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Theodora

2 stories mention Theodora on DeadlyCurious.

The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Great Palace, Constantinople

The Constantinople Circus Performer Who Became Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire and Talked Her Husband Out of Fleeing the Nika Riots in 532

Theodora was the daughter of a Constantinople circus bear-keeper. By approximately 522 she had been a stage performer and possibly a sex worker. In 525 she married the future emperor Justinian over imperial-court opposition. In January 532, when the Nika riots threatened to overthrow the imperial government, she persuaded Justinian to stay and fight with a speech preserved by Procopius: "The purple is the noblest shroud."

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Constantinople

The First Recorded Bubonic Plague Pandemic in Europe That Killed Up to Half the Population of the Eastern Roman Empire Between 541 and 549 CE

The Plague of Justinian reached Constantinople in spring 542 CE from Egypt and Pelusium. Procopius records a peak mortality of about 5,000 deaths per day in Constantinople. Modern genetic analysis of plague burials at Aschheim in Bavaria confirmed in 2013 that the pathogen was Yersinia pestis — the same bacterium that caused the 14th-century Black Death. The empire-wide death toll is estimated at 25-50 percent of population.

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