Empress Theodora Part 2: Riot Girl | 67
Even The Royals
Wondery
4.4 • 844 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In part one, Theodora escaped poverty and exploitation and rose through the ranks of Byzantine society. When she marries the love of her life, Justinian, and he gets the bump to Emperor, she rises even higher – to co-ruler – and uses her newfound power to fight for women’s rights. Theodora has everything she’s ever wanted – status, love, and the ability to make change. But when riots threaten to topple her reign, she’ll resort to ruthless measures to hold on to her new life.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to Even the Royals early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:04.1 | Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | A quick note about our show. |
| 0:09.8 | We do a lot of research for our stories, but we also aren't your high school history class, |
| 0:14.1 | so some details and scenes are dramatized. |
| 0:16.7 | And we try to keep it clean, but sometimes our language can be a little ruthless. |
| 0:20.8 | Please be advised. |
| 0:29.0 | It's around 523 AD. |
| 0:31.5 | 29-year-old Viadora is walking down a long marble hallway in the great palace of Constantinople. |
| 0:38.9 | She's on her way to a big meeting. |
| 0:44.1 | Her blonde hair is piled high, and her fine silk tunic shimmers in the afternoon light. |
| 0:49.4 | Looking at her, you'd never know that Theodora spent her childhood working in the dark tunnels underneath the hippodrome. It's been a few months since she was made her noble. |
| 0:54.0 | Theodora has worked her way |
| 0:55.1 | so high up the ladder that today she's on her way to meet with Empress Euphemia. But this isn't |
| 1:00.6 | just a lady's lunch. Theodora's fate will be decided by this chat. Fyodorah's currently |
| 1:07.3 | the official lover of Justinian, the emperor's nephew. But what she really wants is to be Justinian's wife. |
| 1:14.1 | The problem is the dumb law that bans marriage between people of different classes. |
| 1:18.6 | But Beodora figures laws are meant to be broken, or at least changed. |
| 1:23.2 | And that's why she's meeting with Empress Euphemia today. |
| 1:27.0 | Theodora approaches the door of the empress's chambers. |
| 1:29.8 | She knocks, then smooths her tunic. |
| 1:32.0 | She doesn't know the empress very well, |
... |
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