I’m especially excited to tell Theodora of Byzantium’s story because it’s refreshingly victorious. She’s best known as one of the most influential and powerful Empresses of the Eastern Roman Empire who went from hooker to high roller to Eastern Orthodox Saint.  A lot of what we know about Theodora comes from the Byzantine scholar, Procopius. In his work, he goes back and forth from absolutely gushing about her to depicting her as a power-mad horndog.