Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/347

 CHAPTER IV

PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN

The influence of women in antiquity varied extremely according to circumstances of time and place. During the mythical age they are celebrated as the heroines of many a legend; and in the epics of Homer the free woman seems to live on terms of equality with her male relations. Down to the historical period the same consideration was continued to them at Sparta, where the mental and physical integrity of the females was cultivated as essential to the designed superiority of the race; but among the Athenians we find