Encomio y vituperio de emperatrices: Elia Pulqueria y Elia Eudocia en las fuentes calcedonenses y monofisitas (s. V–IX)

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine the information that sources from the 5th to 8th centuries offer about the lives of the Theodosian empresses Aelia Pulcheria and Aelia Eudocia. The literary genre to which the source belongs (ecclesiastical history or chronography) and its adherence to the Chalcedonian or Monophysite tradition are taken into consideration since these characteristics explain its position with respect to both empresses. In this way, it is shown that the alternation between praise and vituperation of Pulcheria or Eudocia depends on the religious confession of the author and on his belonging to the Constantinopolitan tradition or to that of Syria and Egypt. The chapter also reviews the portrait of both empresses in Kenneth G. Holum's classic work about Theodosian Empresses and proposes a Monophysite origin in the account of the life of Eudocia in the Chronography of John Malalas and a hypothesis about the reason for her marital separation from Emperor Theodosius II.