Imperial family, women of the

Abstract

Imperial women played an important part at court and in the political and religious life of the Byzantine Empire between 324 and 641. The empress's constitutional importance was never precisely defined, but Byzantine imperial women played a role in government unprecedented in the classical world, with a number of widowed empresses choosing husbands who would then ascend the throne or acting as regents for their sons. Certain empress-consorts were seen almost as co-rulers with their husbands, like Theodora with Justinian I (Evans 2002), and Sophia with Justin II (Garland 1999). While imperial women resided primarily within the women's quarters of the palace, which were staffed by eunuchs, empresses could associate with ministers without reference to their husbands and correspond with popes and world leaders.