emperor
Justin, which abolished the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A glorious
repentance (the words of the edict) was left open for the unhappy
females who had prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they were
permitted to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of
the Romans. [28] This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn
nuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually exalted
with that of her lover, and, as soon as Justin had invested his nephew
with the purple, the patriarch of Constantinople placed the diadem on
the heads of the emperor and empress of the East. But the usual honors
which the severity of Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes,
could not satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of
Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and independent
colleague in the sovereignty of the empire, and an oath of allegiance
was imposed on the governors of the provinces in the joint names of
Justinian and Theodora. [29] The Eastern world fell prostrate before the
genius and fortune of the daughter of Acacius. The prostitute who, in
the presence of innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatre
of Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by grave
magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive
monarchs. [30]

[Footnote 27: Anonym. de Antiquitat. C. P. l. iii. 132, in Banduri
Imperium Orient. tom. i. p. 48. Ludewig (p. 154) argues sensibly that
Theodora would not have immortalized a brothel: but I apply this fact to
her second and chaster residence at Constantinople.]

[Footnote 28: See the old law in Justinian's Code, (l. v. tit. v. leg.
7, tit. xxvii. leg. 1,) under the years 336 and 454. The new edict
(about the year 521 or 522, Aleman. p. 38, 96) very awkwardly repeals no
more than the clause of mulieres scenicoe, libertinae, tabernariae.
See the novels 89 and 117, and a Greek rescript from Justinian to the
bishops, (Aleman. p. 41.)]

[Footnote 29: I swear by the Father, &c., by the Virgin Mary, by the
four Gospels, quae in manibus teneo, and by the Holy Archangels Michael
and Gabriel, puram conscientiam germanumque servitium me servaturum,
sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et Theodorae conjugi ejus, (Novell.
viii. tit. 3.) Would the oath have been binding in favor of the widow?
Communes tituli et triumphi, &c., (Aleman. p. 47, 48.)]

[Footnote 30: "Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more," &c.
Without