieved the necessary quantum stability. Your mother refused to understand that.”

“What the hell are you talking about!”

“I’ve run the Engine over and over, but every time, you collapse back into nonexistence within an hour.” He gave an embarrassed shrug. “If this is yet another failure, then you have perhaps ten minutes before you decohere.”

“Less than…” Serenity paled. “Dad. Let me see the research. Let me work on it with you. I can help, we can fix this!”

“We’ve tried that already, Serenity.  It  only  makes  things  harder  in  the  end.” What a fool he’d been, to let  her  out  before.  When  their  joint  efforts  had inevitably failed, she’d refused to get back in the capsule, until he’d held a gun to her head. Didn’t she understand that he had to bring her back more permanently? He could not fix this if she refused to cooperate. Such a stubborn girl.

“How many… how many times have you done this?” Fear made her seem younger, childish.

How many times? How many times? Somewhere the number was tallying  up, but he dared not check. Absalom scraped sweat off his brow. “Never mind that. What matters is that I get closer with each attempt. In the beginning you lasted mere minutes; now, you last an hour. Progress, my dear.”

“You can’t just let me die!” She fractured into tears, emotions fraying. “It won’t be me who comes back. Don’t you get it? will be gone! Every time you bring me into existence here, another me in another universe dies. You’re wiping me out in every universe!”

“Oh, it’ll be you. From my point of view, anyway, which is what matters.” Wasn’t  it? Once, her perception had mattered too—but no, he would not think   of it. “Just be patient. I’ll fix it, bring you back.”

Absalom flicked a lever and the capsule slammed shut. Always be quick, or doubt waited to overtake.

Serenity swore and shouted, but he’d already installed sound dampeners many incarnations ago. So much better when he couldn’t hear his daughter, didn’t have her cries slowly driving him insane.

Now to wait, to wait, to wait. Vitals, stable. Readouts, good. His spirits rose like a dying plant refreshed by the promise of rain, and he knew a moment of contented peace.

The timer sang.

Absalom caught his breath. The sixty-two minute mark; she  had  lasted  more than an hour. More than an hour. The lever trembled in his grip, ripe for throwing, but he would wait with fatherly patience, to surpass the margin of error. Just another four minutes.

On his wrist, the second hand moved like thunder  and  her  vital  signs  began to flicker. Erratic heart rate, sometimes detectable, sometimes not. Life fading in and out. From inside the capsule, Serenity screamed; disappointment washed over him. Why couldn’t she just do as he expected? Remain stable, as    he predicted? Such a stubborn girl.

Her fault, all her fault; she did this to herself. If only she would be good, he could stop; but she wasn’t, so he couldn’t. His daughter needed him to correct her.

The screaming faded away as the life signs went flat. Absalom marked down the duration. Not a total loss: sixty-six minutes was a new record. He re-adjusted the calculations to include a longer margin of error.

“Closer every time,” he murmured. “Almost there, Serenity.”

After he brought her back, she would never need to know about the accident, or his endless trials. The incident with his wife could be explained away. Serenity would be thrilled with his breakthrough, and naturally he would give her due credit for her part.

Absalom laid out all the books, the vidgraphs, the things of his daughter’s  life in neat rows around her capsule. In a few minutes, it would be time to calibrate Schrödinger’s Engine and select another possible Serenity.

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Why have my earnings disappeared from the "On hold" status?

  • Aktualisiert

The reward remains On hold until the advertiser processes the actions.

If the advertiser confirms an action, on the next day, the reward for it will become either Ready for withdrawal or Awaiting advertiser payment. Such actions will be registered as Confirmed or Awaiting advertiser payment in the reports.

If the advertiser declines an action, the reward won't be paid. In this case, funds will simply disappear from On hold. Such actions will be marked as Declined in the reports.

Learn more about why actions get declined

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In addition to adding requesters manually, you could also import all of your existing contacts from your previous setup or application. All you need to do is do an export of your contacts into a CSV file as a list and upload it into Freshservice.

Before you begin, please ensure that your file complies with the following requirements:

1. The file must be in the form of a properly formatted CSV file. Other formats aren’t supported.

2. The first row of the file must contain the header, preferably with field names similar to the ones inside your contacts (Name, Email, Job Title, Description etc.).

Quick guide to importing your requesters into Freshservice:

  • Go to Admin> Requesters. Click on the Import link and select Import from CSV.

  • On the next page, click on Choose file and select the CSV file. Read the instructions displayed on the page and click Import.

  • On the next page, map the fields in the CSV with the corresponding requester fields in Freshservice, and click Import.

Once done, you will be able to view the new requesters in the list by going to Admin> Requesters. They will also be available across Freshservice whenever you raise a ticket.

Note: While Importing, Please use E-mail address for the field "Reporting Manager". This field won't get imported, if you are going to use "Names".

Also, kindly ensure that you are adding all the locations in Admin->Locations before importing. The value for this field will be left blank if the locations are not added in the Admin->Locations.


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Patch 0.8.1 Notes 4-5-21

  • Bases built on certain objects will no longer be considered "Unsupported" on load, and will not collapse after being modified.
  • Clients will no longer randomly fail to register melee and ranged attacks.
  • Reduced lag/hitching when looking at buildings in large bases.
  • Backpacks that fall through the world for clients will eventually resync back to the correct host position.

  • The Trail Marker for the BURG.L Quest: "Weed Killer Peak" will now be in the correct location if it already existed in your world.

  • Stuffed insects can once again be placed on furniture.

  • Bees aren't as clumsy around flowers and thus will drop pollen less often.

  • Hoop's hair and other dangling pieces on chest armor should behave more appropriately in Photo Mode.

  • Hammer build icons are now included in the "Toggle Trail Marker and Backpack Icons" action.
  • The breath meter and the "Eat/Drink or Die" warning elements no longer get stuck on screen after respawning.
  • The "[Type] Tool Required" warning no longer overlaps the harvest resource name on the HUD.

  • Reverted the new day base music changes back to the night music to continue work on this for a future update.

Thank you for your reports and your continued support while we further develop Grounded! We are working to push out updates to enhance your gaming experience continually.

To stay current with the commonly reported issues and to follow their status, please visit our Grounded Issue Tracker.

If you are experiencing an issue that is not listed on the Grounded Issue Tracker, either email us directly at or fill out the Contact form located on our Support Site and include the following information:

  1. Platform: (Xbox Console, PC Game Pass, PC Microsoft Store, PC Steam).
  2. Multiplayer or Single Player Game. (If multiplayer, can you let us know how many players in total in the game, and their platforms if you know this)
  3. Description of issue.
  4. Last thing you did in the game before the issue occurred, if applicable.

Thank you again, and have fun out in the backyard!

Still need help? Contact Us Contact Us


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Educational Gardens Workday: WoodPEC Garden

July 18 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

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An event every week that begins at 11:00 am on Monday, repeating until August 22, 2022

Come volunteer in the gardens! No tools are required. Come dressed for garden work. All open workdays are 1 hour long. For more information, contact Erik Edwards at gardens@emory.edu.

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La Jolla Sunday, March 13, 2017

I loved the little dog sitting with her eyes closed, completely at peace and blissfully happy with her owner’s  hands holding her carefully and with great love.  When the couple in the background stepped in, it was perfect, a greatly  contrasting, all female lineup, everyone happy down deep with each other.  Love happens in different places in unexpected ways, and when it does, you count yourself lucky.

Author: suzannesteinphoto

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Earth  ID: 2749

Great Zoom into Tucson, AZ: Sabino Canyon

Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground.

Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Marte Newcombe (GST): Animator
Soroosh Sorooshian (The University of Arizona): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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Data Used:
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Great Zooms

DLESE >> Human geography
DLESE >> Physical geography
SVS >> Zoom
NASA Science >> Earth


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Ubiquitous USBs Undermining Us?

USB thumb drives. How many do you have? For most of us it’s probably more than we realize. I’m looking at 6 in front of me and they’re not even related to a case. I purchased a 256 GB thumb drive a few months back for $40. Super cheap for a ton of portable storage that fits in your pocket.

I’m not relaying this information to try to sell you on the idea of USB thumb drives but I do have a point in the form of a few questions. If you run a business, what sort of policy do you have on the use of them? What sort of accounting or inventory control do you have in place for accountability of their use? If you’re like most small to medium sized businesses the answers to these questions stand a good chance of being none and none.

If this is the case, rather than admonish, I have a few suggestions. The easiest is to ban their use! Ok that’s probably not the most practical either. Your mileage may vary but you should start with something else. I’d suggest that something be with a policy that stipulates their use.  Should your employees be permitted to use personal USB drives or should  they only be allowed to use company issued ones? If you decide to allow employees to utilize personal USB drives then keep in mind you don’t own the device you’re going to allow them to use, which may be a pain to investigate later, so maybe you issue them instead, huh? In doing so you can record any external serial number they have much like a computer.

They’re issued a computer, a phone and a USB for instance, all with recorded identifiers (make, model and serial numbers). But what if there’s no external serial number? Well you can try this handy dandy utility (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html) that will show you great info on currently plugged in USB devices…as well as previous ones. No we’re not affiliated with the software at all, just passing it along as a potentially useful tool as you start issuing your employees the USB devices they will be using going forward. Then, if or when your employee leaves your employ, they are required to return their company issued computer, phone and USB devices.  This way, should you choose to investigate whether any of your data was absconded with you’ll be in much better shape to do so.

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Films with the actor Denise Boutte

Denise Boutte

Denise Boutte is an American actress, who has appeared in the films Why Did I Get Married? as Trina, Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill, as Mandy, and Sister's Keeper. She stars in the sitcom Meet the Browns as Sasha Brown.


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We have a passion for service and innovative guidance.

Since our inception, Sweet Financial has always strived to develop personalized and comprehensive financial planning and investment services that can help you build the best possible future.

These are our commitments to our clients.

Our mission is to simplify our clients’ lives and inspire them to build a bigger future with our passion for service and innovative guidance. We live by five key principals.

Client Focused
We treat clients like family and we do what we believe to be in their best interest so they can focus on their future.

Honesty and Integrity
We strive to do the right thing, always. We hold ourselves accountable for all that we do, and are proud to stamp our name on our work.

Committed to Excellence
There’s no substitute for total preparation and continuous improvement. We do more than provide a service, we create experiences.

We are a strength-based team. We respect each other, leverage our unique abilities to help our clients reach their goals, and have fun along the way.

Positive Mindset
We believe that a positive mindset equals a positive outcome. This is why we strive to put out positive energy, every single day.


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August 31, 2013

Rewind: Favorite videos

Hi All, So I’ve made A LOT of posts since the beginning of this blog in March. Two videos almost every day for six months […]
May 1, 2013

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

Hi All, So this is my first segment in what I hope is going to be a series of conditioning videos. The title of this […]
April 21, 2013

It Was Over Before the Start

Hi All, So, I have this thought a lot. Especially at meets. And the thought is “it was over before you even started.” Let me […]

Want to see my National Congress lecture on Bars Shaping from Pre-Team Up?

Find it here!
The full 45 minute lecture of Bars Shaping from Pre-Team Up is now available for download, along with the full powerpoint and all of the videos!

Get it today for only $19.99 – HERE.


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Saturday, November 26, 2022

Cereals more expensive than in Germany since 2011

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As the Federal Statistical Office announced on Friday, import prices rose by 53.6 percent compared to the same month last year. The last time the rate of change was even higher was in May 2011 with a plus of 74.0 percent compared to May 2010.

“The war in Ukraine has an impact on the global grain supply and grain prices,” said the Federal Office. The price increases therefore run through all types of grain: in March 2022, wheat rose by a good 65 percent compared to the same month last year, barley, rye, oats also by around 65 percent and corn by 37 percent.

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Press Release

UiPath and Avalora to provide international RPA support to Synertrade customers

Madrid, June 18th 2020.- Synertrade, a subsidiary of Econocom Group and a world leader in digital purchasing solutions, has entered into an agreement with UiPath, the leading entrerprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, and Avalora, a specialist in ICT strategies, to deploy RPA solutions to all Synertrade clients that incorporate this technology in their purchasing automation projects.

The use of RPA in Purchasing is today, more than ever, a reality. Synertrade wants to put in value this capacity of RPA, which several of its clients already have, and which helps to reduce not only costs, but also time in carrying out repetitive tasks.

UiPath is leading the ’automation first’ era—championing a robot for every person and enabling robots to learn new skills through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Through free and open training, UiPath brings digital era skills to millions of people around the world, improving business productivity and efficiency, employee engagement, and customer experience. The company’s hyperautomation platform combines the #1 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities, including process mining and analytics.

Synertrade wanted to bring to the market the best solution for Invoicing Automation. The partnership with UiPath, leader in the quadrant of Gartner, which also provides the leading solution in OCR for the digitalization of invoices (ABBYY) and Avalora, who provide to this alliance the resources, technical capacity and infrastructure.  This perfect team has deployed in record time this solution to be used in any Synertrade customer, regardless of where it is in the world.

This international agreement begins with the launch of the application “Email2Invoice” available in Synertrade’s Accelerate solution, which allows companies to automate the processes of recording, scanning and recording of invoices, which represents a new and important cost savings in the management of their purchasing operations.

RPA is a perfectly suited tool to streamline and improve vital procurement processes. Just like Synertrade’s solutions cover the entire purchasing process, the UiPath hyperautomation platform enables companies to automate critical processes end-to-end and eliminate costly errors and delays. We are excited to support and assist our joint customers towards gaining more efficiency, productivity, and savings while benefitting from the most advanced automation solutions on the market
Eric Adrian, Area VP Southern Europe at UiPath

Being part of this project, together with UiPath and Synertrade, makes the ICT sector an important player in the digital transformation. This alliance will allow many companies to become what we call the companies of the future
Santiago Paz, Sales Director at Avalora

We are at the best time to introduce RPA into the purchasing process. All the benefits provided by automation allow companies to drastically reduce human intervention in these processes, and therefore the cost and time spent on them
Pilar Guerero, Head of Sales at Synertrade Iberia (Econocom Group)

This alliance reinforces Synertrade’s international vision and also the implementation, increasingly in demand, of RPA solutions in purchasing processes in order to take a step forward in the digital transformation that companies are establishing.


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Theodora (Wife of Justinian I) – James Allan Evans

Posted by on Aug 11, 2022 in Articles, Library | Comments Off on Theodora (Wife of Justinian I) – James Allan Evans

University of British Columbia

If we except the chroniclers, there are hardly any sources for Theodora that are written without parti pris. The most important, Procopius of Caesarea, who is our only source for the lurid details of Theodora’s early life, presented a different Theodora in each of his three works, the History of the Wars of Justinian in seven books to which an eighth was added later, the Anekdota orSecret History, to give it its popular name, an essay purportedly written immediately after the first seven books of the Wars were published and containing data which were too defamatory to circulate openly, and the De Aedificiis or Buildings which is a panegyric on Justinian’s building program throughout the empire. All these works were written or at least completed after Theodora’s death in 548. In the Wars, Procopius credits the regime’s success at suppressing the ‘Nika’ revolt of 532 to Theodora’s courage and imagines a splendid scene which may have some basis in fact, where she declares that she, at least, will not flee the capital city. The Anekdota is full of scurrilous details about Theodora’s early life as an actress and courtesan, and her intrigues at court. In the De Aedificiis, however, the picture is uniformly flattering. The emperor and empress shared a common piety (1.8.5), he claims, and her loveliness was such that it was impossible to convey it in words or portray it by a statue (1.11.9). (Even in the Anekdota 10.11, he concedes that she was attractive, though short and rather sallow in complexion.)

Procopius’ viewpoint differs in these three works, understandably in the De Aedificiis, which was an encomium and intended to please the emperor, but they do not actually contradict each other. The lurid details of Theodora’s early life find corroboration of sorts in an unexpected source: the Syriac historian John of Amida, better known as John of Ephesus (PO 17, i, 188-89) for he became the Monophysite bishop of that city, refers to Theodora almost casually as “Theodora from the brothel” (ek tou porneiou). John is a friendly witness for he looked on Theodora as the protector of the Monophysites and the fact that the words appear in Greek in his Syriac text may indicate that he is simply reproducing without malice a sobriquet from the Constantinople streets. AndJustinian’s law code (Codex Justinianus V.4.23)[[1]] provides another morsel of evidence. This is the law which Procopius[[2]] claims was promulgated byJustin I at Justinian’s instance, in order to legalize the marriage privileges of a penitent ex-actress. It declares that a former actress who was admitted to the patriciate would henceforth have all former blemishes wiped out and was free to marry anyone. Thus we are probably right to consider Procopius a trustworthy witness for Theodora’s early career, albeit a malicious one when he was writing not for publication.

The death of the emperor Anastasius in 518 and the accession of Justin Imarked the end of a period of tolerance and accommodation for the Monophysite heresy,[[3]] and the Monophysite monks and churchmen in the eastern provinces faced a tidal wave of persecution.[[4]] Only Egypt was safe. But Theodora was converted, it seems, to the Monophysite heresy shortly after the persecution began, and remained a devout Monophysite until her death and her reputation has been colored by odium theologicum. When a copy of theAnekdota was found in 1623 in the Vatican Library, thereby introducing it to the world of scholarship, Catholic churchmen were delighted to find such explicit proof of the wickedness of the empress, and the Vatican librarian Alemannus, who was the Anekdota’s first editor, remarked that nothing was too execrable to be believed of this enemy of the Council of Chalcedon.[[5]] On the other hand, Monophysite sources, mostly in Syriac, laud her piety and devotion. Theodora and Justinian were frequently on opposite sides of the great theological contention about the Trinity. Yet, both sought common ground, andJustinian seems never to have doubted the fundamental loyalty of his wife.

Theodora’s Early Life

The origin of Theodora’s family has prompted some speculation: Syria, Cyprus, and Paphlagonia have all been suggested but we meet her first in Procopius’Anekdota as the second of three daughters of one Acacius, the bear-keeper for the Green faction in the Hippodrome at Constantinople. As such he looked after the trained bears and other animals for the entr’actes between the chariot races. It was usual for a son to follow his father in this post, but when Acacius died suddenly, he left no son. However, his widow remarried quickly and hoped that her new husband would take over the post of the old one. However the final decision rested with the chief ballet dancer to make, and he accepted a bribe to appoint another man. Destitute, Theodora’s mother brought her children wearing garlands into the Hippodrome where the Greens, Blue, Reds and White sat in their reserved sections, and presented them as suppliants to the crowd. The Greens rejected them. But the Blues who had just lost their own bear-keeper, took pity and appointed Theodora’s stepfather to the vacant post. Theodora, naturally enough, remained an aficionado of the Blues. Whatever Theodora’s differences might be on theology with Justinian, they agreed upon what faction to support in the Hippodrome.

As soon as they were old enough, Theodora’s mother put her children on the stage. The eldest, Comito, scored a great success and Theodora, the middle child, followed her on stage, playing a little slave attendant for her sister. Theater was considered the embodiment of immorality in the sixth century and by the end of the seventh century, the Church would succeed in banning it entirely. The staple fare was the mime, involving obscene burlesque, and on the evidence of Procopius, Theodora made a name for herself with her portrayal of Leda and the Swan: she stripped off her clothes as far as the law allowed, for complete nudity was banned, and lay on her back while some attendants scattered barley on her groin. Then geese, evidently playing Zeus in several guises, picked up the barley with their bills. She also entertained notables at banquets and accepted a multitude of lovers. Procopius pretends that her appetite for sexual intercourse was voracious and relates stories about her that sound like men’s locker room humor, but nonetheless they were probably tales current on the streets of Constantinople. It is certain that Theodora had a daughter before her marriage to Justinian and Procopius also reports a son, who presented himself at court, claiming that his father on his deathbed had told him that the empress was his mother, and whereupon Theodora, having heard his story, disposed of him. We may reasonably doubt the truth of this tale, for it assumes that Theodora was unashamed of a bastard daughter, even arranging a good marriage for her, but was determined that her bastard son be consigned to oblivion. The “son” may have been an imposter, or, perhaps more likely, the report was complete fiction.

In due course, however, she became the mistress of a Syrian Hecebolus who was a native of Tyre, and accompanied him when he went to the Libyan Pentapolis as governor. For Theodora, this represented an escape from her profession, for a law of 409 (Cod. Just. XI 41.5) barred local authorities from transferring actors from their cities, thereby lessening the attraction of popular festivals, and if Hecebolus had not been a man of some standing with “clout”, Theodora might have encountered legal obstacles to her desertion of the stage. But she soon failed to please. Abandoned and maltreated by Hecebolus (Anek. 9.27; 12.30), she made her way to Alexandria. We may have an authentic comment from her on Hecebolus years later: in 535 Justinian issued a constitution (Nov. 8.1) which prohibited the purchase of public office, for it was an inducement to corruption. Justinian states explicitly that he consulted Theodora before he made this reform. She may have had Hecebolus in mind as a typical public servant, for it is not unlikely that he bought his office and recouped the purchase price by corrupt practices. But we must not wander too far into the realm of imagination.

In Alexandria she seems to have met the patriarch, Timothy III, a Monophysite whose position was powerful enough that he was able to give refuge to Monophysite churchmen such as Severus, the patriarch of Antioch, when the persecution initiated by Justin I drove them from their sees. At least Monophysite legend had it that she considered ‘Bishop Timothy’ her spiritual father, and this ‘Timothy’ may well have been Timothy III who became patriarch in 517, one year before Justin I’s accession.[[6]] Actresses were normally denied the sacraments until they were on their deathbeds, and so we cannot tell how Theodora met her bishop, if, in fact, they did actually meet. But her conversion was sincere and lasting. She remained a devout Monophysite until her death.

From Alexandria she went to Antioch and there she was befriended by the Blue faction’s star ballet dancer, Macedonia, who also, it appears, had a second occupation as an informer of Justinian’s, who was now, after Vitalian’s death, the magister militum praesentalis in Constantinople. Macedonia passed on to her patron the names of notables who represented a threat to him. Procopius (Anek.12.29-32) relates a fantastic tale that Theodora revealed to Macedonia a dream which she had, that she would come to the capital where the Lord of the Demons would bed her, marry her and make her mistress of limitless wealth. How a confidence like that can have increased Macedonia’s faith in Theodora is hard to understand. But it may have been Macedonia who provided Theodora with an introduction to Justinian.[[7]] Possibly she presented Theodora to him as a person whom it would be useful to know, and as a fellow aficionado of the Blues. In any case the two met, fell in love, and what is more remarkable, accepted each other as intellectual equals. They were always more than sexual partners. A tradition of the eleventh century relates that on Theodora’s return to the capital, she lived in humble lodgings and spun wool, which was a virtuous occupation. She did not forget her erstwhile associates but there was no question of her returning to her former life. If Justinian wanted her, he had to marry her.

For that, new legislation would be necessary, for the laws forbade a patrician to marry an actress. Justin, who seems to have been fond of Theodora was willing to oblige, but Justinian encountered an unexpected obstacle in the empress Euphemia. Justin had bought his wife as a slave many years before he became emperor, and her slave-name Lupicina rouses suspicion for it was commonly found among prostitutes. Yet once she became empress, she took the more respectable name of Euphemia, and guarded the respectability of her office jealously. She liked Justinian, and ordinarily refused him nothing, but she would not hear of him marrying an actress. But once she was dead (ca. 523),Justin promulgated the necessary legislation and it appears in the Justinianic Code (Cod. Just. V.4.23). It freed truly penitent actresses from all blemishes and returned them to their pristine condition. Soon after, the patriarch Epiphanius joined Justinian and Theodora in wedlock in the cathedral church of the Holy Wisdom.

Thus the new dynastic family in Constantinople was sprung from a union of Illyrian (or perhaps Thracian) peasant stock from the Balkans on the one side and the theater on the other. This was a society which was remarkably mobile in spite of its apparently rigid class structure. Justin had used his good fortune to further his family’s status: he had brought Justinian, the son of his sister, to Constantinople, seen to his education and adopted him (the name Justinianus is the cognomen which Justinian took upon adoption: his birth name was Flavius Petrus Sabbatius), and he was only slightly less generous to another nephew, Germanus, a brilliant army officer who made a splendid marriage into the Constantinopolitan branch of the aristocratic Anicii. Theodora also provided an entrée for her friends from the theater. Her sister, Comito, became the wife of a rising young officer, Sittas, who was to die young while campaigning in Armenia. Her niece married the nephew of JustinianJustin II, who succeededJustinian in 565. These two parvenus on the throne would have been only human if they took some satisfaction from the sight of scions of Constantinople’s great families bowing and scraping before them. Theodora in particular was punctilious about court ceremonial. Procopius (Anek. 30.23-6) complains that Justinian and Theodora made all senators, including patricians, prostrate themselves before them whenever they entered their presence, and made it clear that their relations with the civil militia were those of masters and slaves. With his next breath Procopius complains that the emperor and empress made their magistrates dance attendance upon them, and made a point of supervising them carefully, whereas previously magistrates had a greater degree of independence and could get on with their work. What Procopius fails to add is that these magistrates used their independence to enrich themselves and that one reason for the dissatisfaction with the regime, which both Procopius and John Lydus express, is that it tried, with no marked success, to wipe out bureaucratic corruption.[[8]]

Theodora as a partner in power

Procopius in his Anekdota indicates that what attracted Justinian to Theodora was pure, undiluted lust. They did, we can be sure, marry for love and they hoped for children. When Mar Saba, the stoutly Chalcedonian archimandrite of the lauras in the Judean desert, came to Constantinople in 531 with a petition on behalf of the Palestinians who had suffered in the Samaritan revolt, Theodora asked for his prayers that she might conceive, but the old monk refused, saying that the son she bore would be a greater calamity for the empire than the old Monophysite emperor Anastasius! Theodora never did conceive. The daughter born to an unknown father before her marriage is the only child that was certainly hers.

She had Justinian’s ear while he was still the heir-in-waiting, but it was the ‘Nika’ revolt which demonstrated her steel. A riot early in 532 rapidly escalated into a full-scale revolt which almost toppled the regime. Procopius (Wars1.24.33-37) describes the panicky debate in the palace whether to flee in their ships or to stay where they were. Then Theodora rose to speak. Her speech, which is a nice piece of rhetoric, balances a speech made by a senator to the insurgents, advising cautious action against the emperor. Theodora begins with the acknowlegement that urging acts of daring was not considered womanly but nonetheless she took a tough line and urged defiance. Her husband might flee if he wished, but she would stay, for she liked the ancient maxim which said that royalty made a good shroud. The ancient maxim had actually said that tyrannymade a good shroud, and Procopius’ art may have enhanced Theodora’s great scene. We cannot take it at face value, even though Procopius may have been present at the time and witnessed it. But Justinian whose hesitation up until this point had if anything made the situation worse, recovered his nerve and took the offensive. He ordered his loyal troops led by two reliable officers, Belisarius and the Gepid prince Mundo, to attack the demonstrators in the Hippodrome. The resulting massacre would make Tiananmen Square look like a very minuscule atrocity indeed.

Theodora knew how to be ruthless and no one should sentimentalize her. One source[[9]] for the ‘Nika’ revolt reports that Justinian might have shown compassion for the nephews of Anastasius, Pompeius and Hypatius, the latter of whom the mob had chosen as their replacement for Justinian, but Theodora did not approve of mercy where the security of the regime was in question. It was her will that Pompeius and Hypatius be put to death. Justinian might later restore their property to their heirs, but by then they were no danger to the regime.

Theodora enjoyed the perquisites of imperial power, and her marriage withJustinian, which seems to have been a union of mutual respect, was so unusual by contemporary standards that it provoked reactions which reveal as much about the mind-set of the times as about the married couple. The reader of Procopius’ appraisal of Theodora (Anek. 10) will find a mother lode of clues to the group psychology of the small cadre of bureaucrats who ran the empire and for whom Theodora represented a center of power that did not fit their notional horizons. ‘Those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved by the loss of chastity, will eagerly listen to all the invectives of private envy or popular resentment, which have dissembled the virtues of Theodora, exaggerated her vices, and condemned with rigour the venal and voluntary sins of the youthful harlot,’ wrote Edward Gibbon.[[10]] Gibbon, who never failed to relish ‘venal and voluntary sins’, particularly those practised by women, mentions a selection of Theodora’s, excerpted for the most part from theAnekdota: her ‘private hours were devoted to the prudent as well as the grateful care of her beauty,’ the ‘most illustrious personages of the state’ who sought audiences, were kept waiting and then ‘they experienced, as her humour might suggest, the silent arrogance of an empress, or the capricious levity of a comedian.’ He notes her ‘immense avarice’ to secure great wealth which might be excused by the fact that her good fortune depended entirely upon Justinian’slongevity and if he were to die before her, she could retain her status only with her private assets. ‘But the reproach of cruelty, so repugnant even to her softer vices, has left an indelible stain on the memory of Theodora,’ added Gibbon, and he proceeded to give examples. They come from the Anekdota, and Procopius’ chief criterion for including them in that ‘satire’, as Gibbon called it, was that they should be malicious. Yet Theodora never shared her husband’s reputation for being easy-going.

She presented herself, however, as the friend of the unfortunate. The great inscription on the entablature of the church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople proclaims her as the ‘God-crowned Theodora whose mind is adorned with piety and whose constant toil lies in unsparing efforts to nourish the destitute.’[[11]] She shut down brothels in the capital and removed the prostitutes to a convent on the Asian side of the Dardanelles called the Metanoia(Repentance).[[12]] She intervened on behalf of women who were wronged.[[13]] And there is a clutch of legislation promulgated by Justinianwhich improves the status of women and where we may suspect Theodora’s influence.

It may be argued that these reforms merely mark the culmination of a trend which had been taking place over the previous centuries, but nonetheless they belong to Justinian and if he could consult his wife about administrative corruption, which he indicates that he did, it seems likely that he would seek her input on legislation affecting women’s rights, too. Justinian forbade exposure of unwanted infants, who were far more frequently girls than boys, though apparently he failed to put a stop to the custom, for in 529 we find a new law which gave anyone who rescued an exposed child the right to give him/her either free or slave status.[[14]] The laws concerning tutela (guardianship) of women had undergone modification since the days of the Roman Republic when women remained under lifetime tutela: women were still excluded from acting as guardians in the third century, but in 390, widows were allowed to be guardians of their children and grandchildren if they did not remarry and if there were no other legitimate male guardians. Justinian extended the right of guardianship to the natural mother.[[15]] He eased the punishments for adultery: in Novel 117.15 he reminded his subjects that while a husband might kill his wife’s lover with impunity, he might not kill his wife and, for that matter, before he killed the lover, he must send him three written warnings, duly witnessed![[16]] A woman should not be put into prison where male guards might violate her; if detention was necessary she could go to a nunnery. A woman’s right to hold property, he ruled, should be no less than a man’s. And the ante-nuptial donation, which had developed in Late Antiquity as a counter-dowry given by the husband to his wife, should be equal in value to the dowry.[[17]] Justinian’s measures protecting women give us ground for suspecting Theodora’s counsel and influence, and, from their dates, it is clear that her influence did not end with her death.

Within the civil and military militia, Theodora created her own centers of power. The eunuch Narses who in old age developed into a brilliant general, was her protégé. So was the praetorian prefect Peter Barsymes. John the Cappadocian she identified as an enemy. He was Justinian’s efficiency expert and both Procopius and John the Lydian bear witness to his unpopularity. He was sacrificed to the mob during the ‘Nika’ revolt but he was soon back at his former post as praetorian prefect. But he paid Theodora scant respect, and even worse from her viewpoint, he had Justinian’s ear. Theodora was jealous of his influence and with the help of her friends, particularly her crony, Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, she set a trap for him and he fell into it. The bait she used was the prospect of imperial power. On her instructions, Antonina intimated to John’s naïve daughter that Belisarius was unhappy and ready to rebel, and that he would welcome John as a fellow conspirator. This proposition involved disloyalty, but Theodora had assessed her victim correctly. John did not balk at disloyalty to the emperor when the reward was power. Even after John had fallen, Theodora’s vengeance followed him. Officers of the civil and militarymilitia learned that if they carried out Justinian’s commands negligently, he might be angry but he would eventually forgive them. But let them flout Theodora and they could expect condign retribution and no forgiveness.

Theodora’s Religious Policy

In the Menelogion (Liturgical Calendar) of the Greek Orthodox Church, under November 14 there appears “The Assumption of the Orthodox King Justinian and the memory of Queen Theodora”. Theodora was not orthodox and contemporary orthodox churchmen recognized her as an enemy. Yet religious differences never seem to have caused a rift between Justinian and Theodora, and Procopius (Anek. 10.15; 27.13) may be expressing the view of his class in Constantinople when he reports that the “rift” was a hoax devised by this evil pair to encourage strife among the Christians.

The Arabic History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria is better taken as a document of Monophysite folk tradition than as an accurate record of events: it overlooks Justin I entirely, for instance, and attributes the persecution of the Monophysites that began with Justin’s accession to Justinianand regards Theodora not only as defender of Monophysite churchmen but also as an emigrant from Alexandria herself.[[18]] Severus, who had been a protégé of the old emperor Anastasius, had to flee to Egypt, as did many other Monophysite churchmen and monks: in fact, Alexandria became a crucible for the various strands of Monophysite theology, and Severus’ beliefs were rapidly challenged there by radical sectarians who made him appear a relative moderate. Theodora may have met Severus in Alexandria. She was still only a reformed actress, but her encounter with Monophysite refugees had important results.

She was soon in a better position to help. Severus’ Chalcedonian successor in Antioch, Paul ‘the Jew’ (519-21), undertook a cleansing of the churches and monasteries of the Orient. The fragments of John of Ephesus’ Ecclesiastical History[[19]] supply a vivid record from the perspective of the persecuted. Monks and nuns were driven from their monasteries and some had to spend their nights like wild beasts wandering on the hillsides, enduring snow and winter rains in the winter. Paul’s tenure was short but his successor as patriarch, Euphrasius, was moderate only by comparison. He perished in the earthquake which befell Antioch in 526, and Monophysite tradition had no doubt that his death was not only hideous, but appropriate. His successor, Ephraim of Amida, had been a military officer, a former Magister Militum per Orientem, and he did not hesitate to use military force.

During all this time Theodora’s influence at court grew. But Justinian was not yet emperor, and, dependent as he was on his nephew, Justin clearly did not want to be hurried. In 526 Pope John visited Constantinople where he went through a coronation ceremony with Justin, but not Justinian. But within a few months, Justin’s health was clearly failing, and on 1 April, 527, he crowned Justinian as his co-emperor, and four months later, he died. The Monophysites now had a sturdy friend at the center of power. Theodora did what she could. When the monks of the monastery called ‘Orientalium’ at Edessa were expelled in the dead of winter by their Chalcedonian bishop, they wandered from place to place until they found refuge for between six and seven years at a monastery called En-Hailaf, and then Theodora arranged for their return home. Mare, the deposed metropolitan of Amida, and his clergy nearly perished in exile at Petra until Theodora got permission from Justinian for them to go to Alexandria and, when Mare died, it was Theodora who arranged for his bones to be returned to Amida.[[20]]

Her influence in religious affairs reached its height in the early 530s. By 531, it was clear even to a convinced orthodox theologian like Justinian that Justin’sharsh measures against heresy had failed. In Antioch, the persecutions of the Chalcedonian patriarch Ephraim had provoked a violent revolt.[[21]] At summer’s end, the persecution was suspended and eight Monophysite bishops were invited to Constantinople. Early in the next year, the regime survived the ‘Nika’ revolt and Theodora emerged from it with greater influence than before. When the bishops arrived, accompanied by a mini-mob of not less than five hundred holy men,[[22]] Theodora welcomed them and housed them in the Hormisdas Palace adjoining the Great Palace which had been Justinian and Theodora’s own dwelling before they became emperor and empress. Theodora visited them every two or three days, sometimes bringing Justinian with her, and the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus was built for Monophysite use.

In the spring of 532, while construction crews were repairing the devastation of the ‘Nika’ revolt in Constantinople, Justinian sponsored a three-day conference of bishops in the Hormisdas Palace. Five bishops debated on each side. But the ‘Tome’ of Leo proved the sticking-point. In the spring of the next year,Justinian published his own confession of faith: a Chalcedonian-flavored declaration which managed to avoid mention of the ‘Tome’ of Leo. Then Theodora and Justinian invited Severus to the capital, and in the winter of 534-5, Severus came, though without enthusiasm.[[23]] Upon his arrival, Theodora introduced him to the new patriarch Anthimus, who had been appointed to the see of Constantinople upon the death of Epiphanius in 535.Theodora may have known that Anthimus was not unsympathetic to Monophysite views but, if so, she kept her information secret. As far as anyone else knew, his orthodox credentials were impeccable.[[24]] Yet, when Severus and Anthimus met, the latter was soon won over. In Rome, Pope John II was not a hard-line prelate. A solution must have seemed just around the corner and Theodora could take much of the credit for it.

Then suddenly it fell apart. In Egypt, Timothy III died, and Theodora enlisted the help of Dioscoros the Augustal Prefect and Aristomachos the duke of Egypt to facilitate the enthronement of a disciple of Severus, Theodosius, thereby outmaneuvering her husband who had been plotting for a Catholic successor as patriarch. But on the very day that Theodosius was installed, a violent uprising organized by the extreme Monophysites, the Aphthartodocetists, drove him from Alexandria and invested in his place the Aphthartodocetist archdeacon Gaianas, who held the patriarchate for 103 days, until imperial troops, led by Narses, acting under Theodora’s orders with which Justinian acquiesced, replaced Theodosius on his episcopal throne. Severus, whose theology Theodosius shared, now belonged to the moderate Monophysite party, outnumbered in Egypt by the Aphthartodocetists a.k.a. Julianists a.k.a Gaianists, who were disciples of Julian of Halicarnassus, an erstwhile friend of Severus who had been his companion in exile, where he carried Monophysite doctrine to the extreme that he claimed Christ’s body was incorruptible. Gaianas was consigned to exile in Sardinia but his theology swept Egypt.

In Rome, Pope John II died and his successor Agapetus arrived in Constantinople in 536 on a mission for the Ostrogothic king, Theodahad. Agapetus had a high card: Belisarius’ campaign to recover Italy from the Ostrogoths was just getting under way and Justinian could not appear as an opponent of the Chalcedonians without alienating the support and good will of the Italians. Shortly after his arrival on 1 March, Agapetus denounced Anthimus and on 13 March, Anthimus was deposed and replaced by the solidly Chalcedonian Menas, director of the hospice of Sampson. On 22 April, Agapetus died, but a synod presided over by Menas excommunicated Anthimus, Severus and their followers and on 6 August, the emperor confirmed the excommunication and directed that neither of the two heretical prelates should live in any of the great cities of the empire; rather they should dwell in isolation and the works of Severus should be burned. But with Theodora’s help, Severus returned safely to Egypt where he died in 538, and Anthimus disappeared. After Theodora’s death in 548, he was discovered living quietly in the women’s quarters of the palace which were Theodora’s domain.

She soon received another patriarchal refugee, Theodosius I. Even with the help of imperial troops, he could not hold his ground in Alexandria against the Julianists. Word was brought to Theodora and she (according to the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church) “calmly, wisely and humbly, went in to the prince and informed him of all that had happened, without his sanction, to Father Theodosius, patriarch in the city of Alexandria,” and Justinian gave Theodora the power to do what was necessary. So an investigation was held into the disputed ordinations of Theodosius and his Julianist rival, Gaianas, and Theodosius was vindicated. But for all Justinian could do, Theodosius would not accept the creed of Chalcedon even though Justinian brought him to Constantinople and argued the matter with him on six occasions. So Justiniandeposed him and exiled him together with 300 Monophysites to the fortress of Derkos in Thrace. Theodora soon came to his rescue, however, and brought him back to the relative comfort of the Hormisdas Palace where he lived under her protection, and after her death in 548, under Justinian’s, for on her deathbed Theodora had Justinian swear that he would protect her little community of Monophysite refugees there, and he kept his promise.

Pope Agapetus died in Constantinople before he could return to Italy. Theodora’s choice as his successor was a deacon who had accompanied Agapetus to Constantinople, Vigilius, who had apparently intimated that he was prepared to be more malleable. But the election was held before Vigilius could reach Rome, and the new pope was the son of Pope Hormisdas, Silverius, who had the support of the Ostrogothic king Theodahad. Events were moving rapidly in Italy: Belisarius, leading an imperial invasion force, was advancing from the south, Naples fell, and the Ostrogoths, disgusted with Theodahad’s flaccid leadership, deposed him and replaced him with Witigis. He decided that his best strategy would be to secure his northern frontier against the Franks before he attended to the Byzantines, and he evacuated Rome, having first received a loyalty oath from Silverius. Once the Goths had departed, Silverius invited the Byzantine forces into the city. That might have given him some claim for consideration. But for Theodora he was only an impediment to her theological strategy.

Procopius (Wars 5.25. 13-14) mentions briefly that Belisarius deposed Silverius under suspicion of treason and sent him to Greece and the Anekdota (1.14) promises to describe Theodora’s skullduggery, but it is an unfulfilled promise. However, the Liber Pontificalis describes how Silverius refused Theodora’s demand that he remove the anathema of Agapetus from Anthimus, and when he refused, she sent Belisarius instructions to find a pretext to remove him. Belisarius and his wife Antonina saw to it that Silverius was deposed, and Vigilius appointed in his stead. Theodora now had her man on the papal throne but as it turned out, he was not malleable enough.

The next incident in the saga of Justinian’s continuing effort to find common ground for the Chalcedonians and Monophysites was the ‘Three Chapters’ dispute. It arose from an effort to clear the Chalcedonians of any suspicion of Nestorianism by condemning the teaching of three long-dead theologians and it gave rise to a protracted struggle which pitted the churches of Italy and Africa against Constantinople. Ironically, for the Monophysites the dispute was largely irrelevant. Vigilius waged an epic struggle with Justinian and eventually lost, but in the process, the ‘Three Chapters’ incident revealed the gulf that was widening between East and West. Vigilius was not an unyielding prelate but he knew that if he compromised, Italy and Africa would disown him, which in fact, did happen when he did, in the end, surrender. The pope in the sixth century was anything but an absolute potentate in matters of faith. Theodora died while the dispute was still raging. But before she died she made a last contribution to the growing schism in Christendom.

In 541, al-Harith, the sheikh of the Ghassanid tribe of Saracens whose friendship was important for the security of the south Syrian frontier, was in Constantinople on other business and took the opportunity to approach Theodora with a request for bishops. Imperial prestige in the east was low at this point. Only the year before, the Persians had sacked Antioch. With Theodora’s blessing, Theodosius, who from his refuge in the Hormisdas Palace was now recognized as the spiritual leader of the Monophysites, ordained two monks as nomadic bishops. Nominally Jacob Baradaeus was metropolitan of Edessa and Theodore was metropolitan of Bostra but neither resided in their episcopal seats where they might have been vulnerable to arrest. Instead they moved from camp to camp, in the countryside beyond the reach of the Chalcedonian hierarchy.

Theodosius himself had been reluctant to ordain Monophysite bishops for he was well aware that, with the establishment of a separate Monophysite hierarchy, Christendom would be permanently split in two. That would strike at the heart of imperial unity, and the moderate Monophysites were still steadfastly loyal. But Jacob Baradaeus had no such scruples. His Life, attributed to John of Ephesus, relates how he came to Constantinople, and met Theodora who had already seen him in a dream and was given a dwelling by her where he met a large number of the faithful, among them the Ghassanid sheikh, al-Harith. Once he was consecrated bishop at al-Harith’s request, he secretly secured permission from Theodosius to ordain priests and the Life[[25]] says with some exaggeration that he ordained 100,000. Justinian tried to arrest him but he was never caught and in the end, he gave up. Baradaeus has a good claim to be the founder of the Monophysite church.

The final result of Theodora’s policy on theological matters was separatist. The split between Chalcedonian and Monophysite doctrines was probably insoluble, for behind both were popular forces which could not be controlled by theological formulas. The ‘Tome’ of Pope Leo, which was the core of the Chalcedonian Creed, was a reef on which all formulas would founder, for the Catholics would not accept any amendment to it, whereas even the most moderate Monophysite had come to regard it as an evil doctrine. One could argue, as the Chalcedonians did, that Theodora fostered heresy and thus undermined the unity of Christendom. But it would be equally fair to say that it was the non-negotiable position taken by Rome that undermined unity, and that Theodora’s championship of the Monophysites delayed the alienation of the eastern church, and might have postponed it indefinitely but for external events she could not control or foresee.

Yet, one incident shows how far Theodora could go to thwart her husband on religious matters. The Nobadae south of Egypt were converted to Monophysite Christianity about 540. Justinian had been determined that they be converted to the Chalcedonian faith and Theodora equally determined that they should be Monophysites. So Justinian made arrangements for Chalcedonian missionaries from the Thebaid should go with presents to Silko the king of the Nobadae. But on hearing this, Theodora prepared her own missionaries and wrote to the duke of the Thebaid that he should delay her husband’s embassy so that the Monophysite missionaries should arrive first; otherwise he would pay for it with his life. The duke was canny enough not to thwart Theodora and thus he saw to it that the Chalcedonian missionaries were delayed, and when they reached Silko, they were sent away, for the Nobadae had already adopted the creed of Theodosius.[[26]]

At the end of his life Justinian converted to Monophysitism himself, and he did not choose the moderate Monophysitism of Theodosius who still lived in the Hormisdas Palace, but the extreme form taught by Julian of Halicarnassus. Theodora was by then long dead. She had died of cancer in 548 and though it has been argued that the sole source for her illness, Victor of Tonnena, may not use the word “cancer” in its modern medical sense, yet cancer, possibly breast cancer, seems to be best guess. Perhaps Theodora’s long discussions and debates with her husband (both were no mean theologians) on the nature of the Trinity had, in the end, convinced Justinian. She was a remarkable woman who left her mark on her age. How she should be ranked for statecraft remains an open question.

Bridge, Anthony, Theodora. Portrait in a Byzantine Landscape. London, 1978.

Browning, Robert, Justinian and Theodora. 2nd ed., London, 1987.

Capizzi, Carmelo, Giustiniano I tra politica e religione. Messina, 1994.

Diehl, Ch., Théodora, impératrice de Byzance, Paris, 1904.

Evans, J. A. S., ‘The “Nika” rebellion and the Empress Theodora,” Byzantion, 47 (1977), 380-382.

________. The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power. London, 1996.

Holmes, W. G. The Age of Justinian and Theodora, 2 vols. London, 1912.

[[1]]Dates between 520 and 523, after the death of the empress Euphemia who, according to Procopius, opposed the marriage of Theodora and Justinian. On the law see David Daube, “The Marriage of Justinian and Theodora. Logical and Theological Reflections,” Catholic University of America Law Review 16 (1967), 380-399.

[[2]]Anekdota 9.47-54.

[[3]]On Monophysitism, the best general study is still W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement. Chapters in the History of the Church in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries. (Cambridge, 1972). The label ‘Monophysite’ was not a contemporary one: the ‘Monophysites, in their own literature, always referred to themselves as ‘orthodox’, whereas the distinguishing badge of the Chalcedonians (who also considered themselves orthodox) was the ‘Tome’ of Leo.

[[4]]See J. A. S. Evans, “The Monophysite Persecution under Justin I: The Eastern View,” The Ancient World 27/2 (1996), 191-96; Susan Ashbrook Harvey, “Remembering Pain: Syriac Historiography and the Separation of the Churches,” Byzantion 58 (1988), 295-308.

[[5]]J. A. S. Evans, Procopius (New York, 1972), pp. 29-30; Averil Cameron,Procopius (“The Great Histories” series, ed. H. Trevor-Roper, New York, 1967) pp. xxvii-xxviii.

[[6]]Anthony Bridges’ semi-popular Theodora (London, 1978), pp. 29-33 develops the legend. Still worth reading is Ch. Diehl, Théodora, impératrice de Byzance (Paris, 1904), pp. 36-45. Christophert Haas’ Alexandria in Late Antiquity (Baltimore, 1997) does not go beyond the fifth century except in the epilogue, but it is a splendid description of the social conflict and religious turmoil in the city before the Justinianic period.

[[7]]So Diehl, ibid., surmises (pp. 44-45), but without solid evidence.

[[8]]See the excellent chapter on the bureaucracy by T. S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy A.D. 554-800 (Rome, 1984), pp. 109-25.

[[9]]Zachariah of Mytilene, 9.14.

[[10]]The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. David Womersley, (Harmondsworth 1994) II, pp. 567-8. The second volume of this edition comprises volumes 3 (1781) and 4 (1788) of the original publication.

[[11]]J. A. S. Evans, The Age of Justinian, p. 103.

[[12]]Procopius, De Aedificiis, 1.9.1-10. The Anekdota 17.5-6, adds that some of these reformed harlots found their chaste lives so distasteful that they hurled themselves down from the walls of the convent.

[[13]]Evans, The Age of Justinian, p. 104.

[[14]]Cod. Just. 8.51 [52] 3; Eva Cantarella, Pandora’s Daughters (Baltimore, 1987), p. 136.

[[15]]Pandora’s Daughters, p. 139.

[[16]]Ibid., p. 164.

[[17]]Evans, The Age of Justinian, pp. 207-8.

[[18]]Patrologia Orientalis (henceforth PO) I, p. 459, states that Theodora originally came from Alexandria. This probably refers to her sojourn there after Hecebolus discarded her, but there may have been a tradition which made her a native of the city. At PO I, p. 454, sub nomine Timothy III, patriarch of Alexandria, 517-535, the History describes (inaccurately) how Theodora interceded for Severus, the patriarch of Antioch.

[[19]]Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde I (1889) pp. 217-219. Trans. into Latin by W. J. Van Douwen and J. P. N. Land.

[[20]]John of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints. PO, t. 17, I, pp. 187-212, esp. 188-89; pp. 194-5.

[[21]]Ernst Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire II (1949), p. 377. For what follows, see Carmelo Capizzi, Giustiniano I tra politica e religione (Messina, 1994), pp. 62-88; J. A. S. Evans, The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power, (London/New York, 1996), pp. 105-112; 183-92.

[[22]]John of Ephesus includes an essay on the communities of monks which Theodora gathered in the Hormisdas Palace (Patrologia Orientalis 18 (Paris, 1924), pp. 676-684) which is remarkable for its description of these holy men who filled every nook and cranny and continued their devotions, Many were stylite saints who, fearing persecution, came down from the pillars; others were monks, including archimandrites, expelled from their cells. The sight of them, the smell, and the noise of their hymns and canticles must have been overwhelming.

[[23]]Evagrius, 4.10; Theophanes, A.M. 6002. John of Beith-Apthonia, Life of Severus (in Syriac), Corpis scriptorum christianorum orientalium II, pp. 205-64, relates that Severus left his refuge at Alexandria without a thought for his safety, and emphasizes Theodora’s role as his protector.

[[24]]Anthony Bridge, Theodora, pp. 125-6 presents Anthimius’ appointment as a victory for Theodora. Or possibly only a piece of good fortune.

[[25]]Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde XVIII (Amsterdam, 1889) pp. 203-215.

[[26]]The story comes from John of Ephesus. See J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire II (New York, 1958), pp. 328-330.

Copyright (C) 1998, James Allan Evans. This file may be copied on the condition that the entire contents, including the header and this copyright notice, remain intact.

Comments to: James Allan Evans.

Updated:25 July 1998

For more detailed geographical information, please use the DIR/ORBAntique and Medieval Atlas below. Click on the appropriate part of the map below to access large area maps.

Return to the Imperial Index


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Horrortoberfest ’22 Day 22 – 1922 (2017)

I figured I would keep on going with Netflix based movie with years as the title and just happened to luck into this perfectly slotting in there. I didn’t intend for my 22nd review in 2022 to be 1922 but here we are and I think that’s just neat. I never read the Stephen King story that this was based on but I’ve heard that it is a pretty faithfully adaptation. While a far cry from being an instant classic, this movie manages to deliver on the horror of a man’s slow disintegration.

The framing convention for the film is a man’s confession to the murder of his wife in the year 1922. Wilford James (Thomas Jane), is a farmer that lives in Nebraska with his wife Arlette and his son Henry. They have 180 acres with 80 of that being Wilford’s and the other 100 left to Arlette when her dad died. Arlette wants to sell her acres and move to the city so she can open a dress shop and leave the rural life behind. Wilford, however, thinks cities are for fools and wants no part of that life but he can’t convince her to change her mind and when she goes, she’ll take Henry as well. Plus she wants to sell the land to hog farmers which would essentially ruin the other 80 acres for farming. So, instead of coming to any kind of other agreement, Wilford convinces his son that the only way he can stay here with his girlfriend and live a good life is to kill his mother. The guilt and remorse from this act will then destroy their lives and the lives of those around them.

The first act of this film is damn near perfect as the slow machinations of Wilford begin to prey upon his son. The stifling, claustrophobic feeling of these three characters interacting is brought to life wonderfully through both performance and visuals. The cinematography in this movie is gorgeous with these wide beautiful shots containing dark clouds or skies painted in crimson sunset. Thomas Jane also portrays the main character to be conniving and intelligent, with an intimidating charisma as he lays out how Henry will lose everything he loves if his mother manages to drag him to Omaha. I love that the movie doesn’t make Wilford fall into the stereotype of “simple country farmer”. He is a cold, calculating man that only begins to show remorse for this heinous actions as the consequences of what he has done begin to rot his soul from the inside out.

Unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd acts suffer from some pacing issues. I know that the film is meant to be a look at a man that slowly goes insane and loses everything but it is a bit too slow in that decent at times. You could easily cut 10-20 minutes of the movie belaboring all the things that Wilford has lost as a consequence of his actions and it would feel much tighter. I also think it’s hilarious that Thomas Jane puts on this incredibly thick, almost unintelligible country accent but literally everyone else in the movie apparently didn’t get the memo and barely bothers with an affectation at all. I don’t hate the accent but wither having everyone else join in or scaling it back a touch would cause the scenes where he interacts with other people to be a tad less jarring.

Not a great movie by any stretch but definitely a good one. If you’re scrolling through Netflix, looking for something to keep your attention for a while; you could do much worse than 1922.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

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Katrina 3 Table Leg

Katrina 3 Table Leg

The Katrina 3 Stainless Steel Table Leg features: -3" Diameter stainless steel column -6 3/4" x 6 3/4" Steel mounting plate -Three available heights -Custom Heights Available (Call to Order) -Includes removeable leveling glide -Sold Individually -Estimated Delivery in 3-8 Business Days
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Starting at $124.99

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Katrina 3 Table Leg - Dining Height (28")
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    005-0-120121-04===511===Katrina 3 Table Leg

Product Description

    The Katrina 3 Stainless Steel Table Leg provides excellent support with a sleek, modern design and a beautiful brushed stainless steel finish that resists corrosion and blends seamlessly with any restaurant or home design.

    These 3" diameter steel restaurant table legs are made from high quality steel, and are suitable for a variety of table tops, including those made from stone and other heavy materials**. You can combine four or more Katrina table legs to create a full table, or simply use one or two legs and a cantilever wall support for a strong, unobtrusive solution. These table legs are also perfect for creating wheelchair accessible table tops, as they provide plenty of support while leaving plenty of free space under the table top.

    The Katrina 3 Stainless Steel Table Legs are available at Dining Height (28"), Counter Height (34 3/4") and Bar Height (40 3/4") and can also be cut to any custom height up to 40 3/4" (call to order custom heights). The Katrina 3 table legs weigh about 6 pounds, and feature a 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" square mounting plate. A removeable leveling glide, which allows you to adjust your table for uneven floors, is included with each leg.

    *Estimated delivery for the Katrina tale legs is between 3-8 business days, depending on your shipping location. Estimated delivery for custom height legs is 5-10 business days. For complete lead time estimate or for rush orders, please contact customer service.

    **A sub-top is recommended when using these legs with stone or other impermeable table tops. For more information, please see our Guide to Using our Bases with Stone Table Tops.

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    Item Weight 6
    Availability Usually ships in 2-5 business days
    Column 3" dia. 16ga. Stainless Steel
    Finish Brushed 304 Stainless Steel
    Glides Stem: 10mm x 1.5 pitch, Adjustable Glide
    Outdoor Use Yes
    Spider / Mounting Plate 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" Steel Plate
    Note Sold Individually
    Ships From New Jersey


text:
The Moog One blows out the Current Synth Market

Sell those stock options, as this week Moog released its benchmark polyphonic analog synth, blessed with the moniker of Moog One. Its price point places the synth squarely in the realm of the boutique. The 8-voice model runs $5,999; while the 16-voice edition rocks a street price of $7,999. Needless to say, short of winning […]

Five Great Improvements for the Moog Sub 37

Don’t get me wrong, the Moog Sub 37 is a stunning piece of analog synthesizer gear. The thing sounds wonderful and expressive, with a panel full of knobs and switches sure to delight any synth head. It’s my best musical device purchase in years — maybe ever?! Having said all that, there are still some […]

First Impressions of the Moog Sub 37

Well, after a long wait — a bit too long methinks — Moog’s hot new analog synth, the Sub 37, arrived at my door yesterday. Our cats were quite intrigued with the box, but unfortunately for them it wasn’t to become their plaything du jour. The box contents are all mine. The Sub 37’s packaging […]


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RimWorld Ideology

The Ideology expansion for RimWorld has been out for quite a while now, having launched back in July of 2021.  I know because I bought it when it came out and fully intended to write about it last summer.  But the expansion went through some needed changes based on feedback pretty quickly, so I waited for that to settle down then moved on to something else and forgot about it.

RimWorld Ideology

But I got RimWorld out again this month and played a bit… this week literally has three posts now about me looking for something to play… and I figured I ought to revisit my thoughts on the expansion.

RimWorld, just to dial back a moment, is a top down survival simulator that has been around for over five years now if we count early access.  My earliest post about playing was back in 2017.  Since then it has had the Royalty and then the Ideology expansion packs.

The basic scenario premise is that of three people having their spaceship crash land on a planet and having to get themselves off planet and home again.

From a mechanics based “win the game” point of view, there is a well established through path which SynCaine covered back in 2017; get food production up, build defenses, ignore missions, do the minimum to keep your people happy, and focus on tech to build that spaceship in order to get off the planet.

Even adhering to that, getting through the game has some challenges.  Raids become more common and more aggressive as you move through time, and when you have that ship built and are getting it ready for launch, the attacks become relentless.

But another way to look at the game is as a story generator.  Each of the people in your game, the colonists, have skills and personality traits that dictate what keeps them happy and how they get along with others.

The game has a whole system of possible interactions, including rivalries, relationships, couples falling in love, marriage, divorce, and simple animosity that can break out into fist fights.

Royalty and Ideology both add more layers to your colonists, though Ideology much more so than RoyaltyRoyalty you can basically play along with or ignore.  Ideology becomes a serious part of the game play.

So one of the first patches to the Ideology expansion was the ability to not use it once you had purchased it.  You cannot just ignore it like Royalty.  After that there was a lot of tuning.

From a pure mechanics “winning” point of view, Ideology makes the game harder because it makes your colonists more difficult to keep happy.  So if that is your gig, then this is hard mode.

For those who enjoy the story of their colonists, this adds in a whole new dynamic.

When starting up the game you can opt out of the expansion or, if you run with it, choose a pre-made ideology, go random, or roll up your own specific ideology.

Choose a path, or go without

The web page for the expansion has a list of the many memes and precepts that can be mixed into an ideology.

An ideology isn’t just a religion, though it can have religious rituals and symbols.  It is more of a total community belief system and, as you can see from the choices on that screen.  It can be anything from a criminal gang to cannibals to tree worshiping vegans.

Some of the pre-made sets you can choose

And with any ideology comes a list of expectations.  There will be rituals they expect, official positions to be filled, clothing to be produced, and activities they will demand, otherwise they won’t be happy.

For example, I had a colony of burka wearing female supremacist dominators who were quite unhappy unless I sent them out on the occasional raid in order to beat down on the locals and capture some of them to enslave.  Every raid gave them a temp happiness boost, every slave in the colony boosted their happiness by a bit, and the person who did the actual enslaving got a big happiness boost.

Interestingly, one of the people they enslaved had the masochist trait and their happiness was improved when the were forced to wear a slave collar and body strap.  That slave was never going to revolt.

Unfortunately, the other slaves were not so inclined and there was a bloodbath when they rose up.  (Pro tip: don’t put the slave quarters next to a storage room that contains weapons.) The slave rebellion left only one colonist alive, one of the slaves, and their wounds got infected and they died a few days later.

One of the reasons for the rebellion was that everybody on the planet has an ideology and if you want to bring people into your colony and keep them happy, then you need to convert them.  That takes time.

Another drug loving colony was wiped out when a raid hit while they were in the middle of getting stoned.  Granted, it was a big raid, but I am not sure all of them being huddled around the communal bong set the right tone for defense.

The expansion opens up a range of new items from apparel to ritual related furniture to quests that can change up your colony completely.

So, is it worth $20?  Certainly more so than the Royalty expansion.

If you like the story of your colonists more than building that spaceship, the Ideology expansion adds a lot of depth to the game.

6 thoughts on “RimWorld Ideology

  1. Aywren Sojourner

    Thanks for the review on this! I haven’t played Rimworld in a while, and tend to have trouble with just the base game as it is. I noticed the two expansions not long ago and considered them, but based off your impression of the two, I’ll just stick with the original game until I figure that out first. :)

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Pingback: Break Time/Back from the Hospital – Indiecator

  3. SynCaine

    Still need to pick this up, and this review certainly has increased the odds of that. Royalty I didn’t mind, found it somewhat interesting, but yea it wasn’t a huge change to the core loop and got silly if you min/maxed it. Sounds like this adds more when you just play with the ‘see what happens’ style.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. kiantremayne

    “Pro tip: don’t put the slave quarters next to a storage room that contains weapons” – I can’t help but feel this one belongs on the Evil Overlord list. In your defence, the bad guys in just about everything Hollywood has ever put out make the same mistake.

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I was born in San Diego.  I grew up with Dan Fouts throwing to John Jefferson, Chuck Muncie diving over piles into the end zone, and Louie Kelcher eating quarterbacks for lunch.  In later years I watched some very good, and also some very bad Chargers football.  I have written books about the team, collected their memorabilia, reorganized the team photo archive (twice), redecorated the team offices, interviewed more than 100 former players, authenticated their game used memorabilia for NFL Auctions, answered questions about team history for their own PR office, contributed to their 50th Anniversary DVD, and more that I have likely forgotten.  Needless to say, the Chargers leaving my hometown has made an impression on me today.

Yet as involved as I have been at times, today I feel as distanced from the team as anyone else.  Contemporary professional sports lost me many years ago.  I am an old guy in a younger guy’s body, I guess, but I like things a bit simpler than they are in current day NFL.  Blaring music, defensive dances after tackles made 10 yards past the line of scrimmage, choreographed touchdown celebrations, and the expectation that we should kiss the boots of the mighty NFL have turned me off to it all.

I’ve never believed that the Chargers were 100% destined for Los Angeles.  Nor did I feel that they would always be in San Diego.  My thoughts traveled along the lines of the dollar.  Whatever location offered the most money is where they would end up – history, tradition, and fans be damned.  It is a sad reality.

Honestly, I am proud that San Diego did not cave in and meet the team’s demands.  I don’t live in the City of San Diego, so I did not have a vote last year.  But for me, it ultimately boiled down to this: Why should the public have to fund a large portion of a stadium to make the Spanos family wealthier than they already are?

I do feel badly about this situation, but it certainly is not for the Spanos family.  I feel badly for the Chargers staff members who now have to decide if they want to uproot their families and follow their employer to a city where, by all accounts, they are completely unwanted, or be out of a job.  I feel badly for the fans who save all year long so that they can purchase season tickets to watch their team; the fans who are at the stadium when the gates open, enjoy their Sunday afternoons with family and friends, cheer on their Chargers, and stay late after the game.  I feel badly for the pop warner kids who look up to their hometown heroes.  I feel badly for anyone who thought for even a moment that the Chargers cared as much for them as they did for the Chargers.  The truth is that they did not.  The Chargers did not care about you.  They only cared about what was in your wallet, and how much of its contents you were willing to give to them.

Honestly, the Chargers leaving doesn’t change me much at all.  I still love the AFL, and will continue to share stories on this site.  I will collect my signed trading cards, interview former ballplayers, and reconnect old teammates when I have the opportunity.  What I won’t do is cheer for the Chargers, and maybe not for any other team either.  My children and their friends participate in different sports from youth levels through high school.  I will cheer for those kids, laugh with their parents on sidelines, and maybe join them for a pizza after the game.  That, for the foreseeable future, will be enough for me.  Honestly, I’m already looking forward to it.


text:
ThisOceanLife tv: Nick Franco and Molokai 2 Oahu discovered this podcast and created a few videos of other podcasts‘ audio files; other podcasts will follow to share more stories from Hawai’ian Islands.

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Originally uploaded 12 July 2018
Find pictures and video of Nick on following links:

This Ocean Life features ocean based videos, clips, etc. from the lives of watermen and waterwomen. Mix of past and present videos.

Episode 1: In both 2016 and 2017 Nick Franco won his division in the Molokai 2 Oahu world paddleboarding championships on prone boards that he made himself. In this inaugural podcast episode, Nick Franco shares his stories about becoming a world class athlete in the cold waters of Northern California (where very few paddle seriously), his drive to build the next generation of paddleboards with his Shearwater Paddleboards company, and general passion for surfing, diving, and family. Thanks for sharing Nick’s ocean life with us — we hope you go out and live your ocean life to its fullest.

This episode is sponsored by a family-owned company that hand-crafts prone paddleboards and surfboards. If you want to be fast and comfortable in the water, check them out at