Book
Dawn Empress
Book 2 in the Theodosian Women series.
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Constantinople, 408 CE. After Arcadius dies, seven-year-old Theodosius II inherits the Eastern Roman throne. His elder sister Pulcheria grows from imperial child into the dominant woman of the court, using piety, public ceremony and an oath of virginity to protect her siblings from ministers, soldiers and marriage schemes seeking control of the dynasty.
As Theodosius reaches adulthood, Pulcheria must share influence with his wife Aelia Eudocia and contend with church disputes that make theology inseparable from politics. The novel presents her long ascendancy as a struggle to preserve the Theodosian succession while negotiating the severe limits placed on a woman who rules through a brother rather than in her own name.
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