Theodora Actress Empress Whore

Author : Stella Duffy
Publisher : Virago
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011-01-20
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780748126590

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Theodora by Stella Duffy Pdf

Justinian took a wife: and the manner she was born and bred, and wedded to this man, tore up the Roman Empire by the very roots' Procopius Charming, charismatic, heroic - Theodora of Constantinople rose from nothing to become the most powerful woman in the history of Byzantine Rome. In Stella Duffy's breathtaking new novel, she comes to life again - a fascinating, controversial and seductive woman. Some called her a saint. Others were not so kind... When her father is killed, the young Theodora is forced into near slavery to survive. But just as she learns to control her body as a dancer, and for the men who can afford her, so she is determined to shape a very different fate for herself. From the vibrant streets and erotic stage shows of sixth century Constantinople to the holy desert retreats of Alexandria, Theodora is an extraordinary imaginative achievement from one of our finest writers.

Author : Stella Duffy
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2012-09-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101603734

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The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy Pdf

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore, Stella Duffy's chronicle of this amazing woman's early years, delighted readers with its exquisite blend of historical detail and vivid storytelling. Now, The Purple Shroud chronicles Theodora at the height of her power, bringing the ancient world alive in another unforgettable, epic saga. Theodora and Justinian have been crowned Emperor and Empress, but ruling an empire is no easy task. The two factions of Christianity are still battling for dogmatic supremacy, the Empire's borders are not secure, and Theodora worries about the ambitions of Justinian's two best generals. But the most pressing concern is close to home: Constantinople's two factions, the Blues and the Greens, are beginning to unite in their unhappiness with rising taxes. When that unhappiness spills over into all-out violence, thousands are killed (including someone very close to Theodora) and many of the City's landmarks are destroyed, including Theodora's beloved Hagia Sophia. In the aftermath of the riots, Theodora guides Justinian in gaining back the love and trust of the people, her unerring instinct for what the people want proving invaluable. Justinian promises to rebuild the Hagia Sophia to be even more spectacular than before. Theodora comes to realize that being the Augusta is simply another role she must play, though the stakes are much higher and there is no offstage. It's a role she was born to play.

Author : Paolo Cesaretti
Publisher : Abrams
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780865652804

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Theodora by Paolo Cesaretti Pdf

An Italian historian’s prize-winning biography of the sixth-century Byzantine empress. Theodora of Byzantium rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful women of the ancient world. As the wife of Emperor Justinian, she was more than a mere figurehead, acting as Justinian’s partner in both politics and life. Though she was ruthlessly criticized by her contemporaries, historian and biographer Paolo Cesaretti shows her to be an ambitious woman and brilliant ruler whose cunning saved the empire time and again. She defied the conventions of her time and triumphed over those who sought to defame and destroy her. This meticulously researched and richly detailed biography won Italy’s prestigious Ginzano Cavour Prize.

Author : Stella Duffy
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2011-09-27
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101552667

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Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy Pdf

"A bravura performance: a witty, moving, sexy book that bursts with as much color and excitement as the city of Constantinople itself." -Financial Times Roman historian Procopius publicly praised Theodora of Constantinople for her piety-while secretly detailing her salacious stage act and maligning her as ruthless and power hungry. So who was this woman who rose from humble beginnings as a dancer to become the empress of Rome and a saint in the Orthodox Church? Award-winning novelist Stella Duffy vividly recreates the life and times of a woman who left her mark on one of the ancient world's most powerful empires. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore is a sexy, captivating novel that resurrects an extraordinary, little-known figure from the dusty pages of history.

Author : David Potter
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2015-10-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199392391

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Theodora by David Potter Pdf

Two of the most famous mosaics from the ancient world, in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, depict the sixth-century emperor Justinian and, on the wall facing him, his wife, Theodora (497-548). This majestic portrait gives no inkling of Theodora's very humble beginnings or her improbable rise to fame and power. Raised in a family of circus performers near Constantinople's Hippodrome, she abandoned a successful acting career in her late teens to follow a lover whom she was legally forbidden to marry. When he left her, she was a single mother who built a new life for herself as a secret agent, in which role she met the heir to the throne. To the shock of the ruling elite, the two were married, and when Justinian assumed power in 527, they ruled the Eastern Roman Empire together. Their reign was the most celebrated in Byzantine history, bringing wealth, prestige, and even Rome itself back to the Empire. Theodora was one of the dominant political figures of her era, helping shape imperial foreign and domestic policy and twice saving her husband from threatened deposition. She played a central role trying to solve the religious disputes of her era and proactively assisted women who were being trafficked. An extraordinarily able politician, she excited admiration and hatred from those around her. Enemies wrote extensively and imaginatively about her presumed early career as a prostitute, while supporters elevated her, quite literally, to sainthood. Theodora's is a tale of a woman of exceptional talent who overcame immense obstacles to achieve incredible power, which she exercised without ever forgetting where she had come from. In Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, David Potter penetrates the highly biased accounts of her found in the writings of her contemporaries and takes advantage of the latest research on early Byzantium to craft a modern, well-rounded, and engaging narrative of Theodora's life. This fascinating portrait will intrigue all readers with an interest in ancient and women's history.

Author : Procopius
Publisher : Cosimo, Inc.
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2007-06-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781602065383

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The Secret History by Procopius Pdf

Author : Douglas a. Burton
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2019-10-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1733022104

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Far Away Bird by Douglas a. Burton Pdf

Inspired by true events, Far Away Bird delves into the complex mind of Byzantine Empress Theodora. This intimate account deftly follows her rise from actress-prostitute in Constantinople's red-light district to the throne of the Byzantine Empire. Her salacious past has left historians blushing and uncomfortable. Tales of her shamelessness have survived for centuries, and yet her accomplishments as an empress are unparalleled. Theodora goes on to influence sweeping reforms that result in some of the first ever Western laws granting women freedom and protection. More than a millennium before the women's rights movement, Theodora, alone, took on the world's greatest superpower and succeeded. Far Away Bird goes where history classrooms fear to tread in hopes that Theodora can finally take her seat among the greatest women in history. Theodora seems impossible--yet her transcendence teaches us that society can't tell us who we are deep down. Before there was a legendary empress, there was a conflicted young woman from the lower classes. And her name was Theodora.

Author : Robert Browning
Publisher : Gorgias PressLlc
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1593330537

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Justinian and Theodora by Robert Browning Pdf

The story of the peasant's son who became an emperor and the dissolute actress who resided beside him on the throne is one of the greatest and most controversial romances of history. United, they presided over a key epoch in the formation of Europe.

Author : James Allan Evans
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2003-10-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780292702707

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The Empress Theodora by James Allan Evans Pdf

Presents a biography of the burlesqe actress who became the trusted partner of Byzantine emperor Justinian in both marriage and government affairs.

Author : Anise K. Strong
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2016-07-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107148758

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Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World by Anise K. Strong Pdf

From streetwalkers in the Roman Forum to imperial concubines, Roman prostitutes defined what it meant to be a 'bad girl'.

Author : Eduardo Galeano
Publisher : Bold Type Books
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2009-05-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786744701

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Mirrors by Eduardo Galeano Pdf

Throughout his career, Eduardo Galeano has turned our understanding of history and reality on its head. Isabelle Allende said his works "invade the reader's mind, to persuade him or her to surrender to the charm of his writing and power of his idealism." Mirrors, Galeano's most ambitious project since Memory of Fire, is an unofficial history of the world seen through history's unseen, unheard, and forgotten. As Galeano notes: "Official history has it that Vasco Núde Balboa was the first man to see, from a summit in Panama, the two oceans at once. Were the people who lived there blind??" Recalling the lives of artists, writers, gods, and visionaries, from the Garden of Eden to twenty-first-century New York, of the black slaves who built the White House and the women erased by men's fears, and told in hundreds of kaleidoscopic vignettes, Mirrors is a magic mosaic of our humanity.

Author : Stella Duffy
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Byzantine Empire
ISBN : 1322808627

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The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy Pdf

Author : Radi Dikici
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 433 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Byzantine Empire
ISBN : 9752898351

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Empress Theodora by Radi Dikici Pdf

"This forceful novel by Radi Dikici is the first to explore the full scope of Empress Theodora's reign, complete with surviving documents that record the forty-eight years of her life. Amongst the women that ruled the world as queens, tsarinas, sultans, and the like, there has never been an empress as powerful as Theodora. She alone seized the crown for herself and everyone else acknowledged her royalty. History portrayed her as a woman indulging in her sexuality, assuming that where there is smoke, there is fire; but also applauded her as an empress that saved the Byzantine Empire from sudden threats with her strong will. In this enchanting novel, the reader will see both the weaknesses and the triumphs of Theodora and be dragged alone [i.e. along] to the captivating schemes of the Byzantium Empire"--Publisher's description, back cover.

Author : Gore Vidal
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2018-08-22
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780525565802

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Julian by Gore Vidal Pdf

Julian the Apostate was the nephew of Emperor Constantine the Great. Julian ascended to the throne in A.D. 361, at the age of twenty-nine, and was murdered four years later after an unsuccessful attempt to rebuke Christianity and restore the worship of the old gods. Now this historical tapestry is brought to vibrant life by the dazzling talent of Gore Vidal.

Author : John Berendt
Publisher : Random House
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 1994-01-13
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9780679429227

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Pdf

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.