Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204

The first extended work in the field since Charles Diehl published his Figures Byzantinemore than ninety years ago, Byzantine Empressesprovides much-needed historical data in an accessible and up-to-date form. Using a chronological approach, Lynda Garland provides a series of biographical portraits of the most significant Byzantine women who ruled or shared the throne between 527 and 1204. She presents and analyzes the available historical data in order to outline what these empresses did, what the sources thought they did, and what they wanted to do. Revealed are stories of imperial women who had considerable resources, such as powerful patronage, their own courts of women, eunuchs and ministers and who wielded an enormous amount of influence, such as total government control and the power to issue coinage and decrees. Lavishly illustrated, Byzantine Empressesprovides an immense contribution to the study of women in Byzantine civilization.