“...The Daughter of Glorious Leontius”: Historical Role and Literary Works of Aelia Eudocia Augusta in Modern Historiography (Based on Tatyana Aleksandrova’s Book “Byzantine Empress Athenais-Eudocia. Life and Works in the Context of the Reign of Emperor Theodosius II (401–450)”. Saint Petersburg, Aleteya Publ., 2018. 416 p.)

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes the contents of the monograph “Byzantine Empress Athenais-Eudocia. Life and Works in the Context of the Reign of Emperor Theodosius II (401–450)” by Tatyana Aleksandrova. It is devoted to the personality of Empress Eudocia (ca. 405–460) and her poetical heritage in the context of the period. Discussion. Over the recent decades academic interest in personalities has grown significantly. And it is not only within the framework of historical science. The genre of historical research has become very popular among many Russian and Western academic researchers. Because of such attention to personalities one of the urgent tasks of modern Byzantine studies is studying works of little-known or “secondary” Byzantine authors. These ones include the personality of royal poetess Aelia Eudocia Augusta (ca. 405–460). The scale of her activity and influence on the Byzantine culture is still poorly understood. Analysis. As a historical figure and poetess Eudocia attracted attention of researchers of Byzantine history and literature more than once. Historiography is mostly characterized by a certain duality of the approach to studying the personality and works of Eudocia. It often happens that researchers consider Eudocia the author and Eudocia the Empress as two different persons. Tatyana Alexandrova tries to combine both of these approaches and explore the poetic legacy of Eudocia in the historical and literary context of the 5th century. The author of the monograph reconstructs the biography of Eudocia, analyzes and verifies various research hypotheses of the predecessors (A. Cameron, B. Sowers, K. Holum, T. Graumann, C. Bevegni, E. Livrea, etc.). The author of the monograph comes to the conclusion that legends and myths around Eudocia’s name only remotely reflect the reality and their appearance was politically motivated. At the same time, the author studies all attributable poems and works by Eudocia and focuses attention on such ones as the Martyrdom of St. Cyprian and the Homeric centos. Results. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the monograph is an important step in understanding and representing the role of Eudocia in the Byzantine history and culture of the 5th century.