EUDOCIA was the wife of the RomanEmperor, Theodosius II, 402 – 450 AD,

(Figure 1). Her story is amazing. Coinsbearing her portrait (Figure 2) are avail-able to collectors and if they know herstory as well as some of the historicalbackground their appreciation of thecoins is enhanced. She was born in Athens or Antioch,

and her original name was Athenais. Herfather, Leontias, was a wealthy manand a philosopher. He realized that hisbeautiful daughter was very intelligent,and he was devoted to her. He made surethat she was well educated in Greekculture. Greek was the language spokenin the capital, Constantinople, and inmost of the eastern half of the RomanEmpire. But Constantinople was consid-ered to be the New Rome and its citizensthought of themselves as Romans, andso the inscriptions on the coins were in

Latin, as were all official documents. Although the royal family and a large

proportion of the population were Christ-ians, Leontias and his family were not.They followed the old Greek religion,and Leontias was also interested inastrology. He foresaw that a great futureawaited his gifted daughter. When Leontias died Athenais was

shocked to discover that he had disin-herited her. In his will he stated, “I leaveall my property to my sons Valerian andGision. As for my beloved Athenais, Iorder them to assign one hundred coinsonly . . . Sufficient for her is her destinywhich will be the greatest of any woman.”(J. Tsatsos, Empress Athenais-Eudocia,p. 12) Confused and embittered she wentto Constantinople where she intendedto seek justice from the emperor. Theo-dosius was only nineteen and had beenemperor since the age of seven, but he

was a quiet person and the empire wasruled by his older sister, Pulcheria (Fig-ure 3), who was very devout but had a

(Figure 5 – View of Jerusalem. (Wikimedia Commons) Overlapping: obverse of solidus of Eudocia.)

Figure 1 – A gold solidus of Theodosius II minted at Ravenna. RIC X 1801. (Triton XIII, lot 418)

Figure 2 – A gold solidus of Eudocia mintedat Constantinople in the period 430 to 440 AD.It shows Eudocia on the obverse with the handof God holding a wreath above her head. Onthe reverse there is Constantinopolis enthronedand the legend, VOT XXX MVLT XXXX,which refers to the 30th anniversary of Theo-dosius’ accession. RIC X 262. (NumismatikLanz München, Auction 145, lot 160)

dominating personality. She saw Athen-ais as a suitable bride for her brother,but before they could marry, Athenaiswould have to convert to Christianity,which she did, assuming the name Eud-ocia, which means ‘the benevolent willof God’. In Greek the name is written and pro-

nounced with a ‘k’, but there is no ‘k’ inthe Latin alphabet. You will not find itin a Latin dictionary. Instead its placewas taken by ‘c’. So when the nameappears in Latin on the coins it is writtenEUDOCIA, but should be pronounced

EUDOKIA. In coin catalogues it is usu-ally spelt as on the coins.Eudocia and Theodosius were married

in 421 with much rejoicing, but the courtthat Pulcheria dominated was like amonastery. She had taken a vow of per-petual virginity and in the palace “psalmswere heard night and day. Fasting andprayer prevailed. Everywhere could beseen the black habits of monks. Therewere no ceremonies, no gold and purpleuniforms and processions. The Emperor’ssisters embroidered and sewed for thepoor.” (Tsatsos, p. 33)In 422 Eudocia gave birth to a daughter,

Eudoxia, who would become the wife ofthe western emperor, Valentinian III, andin January 423 Theodosius bestowed onEudocia the title, Augusta (Empress). Itappears on her coins as AVG. Her firstname, AELIA, appears on the coins asAEL, but it is not clear why she has thisname. It first appears on the coins ofAelia Flaccilla, the wife of Theodosius I(379-395 AD) and it might have beenher family name, but apparently laterempresses adopted it as a title. J.P.C. Kent(RIC X, p. 53) suggested that her wholename, AELIA EUDOCIA, was prompted

by the erection of a jewelled cross byTheodosius in Jerusalem, which retainedthe name, Aelia. This name had beengiven to the city by Hadrian (117 – 138

Figure 3 – A gold solidus of Pulcheria minted at Constantinople. RIC X 220. Pulcheria andEudocia, and all the empresses of this period look similar, as do the emperors. It was the officethat was important, not the individual. (Triton X, lot 812)

Figure 4 – A gold solidus of Eudocia mintedat Constantinople in the period 423 to 429 AD.On the reverse Victory supports a long jewelledcross. The legend, VOT XX MVLT XXX refersto the 20th anniversary of Theodosius’ acces-sion. RIC X 228. (Collection of St John’sCathedral, Brisbane)

Figure 6 – The icon known as the VirginHodegetria. Russian, circa 1500 AD. (Imagecourtesy of the Temple Gallery, London)

Figure 7 – Miliaresion of Romanus III (1028 –1034 AD) with an image of the Virgin Hodeg-etria on the reverse. Sear, Byz. Coins 1822.(Triton VIII, lot 1441)

Figure 8 – A gold solidus of Eudocia mintedat Constantinople in the period 441 to 450 AD.On the reverse it shows Constantinopolis en-throned and the legend, IMPXXXXII COSXVIIPP. Philip Grierson suggested that the decisionto issue a coin commemorating the emperor’s42nd imperatorial year was based on the beliefthat Christ was born on the 42nd year ofAugustus. RIC X 289. (Heritage Auction3021, lot 21431)

AD) because Aelius was his family name.Dr Kent pointed to Psalm 51:18 wherethe words ‘Eudokia’ and ‘Jerusalem’ occurin the same sentence: “In your goodpleasure (eudokia) make Zion prosper:build up the walls of Jerusalem.” A jew-elled cross, held by Victory, appears ona solidus of Eudocia minted in 423 AD.(Figure 4)Eudocia’s conversion to Christianity

had been genuine and in 438 she wenton a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Figure 5).The city made a deep impression on her:“What a sense of suffering this placeimparted! Under every stone a martyr-dom, nostalgia, lamentations of Jews andChristians. What sufferings since thetime when Christ was crucified!” (Tsat-sos, p. 68) The bishop of Jerusalem gaveher the chains of St Peter (Acts 12:7)and the relics of St Stephen (Acts 7:60) totake as gifts to Constantinople. Accordingto tradition Eudocia found in Jerusalema painting of Mary and Jesus by St Lukeand sent it to Pulcheria in Constantino-ple. This icon is known as the VirginHodegetria (she who points the way), andit shows Mary pointing to the childJesus whom she holds on her left arm.Unfortunately it has been lost since1453, when Constantinople fell to the

Turks. Unlike most later copies (Figure 6)it showed Mary full-length as on a coinof Romanus III, 1028 – 1034 AD. (Fig-ure 7) Actually it was probably Pul-cheria who ‘found’ the icon on a visit toJerusalem because, by showing Christ asa child in his mother’s arms, it empha-sized the human side of Christ, andPulcheria was an opponent of mono-physitism (one nature), which main-tained that Christ’s nature was onlydivine. Eudocia was a monophysiteuntil later in her life. Also the image ofthe Virgin with Jesus complementedPulcheria’s persona of the pious virginempress. The Virgin Hodegetria icon must have

given a boost to the cult of the VirginMary, and Pulcheria might have inten-ded this when she ‘found’ it. Perhaps itwas part of her strategy to balancethe ‘maleness’ of Christianity. Modernadvocates of gender equality should beimpressed! In any case she had a power-ful influence on Christian theology. Shewas largely responsible for Mary beinggiven the title ‘Theotokos’ (God-bearer),

Figure 10 – Gold tremissis of Eudocia witha cross and graffito on the reverse. Sear,Roman Coins 4301. (Collection of St John’sCathedral, Brisbane)

Figure 11 – Siliqua of Eudocia with a crosson the reverse. Sear, Roman Coins 4302. (Coll-ection of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane)

Figure 9 – Gold semissis of Eudocia with the Chi-Rho monogram of Christ on the reverse.Sear, Roman Coins 4300. (Gorny & Mosch Auction 134, lot 3179)

Figure 12 – Bronze coin (AE3) of Eudocia. Onthe reverse Eudocia is enthroned and the leg-end is CONCORDIA AVG. 13 mms diameter.Sear, Roman Coins 4303. (Vauctions Auction218, lot 150)

Figure 13 – Bronze coin (AE2) of Aelia Flaccilla minted at Heraclea. 22 mms diameter. Sear,Roman Coins 4193. She was the first wife of Theodosius I and renowned for her piety andgenerosity to the poor. (Collection of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane)

and it was Pulcheria who arranged theCouncil of Chalcedon, which decreed thatChrist had two natures, human anddivine. This became the doctrine ofthe Roman Catholic and ProtestantChurches, as well as the Greek and Russ-ian Orthodox Churches. Because Eudocia was a monophysite

and Pulcheria and Theodosius weredyophysites (two natures) there wastension between them, but in 441 anincident occurred that led to Eudocialeaving Constantinople forever. Theodo-sius gave a large apple to Eudocia whogave it to Paulinus, a handsome courtier.Unaware that Theodosius had given itto Eudocia he gave it to Theodosius, whoimmediately suspected that they werehaving an affair and was furious. Until

she died Eudocia claimed that she wasinnocent, but her fate was sealed. ‘Every-thing was momentary and meaningless.The only meaning was God; she was acreature sinking and holding on interror to the thread which united her withher Maker. To flee, to flee. She envis-ioned Golgotha; and as a luminous log-ical consequence, there spread before heran endless vision – Jerusalem.’ (Tsatsos,p. 91)She returned to Jerusalem where she

remained for the rest of her life. There shebuilt churches, monasteries and hos-pices. In effect she became the queen ofJerusalem, and significantly she rebuiltthe walls of the city (Psalm 51:18). Shedied in 460 AD and was buried in thebasilica of St Stephen, which she had

built just north of the Damascus Gate.It no longer exists. All the coins of Eudocia are rare. Be-

sides solidi (Figures 2, 4 and 8) her coinsare a semissis (Figure 9), a tremissis(Figure 10), a siliqua (Figure 11) and asmall bronze coin (Figure 12). On thereverse of the bronze coin she is shownenthroned with her hands crossed overher chest. Flaccilla, the wife of Theodos-ius I, holds her hands in this way on hercoins (Figure 13) with the legend SALVSREIPVBLICAE (the welfare of the state).The authors of RIC IX explain it as anattitude of prayer, but Dr Kent thinks itprobably denoted “courteous modesty”.The legend on Eudocia’s coins, CON-CORDIA AVG, might have referred to herbeing a Christian in agreement (concor-dia) with the church in Constantinople.The tremissis that is in the collection

of St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane has aname, Eustathis, scratched on it in Greek.(Figure 14) Graffiti on coins can be goodand bad. Bad because the graffito spoilsthe appearance of the coin and reduces itsvalue. Good because it confirms that thecoin is genuine and it may be useful toscholars researching the period becauseat every period in history the letters ofthe alphabet were written differently.For example, the curved ‘E’ in this graffitowas typical of the fifth century. Thereforescholars can date manuscripts by com-paring the letters. Also graffiti may bemessages from the past, although not inthis case. Eustathis (English: Eustace)was a fairly common name at the time. It is amazing that Eudocia’s name and

destiny were written in a verse in thePsalms and that some strange intuitioncaused her father to send her away withonly a hundred coins. Also it is interestingto note how frequently apples have gotwomen into trouble.

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Figure 14 – Name scratched on the reverse of the tremissis in Figure 10.

Image of Eudocia in coloured stone inlay on marble from Church of Lips Monastery (later amosque) made in about 1100 AD, now in Istanbul Archaeological Museum. (Wikimedia Commons)

Icon of Eudocia based on a drawing made inthe 20th century by Constantine Youssis. TheGreek words mean ‘Saint Eudokia Athenais’.