Aelia Eudocia - Early Life

Early Life

Aelia Eudocia was born around 400 A.D. in Antioch to a philosopher named Leontius. Leontius taught Rhetoric at the Academy, where people from all over the Mediterranean came to either teach or learn. Eudocia's given name was Athenais, which her parents named her after the city's protector Pallas-Athena. Her father was rich, and had a magnificent house in Acropolis, that had a massive courtyard that young Athenais played in a lot as a child. She had a gift for memorization, and easily learned the poetry of Homer and Pindar, which her father would recite to her.

When she was 12 years old, her mother died and she became her father's comfort, taking on the responsibilities of household chores, raising her siblings and tending to her father. She had two brothers, Gessius and Valerius, who would later be rewarded in court by their sister and brother in law. In return, her father spent all of his past time devoted to teaching her rhetoric, poetry, and philosophy. He taught her "Socratic Virtue of Knowledge, of moderation", and predicted that she would have a great destiny. His teachings and role as her father did greatly prepare her for her for her destiny. As her father, he was essentially Athenais' everything, and when he died in 420, she was devastated. Even more devastating was that in his will, he left all property to her brothers, and left her only a 100 coins, saying that "sufficient for her is her destiny which will be the greatest of any woman". This bothered Athenais even more, and didn’t think it was fair at all. She had been her father's confidante, and expected more than 100 coins. She begged for her brothers to be fair and give her an equal share of the property, but they refused. Athenais had nothing else in the world, other than 100 coins, and everything she knew and loved were gone.

Athenais then went to live with her aunt, shortly after her father's death at age 20. Her aunt told her to go to Constantinople to "ask for justice from the Emperor", that she would receive her fair share of her father's wealth. Her father greatly impacted her, and influenced her literary work later on in life after she became Empress.