In 532 AD, with Constantinople burning and the mob crowning a rival emperor, Justinian was ready to flee, until his wife stood and declared that royal purple is the noblest shroud. Her nerve turned the tide and saved the Eastern Roman Empire. This episode tells the extraordinary story of Empress Theodora, who rose from the daughter of a bear keeper and an actress to co-ruler of the greatest empire on Earth.

We explore her hardscrabble childhood in the world of the Hippodrome's Blues and Greens factions, her scandal-laden early career, and the contested accounts of the historian Procopius. We follow her marriage to Justinian, the Nika riots, her ruthless court intrigues, her crusade to free women from forced prostitution, and her shadow religious policy protecting persecuted Miaphysites, all while untangling how history smears powerful women ...