Aside from the questionable premis of describing Justinian"s wife Theodora as a "neglected Byzantine heroine", there is an interview with Stella Duffy in Scotland on Sunday ahead of the publication of her new book Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore.
Her Theodora grows up within the rigorous training regime of the Byzantine hippodrome, as much circus and spectacle as conventional theatre. By the time she is in her teens, she is an acclaimed comic performer. Duffy, who worked in theatre and improvisation before she turned to fiction writing, relished the chance to write about the stage.
But the hippodrome had a darker side. From puberty onwards, the young women were expected to earn additional money working as prostitutes. It was this early experience of abuse which, Duffy believes, inspired Theodora to work with Justinian to reform rape laws and improve women's rights (part of the sequel, on which she is working).
"I found all that very difficult to write," she says. "Of course I think it's profoundly wrong, but it's also how that society was run. I decided I had to write about it, because otherwise I'd be lying about Theodora's truth, the details which formed her."
In her mid teens, at the height of her popularity on stage, Theodora quit Constantinople with her lover, Hecebolus, who was made a governor in Africa. But the relationship did not last, and Theodora found herself on the road, living off her wits, until she took refuge in a Christian community in the desert near Alexandria where, the history books say, she underwent a religious conversion.
Worth a look.
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