ration the difference of temperament of the two empresses.
Pulcheria was essentially Roman; Eudocia was essentially Greek.
Pulcheria belonged to the orthodox party which strictly condemned
everything which savored in the least degree of paganism; Eudocia
encouraged Greek art and letters and lent a friendly ear to the heresies
which were the product of Greek speculation. Pulcheria was puritanical
and austere in her manner of life, while Eudocia had a fondness for
dress and for the innocent gayeties of life which characterized the
women of her race. It was utterly impossible for two women of such
marked difference of temperament to live in perfect harmony under the
same roof.

Furthermore, during Eudocia's absence a new factor had entered
prominently into the life of the palace. The influence of the eunuchs,
which had been so marked during the reign of Arcadius, had not made
itself felt during the earlier years of Theodosius's reign, because of
the ascendency of the two women, but it gathered strength by degrees as
years passed. Antiochus was the first chamberlain to make himself
powerful, and upon his fall, the eunuch Chrysaphius, because of his
personal beauty and winning manner, won the favor of Theodosius and
acquired the art of bending the emperor to his will. Chrysaphius knew
also how to play the two empresses off against each other, so as to gain
his own ends.

It seems altogether probable that immediately after her return from
Jerusalem, the spouse of the emperor more than ever dominated the court
at Constantinople. An important indication of this was the prominence of
one of her favorites during the years 439-441--Cyrus of Panopolis, who
was a poet of renown, a "Greek" in faith, and a student of art and
literature. He won great popularity during his long tenure of office as
prefect of the city. He restored Constantinople on so magnificent a
scale, after it had experienced a disastrous earthquake, that the people
once cried out in the circus: "Constantine built the city, but Cyrus
renewed it."

The type of culture represented by Cyrus and Eudocia, and the manifest
sympathy between them, greatly offended the strictly orthodox, who
regarded it in the light of a Christian duty to sever all connection
with paganism, and who considered all tolerance of the Muses and Graces
of a more beautiful past to be a heinous sin. This religious party found
their ideal and their inspiration in Pulcheria, and she in consequence