Eudocia (yōdōˈshə) [key], d. 460, Roman empress of the East; daughter of an Athenian Sophist. She was selected by Pulcheria as the wife of Theodosius II, whom she married (421) after being baptized and changing her name from Athenaïs to Eudocia. She became powerful at court, but the victim of intrigues, she retired to Jerusalem, where she devoted herself to literary and charitable work. She embraced Eutychianism (see Eutyches) but finally returned to orthodoxy.
See C. Diehl, Byzantine Portraits (1906, tr. 1927).
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