Theodora: Empress of Byzantium (Mark Magowan Books) Read Online Free PDF Page A

following:
    This Porphyrius was born in Africa, but brought up in Constantinople.
    Victory crowned him by turns, and he wore the highest tokens of conquest on his head, from driving sometimes in one colour and sometimes in another.
    For often he changed factions and often horses.
    Being sometimes first, sometimes last, and sometimes between the two, He overcame both all his partisans and all his adversaries. 13
    The games at the Hippodrome and the Kynêgion, theoretically regulated by consuls who for censturies had exercised only nominal power, were a triumph of pomp, wealth, and liberality. Dances, tournaments, hunting games (
venationes
in Latin), and generous donations offered entertainment and sustenance to the whole capital, and many jobs as well. The animals had to be groomed; the hunters (
venatores
) who killed them in the arena were trained to be agile and powerful marksmen; the choreographers planned dances; the charioteers practiced with their horses and chariots; and the city’s craftsmen turned out precious objects in ivory. Designed and carved in limited numbers, the prized ivory diptychs—a respected art form—celebrated the glories of the current consul for both the eyes of the power elite of the time and the pleasure of future generations of museum visitors [ fig. 8 ].
    Like a snapshot straight from the past, one diptych shows the consul seated on a throne, dressed in magnificent garments that are in and of themselves a statement of rank and power. In his right hand he waves the prize cloth to start the games. Below him, the performers, intentionally carved in a smaller scale, are shown in the usual postures of their daily tasks. They are male dancers and ballerinas, actors and actresses wearing theater masks, charioteers on their chariots, subjugated “barbarians,” hunters with their ropes, straps, and irons aiming at wild beasts. Do these figures represent the dream of a life that might please the consul in power? Or do they represent the nightmare of clerics such as Saint John Chrysostom?
    On this particular diptych a Latin inscription—for Latin was still the administrative language of the empire—praised the consul for his career and his moral virtues. As emphasis, images beside the throne and at the top (the area symbolizing goodness and Heaven) portray Christ and the Virgin Mary with angels in flight, together with winged victories and the effigy of the ruling imperial couple. All of this denoted the consul’s role of guardian and protector, and it was no less religious or Christian for being set in the Hippodrome.

8. Ivory diptych of Anastasius, Constantinople, 517. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

    Those ceremonies, those dreams, and those nightmares required the brute strength of men like Acacius; they required wild beasts; and they required the athleticism and dexterity of dancing masters and set designers. They also required administrative and political skills, the skills practiced by men such as Asterius.
    Like Theodora’s father, Asterius worked for the Green team but held a much higher position. Technically, he was in charge of organizingshows, hiring personnel, and managing funds. His name, of Greek origin, recalled the stars and the heavenly bodies, and he was a guiding star in the destiny of Acacius’s family. The new bear keeper of the Greens—who became the new man in the life of Theodora’s mother—would have to report to him, as Acacius had done. Indeed, Asterius might have chosen and promoted the man who was to succeed Acacius both in the bear cages and in the home of the widow and her orphan girls. We don’t know if Asterius received any compensation for this, and if he did, what kind. What we do know is that in Constantinople there were clear patron-client rules in the assignment of any job, and the case of Acacius’s widow was no exception.
    While it’s not easy to distinguish between Asterius’s personal or personalized attentions and his official duties, we can