Villains and Virgins History Podcast
Jun 29, 2026 · 54 min · 13 segments
This is the story of a woman who began as a circus performer and child prostitute, and became Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire. No less remarkable is her husband Justinian, who became emperor. This…
Before we get into the details of Theodora and Justinian as people, we need to set the stage for where this story is going to unfold, and most of these events happen in one of the world's most legendary cities.
But during the time of our story, Constantinople was the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire.
Back in 286, Emperor Diocletian decided that for administrative ease, it would be better to divide the Roman Empire into pieces because it was just too large and too unwieldy to manage under one emperor in one seat of government.
And so he divides the empire into East and West, and Rome remains the capital of the Western half of the Roman Empire, and Constantinople becomes the capital of the Eastern half.
Later, Emperor Constantine rebuilds the city and names it after himself, and he starts referring to it as a new Rome.
But before the city was rebuilt by Constantine, it was originally founded by Greek settlers and it had another name.
That older name, Byzantium, has a very long life, and continues to crop up in many of the descriptions of this incredible city and its culture, as we will see.
But during the period of this story of Justinian and Theodora, the city is called Constantinople.
The next thing you need to know about this city was that it was unbelievably wealthy, and this was for a number of reasons.
First of all, as an imperial capital, it was the place where most of the taxes got sent.
So this city had a constant influx of goods being brought by merchants from much farther east, traveling overland on camel and horse, bringing in goods like silk and spices.
I recently visited this city, and the remnants of its Roman period are still visible today.
This is architecture that was built more than 1,000 years ago, and has already survived longer than any of our modern highways could ever hope to.
And you can also see remnants of the city's legendary defensive walls, which were sometimes multiple layers deep.
Very, very tall, very thick, and incredibly effective at repelling would-be invaders.
So a large portion of the city's wealth was invested in monumental architecture and in incredibly effective defensive fortifications.
Constantinople, as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, carried on the tradition of Roman law and Roman administration for centuries after the city of Rome itself fell in 476 CE.
Before we get into the details of Theodora and Justinian as people, we need to set the stage for where this story is going to unfold, and most of these events happen in one of the world's most legendary cities.
But during the time of our story, Constantinople was the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire.
Back in 286, Emperor Diocletian decided that for administrative ease, it would be better to divide the Roman Empire into pieces because it was just too large and too unwieldy to manage under one emperor in one seat of government.
And so he divides the empire into East and West, and Rome remains the capital of the Western half of the Roman Empire, and Constantinople becomes the capital of the Eastern half.
Later, Emperor Constantine rebuilds the city and names it after himself, and he starts referring to it as a new Rome.
But before the city was rebuilt by Constantine, it was originally founded by Greek settlers and it had another name.
That older name, Byzantium, has a very long life, and continues to crop up in many of the descriptions of this incredible city and its culture, as we will see.
But during the period of this story of Justinian and Theodora, the city is called Constantinople.
The next thing you need to know about this city was that it was unbelievably wealthy, and this was for a number of reasons.
First of all, as an imperial capital, it was the place where most of the taxes got sent.
So this city had a constant influx of goods being brought by merchants from much farther east, traveling overland on camel and horse, bringing in goods like silk and spices.
I recently visited this city, and the remnants of its Roman period are still visible today.
This is architecture that was built more than 1,000 years ago, and has already survived longer than any of our modern highways could ever hope to.
And you can also see remnants of the city's legendary defensive walls, which were sometimes multiple layers deep.
Very, very tall, very thick, and incredibly effective at repelling would-be invaders.
So a large portion of the city's wealth was invested in monumental architecture and in incredibly effective defensive fortifications.
Constantinople, as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, carried on the tradition of Roman law and Roman administration for centuries after the city of Rome itself fell in 476 CE.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
