The Empresses of Constantinople

In the glittering, treacherous court of Constantinople, behind walls of purple porphyry, a succession of remarkable women shaped an empire that outlived Rome by a thousand years. Joseph McCabe resurrects these forgotten figures, ambitious mothers, cunning regents, warrior queens, who wielded power with a subtlety the Western world rarely acknowledged. From the formidable Verina, who played kingmaker across generations of her own bloodline, to the learned Pulcheria, who defined orthodoxy while ruling as emperor in all but name, these empresses navigated palace intrigue, religious wars, and the deadly arithmetic of succession. McCabe's 1913 portraits capture women who refused to be mere ornaments of state, who ordered armies, shaped doctrine, and sometimes wore the purple themselves. For readers hungry for history that centers power where it actually resided, this collection illuminates a world where the throne was often a woman's domain.