Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium [Hardcover]

The three main subjects of her study are the lives of the Byzantine empresses Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora. In each case, the book details their relationship to power and their influence on dynastic struggles, particularly emphasizing iconoclasm and the Empire's responses to foreign invasions. The author prefaces her discussion of these lives with an overview of early Byzantine history. At selected points in her study, she treats diverse topics to provide the reader with necessary background. These subjects include the place of eunuchs in imperial life, ecclesiastical organization, patronage, and family commemoration. The study includes a scholarly apparatus and annotated bibliography.

Herrin reaches conclusions about the ability of Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora to exercise power within a society in which constructed and assigned gender roles subordinated women to male domination. Herrin attributes this power to an availability of three main resources that allow these empresses to legitimate their exceptional behavior. She terms these resources collectively as the "imperial feminine" (241): the existence of female power figures and symbols, particularly the Virgin Mary, the divine protector of Constantinople; the essential role of women in constructing imperial dynasties through their fecundity within the context of a centralized court and restrictions on selections of spouses; and the tradition of female imperial patronage in establishing religious institutions and acquiring urban space in the capital. The author views the long-term influences of the three empresses as contributing to the protection of Western Europe from an Islamic conquest and the preservation of figurative art.

While based in scholarship, the work is not intended to be definitive or exhaustive. In general, Herrin synthesizes her immense study of the primary and secondary literature, projects an individual vision onto the past, and makes a personal statement regarding the experiences of Byzantine women. In this work, the reader gains an understanding of the empresses, ladies in waiting, nuns, and others, as well as the author herself, since much of Herrin's own experience as a woman appears incorporated into the writing.

Some may object to this methodology. For a criticism of various historical points and understandings, Warren Treadgold's recent review provides a list (American Historical Review, February 2003, 238-39). There are professional historians who write in a detached manner about Byzantine women and the three empresses in question. These writings, however, are often specialized and intended for scholars with a considerable background in the literature.

Unlike these studies, the value of a personal statement is its vitality and strength in communicating with a wide circle of readers. Despite certain scientific shortcomings, this is a book with the potential to ignite a genuine interest in Byzantine studies and the general field of women's history. The value of Herrin's work is its effectiveness in conveying the experience of women within an alien culture, completely detached from the present, to the contemporary general reader. It would be an excellent work for introductory classes in historiography, feminist history, and Byzantine studies. The study might also serve as a means for men to apprehend something about the life of women in general, even if the historical context is one that is completely foreign.

In this book Judith Herrin has reconstructed the lives of three Byzantine empresses of the 8th and 9th Centuries. The lives we are presented with here are those of the empresses Irene, her grand daughter Euphrosyne and Theodora. The lives of these women represent significant episodes in Byzantine history, but it isn't until you read a book like this that you realise how much of Byzantine history has simply been lost and distorted over the centuries. So much so, that it has been difficult to reconstruct the lives of these women in any great detail, especially that of Euphrosyne.

Thankfully for those of us who have not read much about Byzantine history the author provides a lengthy introductory section which explains the city history and layout. The hierarchy of the court and the importance of eunuchs to both the empress and the empire and the public rituals important officials were expected to participate in.

Empress Irene came from Athens as a young woman and after her husbands death was regent for her son for over 10 years and eventually ruled in her own name for 5 years, an unprecedented act in royal circles in that time. Her grand daughter Euphrosyne was "born in the purple", suffered exile in her youth only to be bought back as empress later in life. Her successor was Theodora who has come down to us as a saint for the re-instating of Icons as a tool of worship in Byzantine churches, something which persists to this day.

This book covers the years when the veneration of icons ripped the church and Byzantine society apart for close to a century. These empresses were instrumental in the re-instatement of icons as a central item of worship in the Byzantine church. This is an easy to read book, but one that is obviously full of researched depth. It has impressive notes and sources at the back. If you have any curiosity about female rulers of Byzantium this book is a must.