The Byzantine Empress Athenaida-Evdokia

This work is devoted to a complex, poorly studied and underestimated era: the period of the reign of Emperor Theodosius II (401-450), the most prolonged in the history of Byzantium. At this time, the empire experienced conflicting processes: the decline and instability in the West corresponded to the rise and heyday in the East, in which historians have paradoxically saw any merit of the reigning emperor for a long time. In the work, an attempt is made to look at the results of his reign in a new way, taking into account modern research. The wife of Theodosius II, Empress Athenaida -Evdokia (c. 405-460) -the kind of Athenian professor, a pagan who became a Christian, a ruler, a poetess and an ascetic -is one of the symbolic figures of this era. Her name is surrounded by legends, far from all of which are reliable, but its emergence in itself is significant and has its own reasons, which the author seeks to figure out.

The author of the book is a candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the department of ancient languages ​​and ancient Christian writing of PSTU. The book is designed for both specialists in the history and literature of this period, and for a wide range of late antiquity and Byzantium interested in the history of late antiquity