Pulcheria

Pulcheria was an Eastern Roman princess and empress who became Augusta in 414 while her younger brother Theodosius II was still a minor. She exercised substantial influence at court and presented herself as a consecrated virgin devoted to Christian piety.

Pulcheria played an important part in the theological politics of the fifth century and returned to the centre of government after Theodosius II died in 450. She married the general Marcian while maintaining her vow of chastity, and their reign was associated with the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Faith L. Justice’s Dawn Empress makes Pulcheria the central political figure of Theodosius II’s minority, using piety, court ceremony and her vow of virginity to protect the dynasty and secure authority without holding the throne herself. Gillian Bradshaw’s Imperial Purple brings an ordinary silk worker into Pulcheria’s orbit during a conspiracy over imperial succession. In Rebel Empress, Pulcheria’s influence becomes the principal court counterweight to Aelia Eudocia, setting two different models of imperial female authority against one another. The Theodosian Women Omnibus places Pulcheria beside Galla Placidia and Eudocia in a longer sequence of women exercising power through regency, kinship, religion and dynastic legitimacy.