Pulcheria

Aelia Pulcheria (ˈiːliə_pʌlˈkɪriə; Πουλχερία; 19 January 398 or 399 – July 453) was an Eastern Roman empress who advised her brother emperor Theodosius II during his minority and then became wife to emperor Marcian from November 450 to her death in 453. She was the second (and oldest surviving) child of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. In 414, the fifteen-year old Pulcheria became the guardian of her younger brother Theodosius II and was also proclaimed Augusta. Through her religious devotion and involvement in the contemporary ecclesiastical scene, Pulcheria had significant, though changing, influence and political power during her brother's reign. When Theodosius II died on 26 July 450, Pulcheria married Marcian on 25 November 450, while simultaneously not violating her vow of virginity. She died three years later, in July 453. Pulcheria influenced the Christian Church and its theological development by being involved in the Council of Ephesus and guiding the Council of Chalcedon, in which the Church ruled on christological issues. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church subsequently recognized her as a saint. Pulcheria was born into the Theodosian dynasty, whose Eastern branch in the later Roman Empire ruled in Constantinople. Her parents were eastern Roman emperor Arcadius and empress Aelia Eudoxia. Pulcheria's older sister, Flaccilla, was born in 397 but probably died young. Her younger siblings were Arcadia (born in 400), Theodosius II, the future emperor (born in 401) and Marina (born in 401). Arcadius' reign experienced the conflict between his wife and the Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom. Sozomen reports that much of the rivalry was based on a silver statue set up in honour of Eudoxia outside the cathedral of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, which Chrysostom condemned: "The silver statue of the empress ... was placed upon a column of porphyry; and the event was celebrated by loud acclamations, dancing, games, and other manifestations of public rejoicing .