rows
doubt over the whole narrative and places it in the light of an infamous
libel.

And here is a final argument. Justinian was no mere youth when he
married, but a sober gentleman of thirty-five, the heir apparent to the
throne, who had to keep in the good graces of the people. Would he at so
momentous a time have perpetrated so infamous a scandal? And would it
have been possible for a woman of such notorious profligacy to ascend
the throne without a protest from patriarch or bishop or senators or
populace? The outward life of the Byzantine people, owing to the
influence of Christianity, was usually correct. A little later an
emperor lost his throne because he divorced one wife and took another.
Theodora's triumphant ascent to the throne, without a protesting voice,
is conclusive evidence that no great scandal had sullied her reputation.

Yet, on the other hand, panegyrists never lauded Theodora as a saint.
She was neither a Pulcheria nor a Eudocia. Many traits in the character
of the empress accord well with the fact that her early life was not
passed amid beds of roses nor had been altogether free from temptation.
Hence, with the story reduced to its lowest terms, it seems probable
that Theodora was of obscure and lowly origin, that she was for a time
connected in some way with the Byzantine stage, and that, owing to her
beauty, her cleverness, and her strong personality, she was raised from
poverty to share Justinian's throne. But, whatever her career, her life
had been sufficiently upright to save appearances, and Justinian could
make her his wife without scandal.

The turn of fortune which elevated Theodora from modest station to the
imperial throne deeply stirred the popular imagination, and a cycle of
legends has gathered about her name. The stranger in Byzantium in the
eleventh century was shown the site of a modest cottage, transformed
into a stately church dedicated to the spirit of charity, and was told
the story how the great empress, coming with her parents from their
native town in Cyprus, had here maintained herself in honorable poverty
by spinning wool, and how it was here that the patrician Justinian,
drawn thither by the fame of her beauty and her learning, had wooed and
won her for his bride. However little value we may attach to this
tradition, it shows that in Constantinople the popular estimate of
Theodora was not that of the _Secret History_. The Slavic traditions of
the twelfth and thirteen