The Purple Shroud

After Theodora's marriage to Emperor Justinian, she was not simply his wife or his Empress, she was publically considered his partner, his equal. Their relationship is described as a perfect partnership by Stella Duffy in her new novel, THE PURPLE SHROUD, (A Penguin Paperback Original; On sale, October, 2012; 978-0-14-312225-8), the sequel to her historical yet fresh novel, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore. As Empress Augusta, of Byzantine Constantinople, Theodora has another role to play since her days as an actress at the Hippodrome. Now she must advise the Emperor on how to handle the people she knew so well; the people who betrayed her.

Theodora has not received the title of Augusta without good reason. She is all too familiar with the citizens for whom Justinian is trying to better Rome, she used to be one of them. And because of her inside knowledge, she is able to guide her husband during the Nika Riots which took the lives of over 10,000 people. Duffy takes the reader on a journey with Theodora in THE PURPLE SHROUD, where we learn of the pressure she is under to save girls who are trapped in the same ring of child prostitution she was subjected to as a girl.

We also see her strength of character as a wife and as Empress when she makes it her mission to not only protect her husband from his treasonous men, but when she takes it upon herself to protect the Crown by winning back the love of the people, and then never letting go when those people try to take her power away from her. We also see a stark juxtaposition to her powerful Empress persona when we witness her heartbroken at the Nika riots; the people she has so carefully been trying to help have turned on her and she is forced to make a decision between giving them what they want by fleeing or, making the harder call to stand up with her husband and fight them.

Through war, temptation, and sickness, Theodora never leaves her husband's side and never fails to be the figure Rome needs in order to move on from all the pain and loss they have felt. THE PURPLE SHROUD tells a story of a woman who is often forgotten in history, but who was one of the first women to have a political and theological impact on one of the most powerful Empires of the time.