Welcome to Totalis Rankium. I am Jamie.

And I'm Rob ranking all of the emperors from Augustus to Constantine 11 and this is episode

136. It's Zoe to the Purpleborn, usually just known as Zoe the Purple Born.

But as we just discussed before pressing record, we're going to give her a number, aren't we?

Yeah. I think it's nice, you know, because you mention that women are often given numbers because, you know, they're women.

Yeah, and history don't like women. That's on a T-shirt I read.

But I think they deserve the number. This is our second Zoe, so she is getting the number two.

But just to warn you, if you're searching for her, you won't find her under Zoe too.

But we're bucking the trend. We're doing it.

Yeah, a bit of an odd one this episode.

I feel a lot of this can be a recap of what we've already talked about.

Yes, in fact, in my notes it says here,

we have covered most of her life already,

which is pretty much paraphrasing what you've just said.

And most of what happens after what we've already covered mainly involves Constantine

9, who we're doing next time. But I think it's, well, for a start, there is new information

to go over, but also, it's just nice seeing her perspective on things. Yes, that is true. You don't

often get that. You don't. Her life is a genuinely fascinating one, and it's very different to any of the other 135 episodes we've done in terms of her life projections.

So, saying that, let's jump into this. We start in 978 in Constantinople, her father, obviously, was Constantine 8.

And her mother was Helena.

Now, if you remember back in Constantine 8's episode, he had married very young.

Helena and Constantine had had three daughters, and then Helena died.

...