4 MAKING A NAME: REPUTATION AND IMPERIAL FOUNDING AND REFOUNDING IN Liz James

ow could the building of churches influ- to achieve political goals , to gain spiritual ben- Hence the reputation of an empress and how efits , to enhance their own positions and their could reputation play a part in the associations own families , perhaps in dynastic terms , and to made between empresses and churches ? Work accrue symbolic credit for themselves , as learned , on women patrons in the 1990s established that as pious , as virtuous. This symbolic credit could women’s patronage of the arts , like men’s , could then be transferred to other spheres , including be seen on two levels , the personal and the po- political power. A cycle developed in which it litical.1 In the case of the former , the reasons be- becomes apparent that the building of a church hind patronage were as individual and varied as could lead to a reputation for piety and virtue the patrons themselves. On the political level , and that in turn could lead to the ascription of however , women’s patronage was understood as more churches to the individual. Founding and having a more urgent purpose than men’s. The refounding therefore became one element in the political and symbolic benefits for men in terms establishment of reputation and the commemo- of the patriarchal power structures of the medi- ration of certain individuals ahead of others. Ma- eval and Byzantine worlds have been widely dis- tronage , to borrow Leslie Brubaker’s term , was cussed.2 In the case of female patrons , founding never simply art for art’s sake.3 buildings and paying for the arts offered a space Reputation in the context of founding and , for those disempowered to greater or lesser ex- more particularly , refounding buildings is a cen- tents by “the system” to assert their own political tral issue. It is well-known that a “good reputa- agenda. It became clear that cultural authority in tion” played an important role in establishing the Middle Ages and Byzantium functioned in a standing and authority in Imperial Rome and socially sanctioned way for women in particular Renaissance , one that could be both gained

My thanks to the unknown reader for some valuable thoughts and questions.

1 See , for example , J. H. McCash ( ed. ), The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women , Athens , GA / London 1996 , esp. A. L. McClanan , The Empress Theodora and the Tradition of Women’s Patronage in the Early , pp. 50–72 ; L. Brubaker , Memories of Helena : Patterns in Imperial Female Matronage in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries , in : L. James ( ed. ), Women , Men and Eunuchs. Gender in Byzantium , London / New York 1997, pp. 52–75 ; B. Hill , Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025–1204. Power , Patronage and Ideology , Harlow 1999 ; L. Garland , Byzantine Empresses : Women and Power in Byzantium , London / New York 1999 ; L. James , Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium , Leicester 2001 , ch. 9. 2 R. Cormack , Writing in Gold , London 1985 , esp. ch. 5 , and R. Cormack , Patronage and New Programmes of Byzan- tine Iconography , in : 17th International Byzantine Congress , Major Papers , Washington , DC 1986 , pp. 609–638. 3 Brubaker , Memories of Helena ( cit. n. 1 ).

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 64 Liz James and enhanced by patronage of the arts ; the same Theodora asfostering piety and bright with piety was true in Byzantium.4 The concept of “repu- respectively , and praised Theodora for nourish- tation” itself derived from Aristotle , one of the ing the destitute. For some Byzantine authors , most influential of philosophers in Byzantium , one claim to reputation for the good emperor and his definition of it against a background of was that he built churches , whilst bad emperors qualities of honour , magnificence and liberality , demolished them. The Iconophile Theophanes all perceived as qualities made manifest through claimed that , , a patronage of the arts.5 These virtues were highly Justinian and Theodora , II , Tiberios , and rated in Roman times , but they are just as rel- Irene , the mother of Constantine VI , all imperi- evant for Byzantium. They featured among the al figures he approves of , were all builders , whilst qualities of a good ruler , recast to some extent Justinian II ( castigated for demanding a prayer to incorporate philanthropy and piety. 6 Because from the patriarch to initiate the demolition of building was a large-scale , expensive , highly vis- a church ) and the iconoclast emperors , were all ible activity , an act of public display and a claim destroyers.8 to some form of public recognition , it was a sig- As a result , refounding and rebuilding had nificant act in Byzantium , whoever the patron. the potential to be as significant , and perhaps As such , it was a political action , as many emper- more significant , than building in the first in- ors recognised. Theodosios II is supposed to have stance. Refounding offered patrons a chance to banished his city prefect , Kyros , after the crowd associate themselves with the original patron. cheered that Constantine built , Kyros rebuilt , ig- That might allow them to inherit the lustre of noring the emperor altogether.7 the earlier founder or to be seen to out-do them Building a church was especially significant publicly , or , better , both. In the epigram on the for it established one’s piety in public and for church of St Polyeuktos , Anicia Juliana is hailed an emperor or empress , displayed the key impe- as refounder , in the footsteps of Eudokia the em- rial qualities of piety and philanthropia , whilst press , but as surpassing her.9 Once a reputation establishing intimacy with God. The epigram was established for honour , magnificence , piety , from St Polyeuktos hailed Anicia Juliana as pi- philanthropy and other virtues , then other ben- ous , righteous , a doer of good works ; that from efits inevitably accrued to the individual. Ani- Sts Sergios and Bacchos described Justinian and cia Juliana may well have wished to suggest her

4 The Pantheon being a case in point seeJ. Elsner , Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph , Oxford 1998 , pp. 69–70. For the Renaissance see J. Burke , Changing Patrons : Social Identity and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Florence , University Park , PA 2004 ; J. Nelson / R. Zeckhauser , The Patron’s Payoff : Conspicuous Commission in Italian Renaissance Art , Princeton 2008. 5 Aristotle , On rhetoric , 1 , 5 , 8 and 9 , for example : tr. J. H. Freese , Aristoteles , The Art of Rhetoric , London 1926. 6 For proper imperial behaviour see S. McCormack , Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity , Berkeley 1981 , pp. 263– 265 ; James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ), ch. 2. 7 , yr. 450 , ed. L. Dindorf , Chronicon Pascale , Bonn 1832 , tr. M. Whitby / M. Whitby , Chroni- con Pascale AD 284–632 , Liverpool 1989 ; , Chronographia , ed. I. Thurn , Ioannis Malalae chrono- graphia , Berlin / New York 2000 , p. 282 , tr. E. Jeffreys / M. Jeffreys / R. Scott , The Chronicle of John Malalas , Melbourne 1986. 8 Theophanes , Chronographia , e.g. AM 5901 ( Pulcheria ), AM 6042 ( Justinian ), AM 6064 ( Justin II ), AM 6073 ( Ti- berios ) ; AM 6186 ( prayer for the demolition of a church ) ; AM 6259 ( ), ed. C. de Boor , Theophanes , Chronographia , Leipzig 1883–5 , tr. C. Mango / R. Scott , The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor : Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813 , Oxford 1997. 9 Greek Anthology 1 , 10 , 1 and 7–10 , text and tr. W. R. Paton , The Greek Anthology , Cambridge , MA / London 1916.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 4 Making a Name 65 possession of appropriate imperial virtues. And their construction works.13 The fifth-century as reputations changed over time , so too did Theodosian empresses , Eudoxia , Eudokia and the founders and refounders of buildings. Not Pulcheria , were all keen builders and all earned all were as extreme as the case of St Polyeuktos various reputations for piety , linked in part with which was abandoned by the twelfth century , major construction projects : the Eudoxiana in not even warranting a refounding , but , as we Gaza for Eudoxia ; churches in the Holy Land shall see , several churches had founders who were for Eudokia ; churches in Constantinople for affected by refounders. Pulcheria.14 Their successor , Verina , was another For women , there was an added dimension empress whose reputation as pious and faithful , in both founding and refounding. In late antique beloved of God and as a new Helena derived , at and Byzantine society , women had no public least in part , from her church-building activi- roles.10 However , as Anicia Juliana’s St Polyeuktos ties.15 Even Justinian’s Theodora established a po- showed , in building a church , a woman gained tentially-lasting reputation for virtue through her access to a public space and was able to make a church building , for the inscription inside the legitimate statement and civic display of her pi- church of Sts Sergios and Bacchos talks of God- ety and , consequently , of her wealth and stand- crowned Theodora , whose mind is adorned with ing.11 This was particularly useful for empresses piety , whose constant toil lies in efforts to nourish whose access to the public world was also limit- the destitute , and both this church and Hagia ed. They , as much as , or even more than , emper- display her monogram prominently.16 It ors , could benefit from establishing a reputation is no surprise , therefore , that building churches for piety and philanthropy as a result of their became a standard female imperial activity be- building activities , and in some cases , these rep- tween the fifth and seventh centuries. From Eu- utations outlasted them.12 It was Helena whose doxia , wife of the emperor Arkadios , building in building activities seem to have led to a belief the early fifth century , down to , the that church building was what empresses did , wife of , every Eastern empress is cred- and empresses from then on could earn them- ited somewhere in the written sources with some selves the title of a “new” Helena in part through form of building activity.17

10 James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ) ; J. Herrin , The Imperial Feminine in Byzantium , in : Past and Present , 169 , 2000 , pp. 3–35. 11 B. Kiilerich , The Image of Anicia Juliana in the Vienna Dioscurides : Flattery or Appropriation of Imperial Imag­ ery ? , in : Symbolae Osloenses , 76 , 2001 , pp. 169–190. 12 James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ), ch. 9. 13 Brubaker , Memories of Helena ( cit. n. 1 ), pp. 62–63. 14 The reputations of these women are all linked to their versions of Orthodoxy and that version of Orthodoxy practi- ced by the particular author. For example , Eudokia was revered in the monophysite tradition , which had only cen- sure for Pulcheria , see James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ), pp. 16–20 ; R. Scott , Text and Context in Byzantine Historiography , in : L. James ( ed. ), A Companion to Byzantium , Oxford 2010 , pp. 251–262. 15 The text is in Paris , BN ms. Gr. 1447, fols. 257.58 , ed. in : A. Wenger , Notes inédites sur les empereurs Théodose I , , Théodose II , Léon I , in : Revue des Études Byzantines , 10 , 1952 , pp. 47–59 , from p. 54 on , and tr. in C. Mango , The Art of the Byzantine Empire , Toronto 1972 , pp. 34–35. For Verina’s role in the tenth century see Wen- ger , Notes inédites ; M. Jugie , L’église de Chalcoprateia et le culte de la ceinture de la Sainte vièrge a Constantino- ple , in : Échos d’Orient , 16 , 1913 , p. 308. 16 Greek text and tr. in : A. van Millingen , Byzantine Churches in Constantinople : Their History and Architecture , London 1912 , pp. 73–74. 17 For Constantina see Pope Gregory , Epistle 4 , 30 , in : PL 77, 701A , and R. Janin , La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin , 1 : Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat œcuménique , III : Les églises et les monastères , Paris

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In Constantinople , building empresses er , the virtues of the empress supplement , clarify tended also to be associated with emperors who and exalt the virtues of the emperor , underlining built.18 Constantine I , son of Helena , is ascribed the depiction of the imperial couple working to- at least eighteen churches ; five alone , wards the same goals.20 and four with his wife Pulcheria ; six , and Where empresses are not recorded as build- one with his wife , Verina ; Anastasios at least ing churches , it is often the case that their hus- eight , and three more in association with Ari- bands are not renowned as builders. No churches adne , together with the rebuilding of a Constan- are credited to Phokas and Leontia , for example , tinian church ; Justinian at least ten as builder or to Herakleios and either Fabia or Martina. and seventeen more as a refounder ; Justin II Although building a church reflected a public seven and three with Sophia.19 Other emperors display of piety and philanthropy , coupled with such as Theodosios I , Theodosios II , , Jus- a public demonstration of the ability to build in tin I are all also credited with church building , Constantinople , this activity may also have had but to a lesser extent. Underlining an impression more specific individual purposes. The Orthodox that church building developed into an action ’s building work with Anastasios perhaps performed by the imperial couple together , on bolstered the reputation for piety of that theologi- many occasions , as the figures above make clear , cally doubtful emperor , and may also have un- emperor and empress were credited together : derlined his legitimacy as emperor through his Marcian and Pulcheria ; Anastasios and Ariadne ; marriage. Theodora’s work at Sergios and Bac- Justinian and Theodora ; Justin and Sophia. It chos has been associated with her protection of may be that , in building , the empress’s patronage a sizeable group of leading Monophysites within complemented that of her husband for elsewhere the Hormisdas palace.21 If so , it was a sign of her when emperor and empress are credited togeth- power that she could shelter , protect and advance

1953 , church of St , p. 393. For fuller details of empresses’ building activities see James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ), ch. 9 , esp. pp. 150–151. 18 My calculations in this paragraph , with the exception of Justinian , where the details given by Prokopios in his Buil- dings were added in , are all drawn from Janin’s Églises. Since it is generally accepted that Janin’s work , though valu- able , is in need of updating , these figures should not be taken as including every church built. They do , however , provide a sense of who was and was not a church builder. For Constantine’s churches , also see G. Dagron , Naissance d’une capitale , Paris 1974 , pp. 391–409 , and G. Dagron , Constantinople imaginaire. Études sur le receuil des “Pa- tria”, Paris 1984 , pp. 78–97, on Constantine’s role as a founder in the city. For Justinian’s churches , Prokopios’s Buil- dings serve as a unique source ; and see G. Downey , Justinian as a Builder , in : Art Bulletin , 32 , 1950 , pp. 262–266. 19 For why Anastasios might have been regarded as a good thing see P. Magdalino , The Distance of the Past in Early Medieval Byzantium , in : Ideologie e pratiche del reimpiego nell’alto medioevo ( Settimane di studio del Centro Ita- liano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo , 46 ), Spoleto 1999 , p. 137. 20 Such a case of complementarity is apparent , though not in the context of building , in ’s poem celebrating the accession of Justin II , In laudem Iustini Augusti minoris , ed. and tr. A. M. Cameron , Corippus , Flavius Cresco- nius , In laudem Iustini Augusti minoris libri IV , London 1976 , section II , lines 10–84. As far as I am aware , there are no empresses renowned for building in Constantinople when their husbands were not. Eudoxia’s church in Gaza was commemorated locally and neither she nor Arkadios have much of a building record in Constantinople. Further afield , Galla was a notable builder in Ravenna , again seemingly divorced from male influence. 21 C. Mango , The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople and the Alleged Tradition of Octagonal Palatine Churches , in : Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik , 21 , 1972 , pp. 189–193 , and C. Mango , The Church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus Once Again , in : Byzantinische Zeitschrift , 68 , 1975 , pp. 385–392 ; for a different view see J. Bardill , The Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople and the Monophysite Refugees , in : Dumbarton Oaks Papers , 54 , 2000 , pp. 1–11.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 4 Making a Name 67 the cause of the monophysites. Some Byzantine have been restricted , perhaps only to St Polyeuk- sources suggest that Theodora and Justinian bal- tos.27 Almost all of Pulcheria’s recorded building anced out Orthodox and monophysite claims ; if work was in Constantinople , thus establishing that was the case , then this church offered a con- her buildings as public monuments at the heart crete demonstration of their collaboration.22 of empire and herself as both powerful enough The effect of a reputation for piety and cor- to be able to build in this fashion , and worthy rect Christian behaviour offered an empress an enough of any good reputation that might de- additional level of authority and prestige beyond velop from these works. In contrast , Eudokia’s that of her office alone.23 The building activities , foundations were in Jerusalem but these , cou- real and otherwise , of the Augustae Pulcheria and pled with her pilgrimages to the Holy Land , al- Eudokia reveal something of the importance that lowed her to be hailed as a new Helena and to such status could have for an empress.24 If the gain a standing for holiness and piety. Such a view of the two as rivals is accepted , then their reputation for imperial virtue placed her sanctity building of churches can be seen as something on a level with that publicly pious virgin , Pul- of a competition for the better standing and re- cheria. The rivalry is also potentially visible in nown. the timings of building work. Sozomenos claims Pulcheria is said to have built the church of that Pulcheria discovered and housed the relics St Lawrence , the church of the Forty Martyrs , of the Forty Martyrs at some point between 434 to have begun the church of the Prophet Isaiah and 446.28 This period coincided with the return and the chapel of St Stephen , and , together with of Eudokia from Jerusalem in a blaze of saintli- her husband Marcian , to have built the church- ness after her building activities there , activities es of St Menas and of St Mokios.25 She is also that might demand a well-considered pious ri- credited with building the church of the Virgin poste on the part of Pulcheria. Interestingly , a Chalkoprateia and the church of the Virgin at later text , the Chronicon Paschale , dates the dis- Blachernai.26 Eudokia built churches in the Le- covery of the relics to 451.29 This was the year in vant , notably of St Stephen and of St Peter in which Pulcheria and Marcian were married and Jerusalem. Her building work in Constantinople crowned , and so was also a suitable moment for itself , the centre of imperial power , appears to a divine revelation , in this instance to establish

22 Evagrios , Ecclesiastical History , ch. 10 , ed. J. Bidez / L. Parmentier , The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius with the Scholia , London 1898 , repr. Amsterdam 1964. French tr. by A. J. Festugière , Evagre , Histoire ecclesiastique , in : Byzantion , 44 , 1975 , pp. 187–488 ; Prokopios , Secret History , ch. 10.15 , text and tr. H. B. Dewing , Procopius , The Anecdota or Secret History , Cambridge , MA / London 1914–1940. 23 Argued in James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ). 24 K. Holum , Theodosian Empresses : Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity , Berkeley / Los Ange- les / London 1982 ; C. Angelidi , Pulcheria. La castita al potere , Milan 1996 , especially on Pulcheria’s later reputation ; James , Empresses and Power ( cit. n. 1 ). 25 For Pulcheria’s building in Constantinople , both religious and secular , see Dagron , Naissance ( cit. n. 18 ), pp. 97, 400–401 ; C. Mango , Le developpment urbain de Constantinople , Paris 1990. 26 Theodore Lector , Epitome , 363 ; also statements by Nikephoros Kallistos , Historia Ecclesiastica , ch. 14 , 2.49 and ch. 15 , 14 , in : PG 145–147. 27 Greek Anthology , 1 , 105 ( cit. n. 9 ). For Eudokia’s buildings in the Holy Land see E. D. Hunt , Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later AD 312–460 , Oxford 1982 , pp. 239–242. 28 Sozomenos , Historia Ecclesiastica , 9 ,2 , ed. J. Bidez / G. C. Hansen , Kirchengeschichte , Berlin 1960 , tr. E. Wal- ford , Sozomen and Philostorgius , London 1855. 29 Chronicon Paschale , yr. 451 ( cit. n. 7 ).

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 68 Liz James that , despite apparently breaking her vow of vir- ophanes and the Patria for her building works , ginity , Pulcheria was still blessed by God.30 in company with her illustrious birth , pious vir- If the two empresses were in competition ginity and successful control of imperial affairs.33 during their lives , then the struggle continued A similar story around reputation can be seen with their reputations after death. The mono- to play out over the foundation of the church- physite Eudokia became increasingly overlooked , es of the Virgin Chalkoprateia and the Virgin her reputation distorted by allegations of adul- Blachernitissa. It has been widely accepted , from tery and marital dispute. Theophanes , writing in the ninth century almost to the present , that Pul- the ninth century, omitted any mention of her cheria built both.34 However , as Cyril Mango building work , though he allowed that she made has argued convincingly , it is almost certain that donations to churches in Jerusalem. Instead , he these two churches were the foundation of the described her provincial birth , dubious Ortho- later fifth-century empress , Verina , wife of Leo doxy and dysfunctional marital relations , and es- I , and Verina has been gradually replaced in the tablished Pulcheria as the winner in any power historical record by Pulcheria.35 This seems a case struggle.31 The tenth-century Patria , a text con- of reputation influencing histories of founding cerned with buildings in Constantinople and and refounding. their founders , telling us what some of the in- That both churches were founded by Veri- habitants of Constantinople believed or found na and Leo makes religious and political sense. plausible about their city , makes no mention Verina and Leo were the first rulers actively to of her building activities , focusing again on her promote a cult of Mary after the Council of birth , her dubious Orthodoxy and her unhappy Ephesos.36 An additional political motive may relationship with Theodosios II.32 The Orthodox be supplied by the circumstances of Leo’s acces- Pulcheria , however , is celebrated by both The- sion. He was originally raised to power by ,

30 There may well also have been a further political significance that we have not appreciated that lies behind the dis- covery of the Forty , rather than any other saint. For the changing significances of relics see I. Kalavrezou , Helping Hands for the Empire : Imperial Ceremonies and the Cult of Relics at the Byzantine Court , in : H. Maguire ( ed. ), Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 , Washington , DC 1997, pp. 53–80. 31 For example , Theophanes , Chronographia ( cit. n. 8 ), AM 5947. 32 As in the Parastaseis , ch. 64 , ed. and tr. A. M. Cameron / J. Herrin , Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century : The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai , Leiden 1984 , pp. 140–141 ; Theophanes , Chronographia ( cit. n. 8 ), AM 5940. It is interesting that it is a thirteenth- / fourteenth-century historian , Nikephoros Kallistos , who gives the most detailed list of Eudokia’s building activities , including the sums of money spent. Although this testimony is very dubious , it does indicate a revitalised reputation for piety on the part of this empress. 33 Patria Constantinopoleos , III , ch. 63 , 71 , 74 , ed. T. Preger , Scriptores Originum Constantinopolitanarum , Leipzig 1907 ; Parastaseis , ch. 33 and 45 ( cit. n. 32 ). 34 Holum , Theodosian Empresses ( cit. n. 24 ). 35 See C. Mango , Addenda to the Development of Constantinople as an Urban Centre , in : C. Mango , Studies on Constantinople , Aldershot 1993 , esp. p. 4 ; C. Mango , The Origins of the Blachernae Shrine at Constantinople , in : Acta XIII Congressus Internationalis Archaeologiae Christianae , II , Vatican City / Split 1998 , pp. 61–76 , and C. Mango , Constantinople as Theotokoupolis , in : M. Vassilaki ( ed. ), Mother of God. Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art , Exhibition Catalogue , Milan 2000 , pp. 17–26. Mango also dismisses her association with the Hodegoi. For Verina’s patronage see C. Mango , The Chalkoprateia Annunciation and the Pre-Eternal Logos , in : Deltion tes Christianikes Archaiologikes Hetaireias , 17, 1993–94 , pp. 165–170. Also , L. James , The Empress and the Virgin in Early Byzantium : Piety , Authority and Devotion , in : M. Vassilaki ( ed. ), Images of the Mother of God , Aldershot 2005 , pp. 145–152. 36 B. Pentcheva , Icons and Power. The Mother of God in Byzantium , University Park , PA 2005 , pp. 12 , 189.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 4 Making a Name 69 who as an Alan and more especially as an Ar- ers. For Theophanes , she was a pious empress ian Christian , could not hope to hold imperial first and foremost.40 The Souda records that she power himself. Leo made himself increasingly managed the kingdom very well , being most wise independent of Aspar and it is not unreasonable and having a god-like mind and that having herself that , in seeking to establish both his independ- founded many churches and poorhouses and hos- ence and his Orthodoxy , he and Verina founded tels and monasteries she appropriated the revenues churches. Faith and politics come together in [ from them ] and by other numerous successes God the inscription Leo and Verina are recorded by a often appeared through her.41 Who then had the tenth-century text as writing on the costly chest better reputation ? And who was the more likely in which they housed the Virgin’s robe : By show- founder of two of the great Marian churches of ing reverence here to the Theotokos , they secured the Constantinople ? And , indeed , with whom was it power of their basileia , their imperial power.37 In better for those churches to be associated ? It is demonstrating especial imperial devotion to the also unsurprising that the Hodegoi , which is first Mother of God for the first time , they perhaps mentioned in the ninth century , should also ap- sought to establish her as their special protector pear as a Pulcherian foundation : whom better to and patron ; in building for the glory of God and ascribe it to ? the benefit of the subjects of the empire , Leo and What all of this suggests is that issues of Verina could be seen as displaying their fitness to founding and refounding in Constantinople in- rule and their harmonious relationship with the troduce concerns beyond the “simple” question deity who protected their empire , asserting that of who “really” had the work carried out and both God and his Mother were on their side. why. Rather , founding and refounding work But , by the ninth century , Verina , Leo and their on both “real” and “imaginary” levels. Indeed , particular political and personal motives seem to even the Blachernai and Chalkoprateia are not have been forgotten. Instead , as Theophanes tells quite as straightforward as my account implies. us , Pulcheria was the founder of the churches of An anonymous tenth-century text describes the the Virgin Chalkoprateia and the Blachernai.38 foundation of a church of the Virgin by the pi- Here , I suggest , reputation played a part in ous and faithful Verina , beloved of God.42 This is Byzantine perceptions. By the ninth century , Ve- an important reminder that different traditions rina was established in the majority of surviving could and did co-exist and that the same church textual sources as a troublesome figure , an over- could be simultaneously linked to more than one mighty female with ideas above her standing , a founder. The Patria , where churches are over- woman of uncertain Orthodoxy , a witch and whelmingly ascribed imperial founders of either the Whore of Babylon.39 Pulcheria , on the other sex , perhaps gives us a sense of who the “wrong” hand , with the defeat of Nestorios and the estab- people to associate with churches were , and who lishment of Mary as Theotokos at the Council the “right”, whether they be “genuine” founders , of Ephesos , was a heroine of Orthodox believ- “fake” founders , imaginary founders or even use-

37 Wenger , Notes inédites ( cit. n. 15 ), pp. 54–59 , tr. in : Mango , Art of the Byzantine Empire ( cit. n. 15 ), p. 35 , and Holum , Theodosian Empresses ( cit. n. 24 ), p. 227. 38 Theophanes , Chronographia ( cit. n. 8 ), AM 5942 , 5943 , 5945. 39 Witch is Parastaseis ( cit. n. 32 ), ch. 89 ; whore of Babylon is the Oracle of : P. J. Alexander , The Oracle of Baalbek , Washington , DC 1967. 40 Angelidi , Pulcheria ( cit. n.24 ). 41 Souda , “Poulcheria”, ed. A. Adler , Suidae Lexicon , IV , Leipzig 1935 , p. 183. 42 Wenger , Notes inédites ( cit. n. 15 ), pp. 54–59 , tr. in : Mango , Art of the Byzantine Empire ( cit. n. 15 ), pp. 34–35.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 70 Liz James ful founders.43 ThePatria credits Helena , for one , the Holy Apostles and asserted that it was Con- with founding at least four churches in Constan- stantius who placed the apostolic relics there.47 tinople. Since her death is dated to ca. 330 , before Nicholas Mesarites stated that the founder was Constantine established the city as his capital , Constantius and that Justinian refounded it , but these claims are usually dismissed as pious myths.44 he identified the same relics as Constantine of Nevertheless , because empresses clearly did build Rhodes.48 The question of who we should believe in Constantinople , and because Helena was the is only part of the story ; almost as interesting is mother of all female imperial church builders , her tracing the ways in which attributions of found- reputation was such that the patriographers knew ing and refounding might change to suit the in- she must have founded churches in the city. terests and concerns both of particular writers at Not only do founders and refounders change particular times. in the written sources , so too do the churches What the Holy Apostles and the fifth-cen- they built. Eusebios’s church of the Holy Apos- tury Marian churches also suggest is that found- tles , Prokopios’s , Constantine of Rhodes’s and ing and refounding were not viewed as different Nicholas Mesarites’s are all different , not simply activities.49 Indeed , refounding does not seem to in their constructions and their decoration , but have been treated as a lesser activity than build- also in the roles of the different founders and re- ing from scratch. It certainly does not seem to founders , all of which tell us as much about these have created lesser reputations for either emper- authors’ programmes as about the church. For ors or empresses. According to the Patria , the Eusebios , Constantine the Great was the found- church of St was built by Constantine er and Constantine had his own coffin placed in the Great , destroyed by Constantine V during the middle of the apostles.45 Prokopios , however , Iconoclasm and restored by Irene. Whether or claimed that the church was the foundation of not Constantine was the actual founder , such an Constantius but that Constantius left no intima- ascription might render Irene’s pious refounda- tion that there were such relics within the church. tion all the more valuable and Constantine V’s Rather , Justinian in his rebuilding rediscovered destruction even more reprehensible.50 Nor does and identified these remains.46 Constantine of it seem to have been the case that churches built Rhodes , writing for Constantine VII and eager to by particularly godly emperors or empresses were associate that emperor with great imperial figures singled out for rebuilding. Although there was of the past , associated Constantius and Justinian some refounding of the churches of Constan- specifically with the building and rebuilding of tine and of Justinian , notably by , there

43 On the Patria see Magdalino , Distance of the Past ( cit. n. 19 ), pp. 115–146. 44 As Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), pp. 63 ( Monastery of Bethlehem ), p. 67 ( Gastria ) does. 45 Eusebios , Life of Constantine , ch. 4 , 58–60 , tr. and commentary A. M. Cameron / S. G. Hall , Eusebius. Life of Constantine , Oxford 1999 , pp. 176–177, 337–338. 46 Prokopios , Buildings , ch. 1 , iv , 9–24 , text and tr. H. B. Dewing , Cambridge , MA / London 1914–1940. 47 Constantine of Rhodes , On Constantinople and the Church of the Holy Apostles. A new Greek edition by I. Vassis , ed. L. James , Farnham 2012 , p. 52. 48 Nicholas Mesarites , The Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople , ch. 39 , ed. and tr. G. Downey , in : Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , n.s., 47, 1957, pp. 891–892. 49 See also M. Mullett ( ed. ), Founders and Refounders of Byzantine Monasteries ( Belfast Byzantine Texts and Trans- lations , 6.3 ), Belfast 2007. 50 Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , pp. 216–217 ; Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), pp. 120–121 ; A. Berger , Untersu- chungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos ( Poikila Byzantina , 8 ), Bonn 1988 , pp. 556–559. Also see Parastaseis , ch. 5 ( cit. n. 32 ), for the arrival of St Euphemia’s relics in Constantinople.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 4 Making a Name 71 was also considerable refounding of small and perial churches ( or churches identified by Basil even apparently insignificant churches. Proko- as such ), an emphasis that might relate to Basil’s pios describes how Justinian rebuilt a church own circumstances as a usurping emperor and of St Michael ( the original founder is simply own desire to assert his legitimacy and relation- called “a patrician” ) because it was small and very ship with previous rulers.54 Basil’s actions again badly­ lighted , utterly unworthy to be dedicated to underline the idea that memories of the early the archangel.51 Refounding may have depended founders had some resonance in later Byzantium. in large part on what needed refounding. Jus- Of course , confusion could also play a part tinian was forced to carry out a great deal of re- in attributions of founding and refounding. The building after the Nika riots ; and he refounded church and monastery of the Augusta are said to a sanctuary dedicated from ancient times to Sts have been built by Euphemia and her husband Kosmas and Damian after an illness and in re- or by Justin II and his wife Sophia , sug- sponse to a vision of the holy healers.52 Such gesting an uncertainty over the Justins.55 That rebuildings established , as well as any founda- Euphemia is also said to have built the church tion might , imperial claims for piety and phi- of St Euphemia is an example of the very typi- lanthropy , even a more abstract philanthropy cal epony­mous way in which the Byzantines ( restoring a small church because it was in poor thought about names ; Byzantium itself was said condition ), and a chance to show the emperor’s to have been founded by Byzas and .56 The blessings from God ( thanks for divine healing ). trend of creating eponymic founders is apparent In the case of Justinian’s building work , Proko- in countless other examples. In the case of the pios carefully constructed a pattern that makes church of St Euphrosyne , the Patria claimed it it appear that Justinian built churches for every was built by Irene , but that Michael III closed level of the heavenly hierarchy , from Hagia So- up his mother and sisters in it , and that it took phia and Hagia Irene , through the Virgin , St Mi- its name from one of Michael’s sisters. Mi- chael , the Apostles , the saints and the martyrs ; chael , however , did not have a sister called Eu- he also claimed that Justinian built through- phrosyne. Nikephoros Kallistos , writing in the out Constantinople , including the suburbs and thirteenth / fourteenth century , employed the shore.53 The refoundation work of Basil I forms same technique when he ascribed the church to a distinct contrast to this dispersed building. Leo VI in the context of an apparently legendary Written sources make it very clear that Basil’s re- saint , Euphrosyne the Younger.57 Elsewhere in foundations were overwhelmingly of former im- the Patria , the monastery of Kallistratos is seen as

51 Prokopios , Buildings ( cit. n. 46 ), 1 , 3 , 14. Also see the twin shrines of St Michael at 1 , 8,2–20 , and Theophanes , Chronographia ( cit. n. 8 ), AM 5816 , for Constantine as the founder of these. 52 Prokopios , Buildings ( cit. n. 46 ), 1 , 6 , 5. 53 Downey , Justinian as a Builder ( cit. n. 18 ), p. 264. 54 P. Magdalino , Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I , in : Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik , 37, 1987, pp. 51–64. 55 Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , 273 ; Constantine Porphyrogennetos , The Book of Ceremonies , II , 42 , ed. J. J. Reiske , De Cerimoniis , Bonn 1829. Cedrenos , Synopsis historion , ed. I. Bekker , Georgius Cedrenus , Ioannis Scylitzae operae , Bonn 1838 , p. 642 , says that Justin and Euphemia were buried in the Augusta and Justin and So- phia in Justinian’s heroon. Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 54 , takes this as reason to accept the Patria over the Book of Ceremonies. Also see Berger , Untersuchungen ( cit. n. 50 ), p. 655. 56 See Parastaseis ( cit. n. 32 ), ch. 34 and p. 34 of Cameron and Herrin’s introduction. 57 Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , 243 ; Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), pp. 130–131 ; Berger , Untersuchungen ( cit. n. 50 ), pp. 646–648.

Unauthenticated Download Date | 9/24/15 11:10 PM 72 Liz James a monastery founded by one Kallistratos and Jus- or refounders for churches , these tend to be of tin II’s church of St Zoticus was apparently built the same sex ( for example , Verina and Pulche- for the holy man Zoticus.58 A further legendary ria ). Perhaps most frustrating is the numbers of founder is apparent in the Patria’s mention of churches that still survive within the city , such the empress Anna , wife of Leo III , as founder of as the Kalenderhane Camii , where we have no the monastery of St Anna.59 It was Leo’s daughter certain knowledge of the founders or refounders. who was Anna ; his wife was Maria. How true , as By looking at the construction of the history opposed to convenient , these ascriptions might of a building by different authors , we can gain be is difficult to determine. Sometimes , church access to the different ways in which different and founder appear to match in terms of their figures , most notably imperial figures , could be date and what is known from other sources , as is mobilised. When monuments and sites drop out the case with the church of the Virgin tou Kyrou , of the record and are apparently removed from and sometimes they do not : witness the church memory , or when the people associated with of St Theodore ta Klaudio.60 What these ascrip- monuments change and are reconfigured , this of- tions might say about private foundations as op- fers a means of tracing discontinuities in remem- posed to imperial ones is another key issue. brance and in thinking about social change.61 The potential gaps and differences between Founding and refounding , and its relation to the written sources also offer a chance to look at reputation , also offers insights into the Byzan- the changing geographies of the city. One aspect tines’ perceptions and constructions of their own of this that I have not had space to deal with here past , for both founders and reputations appear to is that of the founding and refounding of types be contingent on time. There is the question of of church : did it make a difference to found , or the reputation of individuals in their own time , a be seen as founder of a monastery , a nunnery , or reputation created or enhanced by their patron- simply a church ? Do churches become monas- age. There is also the issue of reputations chang- teries part way through their lives and at whose ing over the years , and how this shift could have behest ? Do the patriographic sources describe a knock-on effect on the status of a building or churches as monasteries because in the tenth cen- an object , enhancing or diminishing it in accord- tury the trend was to found monasteries rather ance with the perception of its founder. Pulcheria than churches ? Is this a contrast between Justin- offers an example of a reputation enhanced over ian I and Basil I for instance ? And how far was several centuries. In considering empresses as the gender of the founder or refounder an is- founders and refounders , it is apparent that sex sue ? So far , this does not seem to have been a and gender were not automatic barriers to gain- problem : when sources record different founders ing a good reputation.

58 Kallistratos : Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , 269 ; Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 275 ; Berger , Untersuchun- gen ( cit. n. 50 ), p. 677. Zoticus : Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , 267 ; Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 135 ; Ber- ger , Untersuchungen ( cit. n. 50 ), p. 426. The Synaxarion of Constantinople has another version of events : Synaxa- rion Constantinopolitanum , ed. H. Delehaye , Brussels 1902 , nos. 360 , 1.18–20 and 362 , 1.19–29. 59 Patria Constantinopoleos ( cit. n. 33 ), III , 251 , and Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 38 ; Berger , Untersuchungen ( cit. n. 50 ), pp. 524–525. 60 Virgin tou Kyrou : Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 195. St Theodore ta Klaudio : Janin , Églises ( cit. n. 17 ), p. 149. 61 S. E. Alcock , The Reconfiguration of Memory in the Eastern Roman Empire , in : S. E. Alcock et al. ( ed. ), Em- pires. Perspectives from Archaeology and History , Cambridge 2001 , pp. 323–250 ; S. E. Alcock , Archaeologies of the Greek Past. Landscape , Monuments and Memories , Cambridge 2003.

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