The Remarkable Women of the Byzantine Empire

The position of women in Byzantine society is not easy to assess considering the vast reach of the empire. It was an empire comprised of different cultures of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, West Asia, and North Africa.

In the course of the 1,100 years (330-1453) that the Byzantine Empire spanned, societies within its realm changed and evolved, and new religions flourished. The Schism divided the Christian world while influences from bordering peoples developed, populations shifted, countless wars were fought, and new inventions were created.

Naturally, the position of women in those eleven centuries changed gradually, along with the overall changes in Byzantine society. It is a challenge, however, to find common elements between Constantinople society and that of an Egyptian city or Persian town.

Another great difficulty in assessing the position of women in Byzantium is one that is common in all ancient societies. The sources of information come almost exclusively from men, along with their male perspective and biases.

Regardless of these difficulties, Greek education and Christianity were unifying standards that applied throughout a large part of Byzantium and contributed to the fact that Byzantine women possessed a better position in society compared to other cultures. This was also the reason that Byzantine history has been marked by the roles of certain exceptional women.

Byzantine women and social wank

The position of Byzantine women in society, as was the case with men, depended on their social rank. As expected, upper class women had a greater amount of privileges and played a more active role in society. However, they were excluded from public office.

Even though the main role of aristocratic women was to manage all household activities and the raising of children, they were able to own property, which was an important privilege in the early centuries AD. More importantly, women were not entirely subordinated to the will of men.

Marriage with the blessing of the Church was compulsory for women, and married women enjoyed a better quality of life. In Byzantium, the most important role of women was that of the mother.

Nonetheless, women were expected to provide dowry in order to be desirable for marriage. At the same time, the groom made a donation for the marriage, and those two combined formed the financial basis of the new household.

Generally, by the age of twelve, women were considered to be ready for marriage, while for men, this was by the age of fourteen. After marriage, the basic pursuit of the Byzantine family was the creation of offspring. Consequently, childless women were subjected to contempt and, often, isolation.

Middle class and lower class women were the “queens of the household.” Within their  house, they had autonomy and took care of cooking, cleaning, knitting, making clothes,  grinding wheat, and kneading dough for bread among other things. They also had the responsibility of raising the children, educating daughters, and studying the Scriptures.

According to English historian Judith Herrin, “Studies of literacy based on later documents suggest that the ability to read, if not to write, was more widespread among women in Byzantium than in medieval Europe.”

Outside the household, women went shopping in the markets, visited relatives, went to public baths, attended church, and participated in festivals. Nonetheless, most activities were done separately from men.

Moreover, many women outside of the upper class worked, as did men, in agriculture, various manufacturing industries, and food services. The least respected professions for Byzantine women were, much like elsewhere, prostitution and theater.

Influential Byzantine women

In the long history of the Byzantine Empire, there were some women that most certainly stood out and have made history. The first was, perhaps, Helena (b. 250 AD), the mother of Constantine I, who went on a pilgrimage in Jerusalem, where she constructed the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem and donated to the poor. According to legend, Helena discovered the True Cross on her travels and brought it back to Constantinople.

Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370-415) was a female philosopher, scientist, and mathematician who tutored at the famous University of Alexandria. Her progressive views were considered pagan at the time, and a group of pro-Christians stabbed her to death with quill pens.

The most famous and powerful of all, however, was Empress Theodora (r. 527-548), the wife of Justinian I. She started off as an actress in the Hippodrome of Constantinople but soon rose in power. Her most significant contribution as the emperor’s wife was that she convinced Justinian to quell the Nika revolt of 532, thereby saving his reign.

Theodora was also the subject of one of the most celebrated Byzantine women artworks, the mosaics of the San Vitale church in Ravenna, Italy. The empress is depicted with a large halo, a wealth of jewelry, and a Tyrian purple robe. It is a prime example of Byzantine art but also serves as an iconic image of Byzantium.

The empress exerted much influence over Justinian and participated in state councils, something that was forbidden for women at the time. Unlike Justinian, who was considered a devout Orthodox, Theodora had monophysite leanings, believing that Jesus was only divine and not human. She became a patron of monophysite churchmen.

Byzantine empresses and poets

Another important empress was Irene of Athens, the wife of Leo IV (r. 775-780). After his death, she assumed the role of regent for Constantine VI, her son, from 780 to 790. She was the only female Byzantine ruler to take the male title of emperor or basileus. From 797 to 802, she ruled as emperor in her own right, and was the first woman of such high status in Byzantine history.

However, Irene’s reign was full of schemes and crimes with the most questionable one being that she blinded her own son, who died from his wounds days later. This was in an attempt to maintain power of the throne. She was so vain she was the only Byzantine ruler to ever put her face on both sides of her gold coins.

Kassiani or Kassia was a woman of exceptional beauty who participated in a bride show for Emperor Theophilos (r. 829-842). However, she was not selected. After this, she retired to a monastery. There, she proved to be a talented musician, hymnographer, and poet. She wrote fifty extant hymns, many of which are still used in Orthodox church services today.

Zoe Porphyrogenita was the second daughter of Emperor Constantine VIII, the brother and successor of Basil II. In 1028, Zoe married Romanos III, a nobleman chosen by her father as his heir. Romanos was much older than Zoe and did not pay her much attention, and his  only political act was to confine her sister Theodora to the convent of Petrion.

The neglected Zoe fell in love with a young courtier, Michael, the brother of the cunning eunuch John the Orphanotrophos. Seeing an opportunity, John convinced his brother to become a lover of the Empress. Zoe did not conceal the affair and boasted that she could make Michael emperor, and she did. Michael IV the Paphlagonian reigned from 1034 until his death in 1041.

That year Zoe, was accused of murdering her first husband, Romanos III, and was banished to a monastery only to return to the throne a year later and marry Constantine IX to make him emperor until 1055. In general, Zoe had a tempestuous life as a Byzantine woman who married three emperors.

Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, was a well-educated, dynamic Byzantine woman who studied Greek literature and history, medicine, philosophy, theology, and mathematics. When her father died in 1118, she attempted to usurp the throne from her brother John II Komnenos but failed. That led to her exile to a monastery, where she wrote the Alexiad, a history of her father’s reign and one of the most interesting works of Byzantine literature.