ed by this
incident, there seems to have been in this remarkable woman a singular
absence of the moral sense.

True it is that she passionately loved power and luxury and wealth;
true, that she exercised her authority at times in a ruthless and
unscrupulous manner. Yet the hardness of her nature is offset by many
sympathetic qualities which show that, together with the sternness of an
empress, she had the heart of a woman.

She showed a sympathetic interest in the welfare of her own family. She
married her sister Comito to Sittas, an officer of high rank. Her niece
Sophia was united in marriage with the nephew of Justin, heir
presumptive to the Empire. All her life she regretted that she did not
have a son to mount the throne: she had buried an infant daughter, the
sole offspring of her marriage.

One of the most pleasing traits of her character was the large tolerance
and substantial sympathy she showed to fallen women. Severe on men, she
manifested for women a solicitude rarely equalled. On the Asiatic coast
of the Bosporus she converted a palace into a spacious and stately
monastery, known as the Convent of the Metanoia, or Repentance, and
richly endowed it for the benefit of her less fortunate sisters who had
been seduced or compelled to embrace the trade of prostitution. In this
safe and holy retreat were gathered hundreds of women, collected from
the streets and brothels of Constantinople; and many a hapless woman was
filled with gratitude toward the generous benefactress who had rescued
her from a life of sin and misery.

Are we to see in this tender solicitude an exemplification of the words
of the poet, _Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco_, or were her
endeavors merely the outcome of the religious exaltation of a pure and
noblewoman "naturally prone to succor women in misfortune," as a
Byzantine writer says of her? At any rate, this practical sympathy
exerted its influence also in enactments of the Justinian Code relating
to women; such as the ordinance tending to increase the dignity of
marriage and render it more indissoluble, or that to give to seduced
maidens recourse against their seducers, or that to relieve actresses of
the social disbarment which attended their calling. All these measures
were doubtless due to the inspiration of Theodora.

She also carried her strict ideas as to the sanctity of marriage into
the life of the court, as is shown by the manner in which she pitilessly
spoiled the