In today’s world, we find many female outstanding leaders in various domains; politics, economy and culture in national and international scale. Their influence and ability have considerably increased. Moreover it is said that the power elite women w ...
In today’s world, we find many female outstanding leaders in various domains; politics, economy and culture in national and international scale. Their influence and ability have considerably increased. Moreover it is said that the power elite women will appear more and they become decision makers in the international affairs keeping pace with the fast globalization in the course of the 21th century.
On the other hand, how was it like to be women in the medieval Byzantium? According to the Byzantine ideology, women were thought to be weak in body and fragile in soul compared to men. So they had to be devoted to education for children and to management of household while men occupied major positions in the public domains, for example, in the imperial Army or civil Administration as well as in the Church. However, the byzantine literary sources show a class of women not always subject to traditional role divisions, and taking male positions in public domains.
The Byzantine power elite women came usually from noble families enjoying the economic privilege, political influence and social connections. Thus these women could inherit the family properties equally with male heirs and even managed the patrimony in the absence of family’s male head. Moreover, their dowry was not subjected to their husband’s properties. For this reason the aristocratic heiresses took usually the paternal or maternal family names instead of their husband’s family name and also even after marriage, they could wield a considerable influence on making their families’ promotion.
Many studies of Byzantine women have contributed to illustrating the women’s lives and careers as well as their roles. However, how much had the roles of these women changed in the course of the 7th and 12th centuries ? It seems that the answer to this question is not clear in the recent studies only based on the literary sources. By the way, we have the other historical sources very useful to identify the Byzantine women’s roles and its changes during the same period. The Byzantine dated seals, which were used to authenticate legal documents and letters, are nowadays considered to be very important research material because they provide us with much information on the identities of Byzantine people. A group of female signers’ names (family and given names), titles, kinship ties and symbolic images are well attested on a number of dated seals. Thus in the light to the seals elements stamped on the seals, this paper will highlight the Byzantine power elite women’s roles and identities changing in the medieval Byzantine history.
Now we can sum up some general points from what we have analysed; Firstly, the presence of a different rank of titles on the seals demonstrates some sort of power and influence that the Byzantine elite women had wielded not only for their family’s promotion but also for the Empire’s political integration. Literary and sigillographic sources describe that these female leaders’ influences were very significant in the historical events. The official titles attributed to empresses and aristocratic women show clearly the elite women’s roles and identities in Byzantium because it used to be attributed to the imperial wives and mothers or later even to daughters. Moreover the effigy of empresses or images of Mother of God stamped on their seals reveals also the elite women’s most public self-images or self-identities. Because, if an emperor-husband died leaving a young heir, then it was expected that the child’s mother could act as regent and if an emperor-husband was unable to carry out his duties then his wife stepped in the public life.
Secondly, the different type of names and titles on the seals reflects the change of the elite women’s roles and identities in the course of 7th and 12th centuries. Between the 7th and the 10th centuries, the remaining seals for empresses and aristocratic women are much less. It might be because the Empire was the most concerned with its military survival against the Arabs. One of the dominant images of empresses from this period was as wife and mother. Nonetheless two empresses were responsible for the restoration of icons during the period of Iconoclasm. Of two women, Eirene played a role of the sole ruling empress. The other iconophile empress Theodora is portrayed in written and sigillographic sources as anxious for the salvation of her iconoclast husband and regent for her son. It is significant that the seals of noble women come to the fore at the same period.
Thirdly, the addition of the family name to given name on the seals illustrates the elite women’s roles and identities changing from the 11th century. We can understand that from the empress Zoe through to the women of the Komnenian dynasty, aristocratic ladies did on occasion wield imperial power for themselves and certainly provided a force to be reckoned with. Especially Anna Dalassene’s dramatic life and long career confirms that from the 11th century the daughter s of noble families played more significant role in favor of their families as bearers of lineage and property while the aristocracy extended its power with in the Byzantium.
Finally, the different kinship ties on the seals confirm that byzantin women had access to political power through the relationship with their family male members. This might be as mother (the empress Eirene and Theodora), wife (the empress Theodora and Anna Dalassene and daughter (the empresses Zoe and Theodora). Thus, in the course of the 12th century, the increasing numbers of the kinship ties on the seals demonstrate that the byzantine women’s roles and identities were the most formulated in public domains with their social position culminating.