forgotten, an Arcana Historia which purported to be from the pen of the
celebrated historian of the Wars and the Edifices of Justinian. Edited
with a learned commentary by a hostile critic, the work immediately
attained wide circulation and universal credence. For the first time the
character of the illustrious empress was presented in the blackest
colors. The world, it seemed, had been really mistaken in its estimate.
Theodora's antecedents and early life had been of the vilest character,
and her public life signalized by cruelty, avarice, and excess. From the
date of the publication of this _chronique scandaleuse_, and thanks to
Gibbon's trenchant paraphrase of its vilest sections, Theodora was
condemned. Her name became the connotation for all the depraved vices
known in high life. The silence of eleven centuries was overlooked, and
the garish picture of the Secret History has formed the modern world's
estimate of Rome's most illustrious empress.

It becomes, therefore, an important problem to attempt to distinguish
the Theodora of history from the Theodora of romance. We must inquire
whether the startling "anecdotes" of the _Secret History_ justly
supersede the estimate and tradition of so long a period. Was Theodora
the grand courtesan she is represented to be in the modern drama, or was
she a great empress, worthy of the respect and admiration of Justinian
and of succeeding ages? To answer these questions we must first briefly
review the legendary history of Theodora, and then dwell more at length
on the authentic history of the empress. This will merit a recital, for
she appears to be a personality singularly original and powerful,
possessing both the qualities of a statesman and the unique traits of a
woman, a character of much complexity and of rare psychological
interest. During the first years of the sixth century there lived in
Constantinople a poor man, by name Acacius, a native of the isle of
Cyprus, who had the care of the wild beasts maintained by the green
faction of the city, and who, from his employment, was entitled the
Master of the Bears. This Acacius was the father of Theodora. Upon his
death, he left to the tender mercies of the world a widow and three
helpless orphans, Comito, Theodora, and Anastasia, the eldest being not
yet seven years of age. At a solemn festival these three children were
sent by their destitute mother into the theatre, dressed in the garb of
suppliants. The green faction sco