The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars (70 page)

30
Elsner (199), 40–1 and 96 on the imagery of the Proiecta casket.

31
Cameron (1992), 177; also Clark (1986), 25–6.

32
On the new ascetic vogue and tension with traditional Roman values, see the excellent monographs of Cooper (1996) and Clark (1986).

33
Gardner (1986), 78.

34
G. Clark (1993), 51. Evans-Grubbs (1995), 137–8 on the political stratagem behind Constantine’s laws.

35
E. A. Clark (1986), 47–52.

36
E. A. Clark and Richardson (1996), 3; E. A. Clark (1986), 46–52.

37
Cooper (1996), 113–15.

38
Cooper (1996), 144, on prevailing importance of kinship; Elsner (1998), on art and imperial power in late antiquity.

39
Brubaker (1997), 57–8. On
nobilissima femina
, see Pohlsander (1995), 20.

40
On Helena’s and Fausta’s coin portraits, see Walter (2006), 20f, and Pohlsander (1995), 179–84. For reasons of time and clarity, I have omitted further mention of the younger Helena, but she went on to marry Julian the Apostate, and died in 360.

41
It may, admittedly, represent another empress of the period, but I have leaned towards the interpretation of C. Kelly (1999), in G. W. Bowersock, P. Brown and O. Grabar, eds.,
Late Antiquity: a Guide to the Postclassical World
(Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press), 173.

42
On Constantine’s rhetoric of legitimacy, see Leadbetter (1998), 80–1; on the inscriptions, see Drijvers (1992), 45–54.

43
McClanan (2002), 16. On the evidence for Helena’s portraits, see Drijvers (1992), 189–94 and Pohlsander (1995), 167–78.

44
Haskell and Penny (1981), 133 and fig. 69; C. M. S. Johns (1998)
Antonia Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe
(Berkeley: University of California Press), 112–16.

45
McClanan (2002), 185.

46
Mango (1994), 146 and Pohlsander (1995), 3–4.

47
Helena and Rome: Drijvers (1992), 30–4; Pohlsander (1995), 73f; Brubaker (1997), 57–8.

48
On the plundering of Rome’s artistic treasures for the beautification of Constantinople, see Elsner (1998), 73; on the refusal to make the sacrifice to Jupiter, see Lenski (2006), 79. The practice of sacrifice was finally outlawed by Theodosius I, in 391.

49
Eusebius,
Ecclesiastical History
10.9.4, trans. Pohlsander (1984), 98. On confusion of the two Helenas, see Drijvers (1992), 29.

50
Pohlsander (1984), 98.

51
For an overview of accounts of Crispus’s and Fausta’s deaths, see Pohlsander (1984) and Woods (1998).

52
Frakes (2006), 94 on the Potiphar scenario.

53
Woods (1998), 77.

54
Lefkowitz and Fant (1992), no. 355.

55
On the inscription from Sorrento, see Brubaker (1997), 59; McClanan (2002), 16–17; Frakes (2006), 94–5.

56
Eusebius,
Life of Constantine
3.44. For Eusebius’s full account of Helena’s journey, see
Life of Constantine
3.42–7. See also E. D. Hunt (1982); Drijvers (1992), chapter 5,
passim
; Pohlsander (1995), chapter 8,
passim
.

57
E. D. Hunt (1982), 33; Lenski (2004), 16.

58
Drijvers (1992), 34–7; Pohlsander (1995), 24; Lieu (2006),
303–4

59
Helena as a trailblazer: see E. D. Hunt (1982), 49; Brubaker (1997), 58–62; Holum (1999), 70–5.

60
Eusebius,
Life of Constantine
3.30–2.

61
Helena’s involvement: see Pohlsander (1995), 102f; Harbus (2002), 20–1.

62
E. D. Hunt (1982), 39.

63
Ambrose,
De obitu Theodosii
45.

64
See E.

D. Hunt (1982), 42–7; Drijvers (1992), 4–6; Pohlsander (1995), 107.

65
For an overview of the arguments as to whether Helena really discovered the Cross, see Pohlsander (1995), chapter 9,
passim
.

66
Drijvers (2000), 47–8; Harbus (2002), 20–2; Lieu (2006), 304–5

67
Pohlsander (1995), 228.

68
Pohlsander (1995), 217. Walter (2006), 37–52 on development of this type in art.

69
Pohlsander (1995), 117 and E. D. Hunt (1982), 48.

70
Eusebius,
Life of Constantine
3.46.2.

71
Drijvers (1992), 73.

72
Pohlsander (1995), 155.

73
See Johnson (1992), 148–9 for argument as to why Rome must be indicated.

74
Johnson (2009), 110–17 for further details on Helena’s mausoleum; also Elsner (1998), 21.

75
Pohlsander (1995), 152–60; Drijvers (1992), 75–6.

76
Pohlsander (1995), 160ff; Johnson (2009), 149.

77
On Helena’s sainthood, see Pohlsander (1995), chapter 15,
passim
.

78
Helena’s feast days: E.D. Hunt (1982), 28–9 and Harbus (2002), 3. Helena and King Coel: Harbus (2002), 1; Helena and Henry VIII: Harbus (2002), 120f.

79
Pohlsander (1995), 11.

80
Drijvers (2000), 44.

81
Drijvers (2000), 31–6 on genesis and reception of Waugh’s
Helena
.

82
E. D. Hunt (1982), 29, for example, on Pulcheria being hailed as a ‘New Helena’.

9
Brides of Christ, Daughters of Eve: The First Ladies of the Last Roman Dynasty

1
Thomas Nugent (2004) [1756]
The Grand Tour: a Journey through the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France
, Vol. 3: 192.

2
Rizzardi (1996), 106 on the poem by Gabriele D’Annunzio,
Le città del silenzio
(
The Cities of Silence
): cf. Dante,
Paradise
XXXI, 130–2.

3
Ricci (1907), 14–15.

4
Richlin (1992), 81. Technically, Galla Placidia was Pulcheria’s half-aunt, by virtue of Pulcheria being the daughter of Placidia’s half-brother Arcadius.

5
See Brubaker (1997), 54 and 60, and Oost (1968), 38.

6
See Tougher (1998) on this speech; also James (2001), 11–12.

7
Socrates Scholasticus,
Ecclesiastical History
4.31. My thanks to Christopher Kelly for his help on this point.

8
See Richlin (1992), 81f.

9
Paulinus,
Life of Ambrose
; Sozomen 7.13. See James (2001), 93–4; E. A. Clark (1990), 24.

10
See MacCormack (1981), 263–4 on new virtues of empresses.

11
James (2001), 128.

12
Sozomen 7.6.

13
Theodoret 5.18. See also McClanan (2002), 18–19.

14
Eusebius,
Life of Constantine
3.44.

15
See Holum (1982), 32–4; Brubaker and Tobler (2000), 580; Brubaker (1997), 60; James (2001), 101–2; McClanan (2002), 26.

16
Stout (1994), 86–7.

17
Brubaker and Tobler (2000), 573 on appearance of ‘Victory’; Holum (1982), 28 on
paludamentum
. See also James (2001), 26 on similarities to the mosaic of Theodora in San Vitale in Ravenna.

18
The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu
, 83.44–52. See Holum (1982), 41 and Mayer (2006), 205.

19
Justina: Zosimus, 4.43. See Holum (1982), 44–6, Oost (1968), 46–50 and Curran, 105–7 on this sequence of events. The family tie to Constantine was through Constantia, wife of Gratian, who was in turn the half-brother of Valentinian II, Galla’s father. See James (2001), 60–1.

20
Oost (1968), 1 on Galla Placidia’s probable year of birth. For a challenge to this, see Rebenich (1985), 384–5, who places her date of birth in 392 or 393.

21
See Heather (2005), 216–17 on Stilicho’s rise to power.

22
Her mother Galla had died in childbirth ten years earlier in 384.

23
McCormick (2000) 136.

24
McCormick (2000), 156f.

25
Holum (1982), 25 on Flaccilla’s
adventus
, as described in Gregory of Nyssa’s
Oratio
.

26
Holum (1982), 57. McCormick (2000), 141 on rarefied atmosphere for empresses.

27
McCormick (2000), 135. Maria’s education: see Claudian,
Epithalamium of Honorius and Maria
231–7.

28
Placidia’s education: Oost (1968), 63–4. Girth: see Claudian,
Carmina Minora
47–8.

29
On the education of girls in late antiquity, as discussed in Jerome, see Nathan (2000), 152; on Jerome’s advice, see Hemelrijk (1999), 63 and 262, n. 23.

30
Elpidia: see Olympiodorus, fragment 38, in Blockley (1983), 201. Nathan (2000), 150 on
nutrices
. Olympiodorus refers to Elpidia as a ‘
trophos
’ – which usually indicates a ‘wet-nurse’, like the Latin
nutrix
.

31
See Harlow (2004a), 207–12 on Serena’s dress and its future imitators.

32
Harlow (2004a), 214–15 on Stilicho’s dress.

33
Livia’s jewels: Claudian,
Epithalamium of Honorius and Maria
13.

34
Claudian,
On Stilicho’s Consulship
2. 356–9 on the suggestion of Eucherius’s and Placidia’s betrothal; and
Epithalamium of Honorius and Maria
13, 211 and 285 on the bride’s
flammeum
.

35
I have followed the line taken by Oost (1968), 72–4 on the reasons for Galla Placidia remaining unmarried. On the discovery of Maria’s tomb, see Johnson (2009), 173–4.

36
Olympiodorus, fragment 7.3, in Blockley (1983), 159; Zosimus 5.38.

37
Cooper (2009), 187–8.

38
Olympiodorus, fragment 6, in Blockley (1983), 153. See Heather (2005), 224 and 239.

39
Socrates Scholasticus,
Ecclesiastical History
6.18. For more on Eudoxia’s life, see McClanan (2002), 19–20 and Mayer (2006).

40
Antiochus: Holum (1982), 80–1.

41
See James (2001), 42 and Holum (1982), 97 on this dedication. The source is the
Chronicon Paschale
.

42
Sozomen 9.1.

43
See E. A. Clark (1990), 26f on the significance of such a choice.

44
Sozomen 9.1.

45
Sozomen 9.1.

46
The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu
87.36: cited in James (2001), 18.

47
Richlin (1992), 66.

48
M. Toussaint-Samat (1992)
A History of Food
(Oxford: Blackwell), 26. See Olympiodorus, fragment 22, in Blockley (1983), 185.

49
Olympiodorus, fragment 24, in Blockley (1983), 187–9.

50
Oost (1968), 104, for example, coyly describes Athaulf as being ‘not without his masculine charms’.