Villains and Virgins History Podcast
Jul 13, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 13 segments
The Nika Riots are some of the bloodiest ever recorded. They unfolded in Constantinople in 532. This insurrection nearly toppled Emperor Justinian, but Empress Theodora makes a speech that changes the…
The story of Justinian and Theodora is, to me, one of the most incredible accounts I've ever come across in many thousands of pages of historical reading, and that's because each of these people are remarkable as individuals.
And we introduced both of these two in our last episode, but to briefly remind you, Theodora begins her life as a circus performer.
And while this means that she's highly visible, it also means that she's part of one of the lowest stratas of society in Constantinople at the time.
And this is because actresses and performers were also very frequently sex workers.
And so for Theodora, who spends her teenage years in this profession, she- She's going to carry around this reputation of being an actress, which was synonymous with being a prostitute, for the rest of her life, despite the fact that she finds an escape from that life, although it's, it's very difficult to do, and she has a conversion experience in Egypt as a woman in her 20s, which radically alters her life.
And so by the time she comes back to Constantinople, she's no longer an actress.
She's had a number of very significant life-changing experiences, and she's looking for a job, a different kind of job, and that's when she's introduced to Justinian.
He is also a remarkable figure because at this point in time when he meets Theodora, his uncle is the emperor.
They were people who were physically strong, but they weren't at all part of the aristocracy.
And so his uncle manages to become emperor through building a career in the imperial guards and then cheating a scheming eunuch who made the mistake of giving this captain of the palace guards some money to distribute as bribes to get somebody else selected as emperor.
But the captain of the guard distributes these bribes and persuades people to support him.
And so that's the story of how Justinian's uncle, Justin, manages to become emperor.
Because he succeeds, Justinian is now connected to the most powerful man in the empire, and he himself is being lined up to inherit the throne.
This doesn't make them particularly popular with people in the powerful patrician class, but their experience as outsiders shapes the vision that they bring to how the empire will be ruled.
It's about the pressure that Justinian and Theodora, as emperor and empress, try to exert from the top down on their society, reshaping Roman law, reshaping ways of living, reshaping what is allowed and what is not allowed, who has access to power and who doesn't.
The story of Justinian and Theodora is, to me, one of the most incredible accounts I've ever come across in many thousands of pages of historical reading, and that's because each of these people are remarkable as individuals.
And we introduced both of these two in our last episode, but to briefly remind you, Theodora begins her life as a circus performer.
And while this means that she's highly visible, it also means that she's part of one of the lowest stratas of society in Constantinople at the time.
And this is because actresses and performers were also very frequently sex workers.
And so for Theodora, who spends her teenage years in this profession, she- She's going to carry around this reputation of being an actress, which was synonymous with being a prostitute, for the rest of her life, despite the fact that she finds an escape from that life, although it's, it's very difficult to do, and she has a conversion experience in Egypt as a woman in her 20s, which radically alters her life.
And so by the time she comes back to Constantinople, she's no longer an actress.
She's had a number of very significant life-changing experiences, and she's looking for a job, a different kind of job, and that's when she's introduced to Justinian.
He is also a remarkable figure because at this point in time when he meets Theodora, his uncle is the emperor.
They were people who were physically strong, but they weren't at all part of the aristocracy.
And so his uncle manages to become emperor through building a career in the imperial guards and then cheating a scheming eunuch who made the mistake of giving this captain of the palace guards some money to distribute as bribes to get somebody else selected as emperor.
But the captain of the guard distributes these bribes and persuades people to support him.
And so that's the story of how Justinian's uncle, Justin, manages to become emperor.
Because he succeeds, Justinian is now connected to the most powerful man in the empire, and he himself is being lined up to inherit the throne.
This doesn't make them particularly popular with people in the powerful patrician class, but their experience as outsiders shapes the vision that they bring to how the empire will be ruled.
It's about the pressure that Justinian and Theodora, as emperor and empress, try to exert from the top down on their society, reshaping Roman law, reshaping ways of living, reshaping what is allowed and what is not allowed, who has access to power and who doesn't.
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