Author: Herrin, Judith
Title: Women in Purple : Rulers of Medieval Byzantium
Description: Princeton, Princeton University Press, (2001). orig.boards. 24x15cm, 304 pp.. Textual illustrations. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Contents: Constantinople and the world of Byzantium; Irene: the unknown empress from Athens; Euphrosyne: a princess born in the purple; Theodora: the Paphlagonian bride ["...In this exhilarating and highly entertaining account, one of the foremost historians of the medieval period tells the story of how these fascinating women exercised imperial sovereignty with consummate skill and sometimes ruthless tactics. Though they gained access to the all-pervasive authority of the Byzantine ruling dynasty through marriage, all three continued to wear the imperial purple and wield tremendous power as widows. From Constantinople, their own Queen City, the empresses undermined competitors and governed like men. They conducted diplomacy across the known world, negotiating with the likes of Charlemagne, Roman popes, and the great Arab caliph Harun al Rashid. Vehemently rejecting the ban on holy images instituted by their male relatives, Irene and Theodora used craft and power to reverse the official iconoclasm and restore icons to their place of adoration in the Eastern Church. In so doing, they profoundly altered the course of history. The art--and not only the art--of Byzantium, of Islam, and of the West would have been very different without them. As Judith Herrin traces the surviving evidence, she evokes the complex and deeply religious world of Constantinople in the aftermath of Arab conquest...." - Publisher's description].

Keywords: Medieval Byzantine History, Byzantium, Empress Irene, Euphrosyne, Theodora, Empresses, Byzantine Empire, ,