EUDOCIA, the wife of Theodosius II., was the daughter of the Athenian sophist Leontius, or Leon. It is impossible to fix the date of her birth more precisely than in the last decade of the 4th century, though by an inference from a statement of Nicephorus Callistus (xiv. 50) the year 393-4 has been fixed upon. She was called Athenais prior to her conversion to Christianity. By her father she was carefully instructed in literature and the sciences; and so high an estimate did the philosopher form of her beauty and merit that, thinking any other endowment unnecessary, he divided his whole patrimony between his two sons. Athenais, however, resented this as an injustice, and carried her plea to Constantinople before the emperor. Here she gained access to Pulcheria, the sister of Theodosius, and by her she was secretly destined to be the wife of the emperor. The probable date of her marriage is 421. Before her elevation to the throne, she renounced paganism and was baptized. It was not, however, till the birth of a daughter that she received the title of Augusta (423). Her brothers she not only forgave, but raised to the dignity of consuls and praefects. About 438 Eudocia made an ostentatious pilgrimage to the Holy Land, distributing alms and donations for pious purposes with a munificence which exceeded that of the great Helena, and she returned to Constantinople in the following year with precious relics of St Stephen, St Peter, and the Virgin. Her peace, however, was soon after disturbed by the jealousy of her husband, on account, it is said, of his observing a beautiful apple which he had presented to her in the hands of Paulinus, his master of the offices. The execution of the supposed favourite, and the retirement of Eudocia in 449 to Jerusalem, did not appease the ...

EUDOCIA AUGUSTA, of Macrembolis, lived in the second half of the 11th century. She was the wife of the emperor Constantine XL, and after his death of Romanus IV. She had sworn to her first husband on his deathbed not to marry again, and had even imprisoned aud exiled Romanus, who was suspected of aspiring to the throne. Perceiving, however, that she was not able unaided to avert the invasions which threatened the eastern frontier of the empire, she revoked her oath, married Romanus, and with his assistance dispelled the impending danger. She did not live very happily with her new husband, who was warlike and self-willed, and when he was taken prisoner by the Turks she was compelled to vacate the throne in favour of her son Michael and retire to a convent, where she died at an advanced age. She compiled a dictionary of mythology entitled Ίωνιά {Collection of Violets), which has been published by Villoison in his Anecdota Groeca, Venice, 1781.