Theodora The Courtesan of Constantinople

New York: Sears Publishing Company, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good- dust jacket. 1932. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. This book is in Very Good+ condition and is lacking a dust jacket. The book and its contents are in generally clean, bright condition. The spine ends and corners of the book covers have some edge wear, bumping, and several small nicks. The text pages are mostly clean and bright, though with a bit of generalized toning. There is a previous owner's inked name and date on the front pastedown page. "Theodora (c. 500 – 28 June 548) was empress of the Eastern Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Justinian I. She was one of the most influential and powerful of the Eastern Roman empresses. Some sources mention her as empress regnant with Justinian I as her co-regent. Along with her spouse, she is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14." "Her father, Acacius, was a bear trainer of the hippodrome's Green faction in Constantinople. Her mother, whose name is not recorded, was a dancer and an actress. Her parents had two more daughters. After her father's death, when Theodora was four, her mother brought her children wearing garlands into the hippodrome and presented them as suppliants to the Blue faction. From then on Theodora would be their supporter. Procopius (in his Secret History) relates that Theodora from an early age followed her sister Komito's example and worked in a Constantinople brothel serving low-status customers; later she performed on stage. Lynda Garland in "Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204" notes that there seems to be little reason to believe she worked out of a brothel "managed by a pimp". Employment as an actress at the time would include both "indecent exhibitions on stage" and providing sexual services off stage. In what Garland calls the "sleazy entertainment business in the capital", Theodora earned her living by a combination of her theatrical and sexual skills. In Procopius' account that confirms to rhetorical conventions for slander (or invective) , Theodora purportedly made a name for herself with her salacious portrayal of Leda and the Swan." .