t the thrill of
gratified ambition, and was conscious of the possession of the
endowments that would adorn the throne. She straightway retired to a
monastery which she founded, and devoted her time to religious practices
and intellectual pursuits. Many hymns were composed by her, which
continued long in use in the Greek Church.

Perhaps it would have been better for Theophilus had he chosen Eikasia.
Theodora, with all her modest demeanor, was self-assertive and proud,
and as a devoted iconodule she caused her husband many an unhappy hour
during his lifetime; and as soon as he was dead she set to work to undo
his policy. The Empress Euphrosyne too soon realized the masterful
spirit of the new empress as did Theodora's own mother, Theoktista, and
the two dowagers retired into the monastery of Gastria, which afforded
them an agreeable retreat from the intrigues of the court.

Theodora is the heroine of another tale which illustrated an unbecoming
trait in her character and the love of justice of Theophilus. It was the
practice of money-loving officials to engage secretly in trade and to
avoid the payment of custom duties by engaging the empress, or members
of the imperial family, in commercial adventures. By these practices,
gross injustice was done the merchants, and the revenues of the state
suffered. Theophilus learned that the young empress had lent her name to
one of these trading speculations, and he determined to handle the
matter in such a way that, in future, a repetition would be impossible.
He ascertained the time when a ship laden with a valuable cargo in the
empress's name was about to arrive in Constantinople. He assembled his
whole court on the quay to witness its arrival, and when the captain of
the ship demanded free entry in the empress's name, Theophilus compelled
him to unload and expose his precious cargo of Syrian merchandise, and
then publicly burn it; then, turning to his wife, he remarked that never
in the history of man had a Roman emperor or empress turned trader, and
added the sharp reproach that her avarice had degraded the character of
an empress into that of a merchant.

Theophilus died in 842, leaving the throne to his three-year-old son,
Michael. His mother, Theodora, as she had been crowned empress, was
regent in her own right, and she quickly proved herself one of the most
self-assertive of Byzantine princesses. As Theophilus and his
predecessors overturned the work of Irene, so Theodor