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he moved those watching opposite the imperial box to the Blue faction's side; and gave the benches, which had six pillars, to those of the Green faction, having said to the prefect Cyrus that, "Those whom I love, I wish 352 to watch opposite me." And in Constantinople those from the Green faction shouted to the same emperor, "What is ours to our own." And he sent them a message through the protocursor, saying that, "I, as a way of honoring you, moved you to the left of the imperial box, where I watch"; and they acclaimed him. And he ordered throughout the city for the Greens to watch on the left of the magistrates. But he became emperor as a child; and when the same emperor Theodosius advanced in age, he used to read inside the palace during the life of his father Arcadius. And after the death of his father, another very clever young man named Paulinus, son of a count of the domestics, would read with him. But after the death of his father, when the emperor Theodosius reached manhood, he sought to take a wife in marriage; and he was bothering his sister, the Augusta Pulcheria, who was a virgin, and who, loving her own brother, had not chosen to be married to anyone; and indeed, having made inquiries about many virgin girls, daughters of patricians or of royal blood, she spoke to the same emperor Theodosius, her brother, as she was living with him in the palace. And the same emperor Theodosius said to her that, "I wish, if you find for me a very beautiful young woman, such that no woman in Constantinople has such beauty, whether she is of royal blood or of the first senatorial blood. 353 But if she is not exceedingly beautiful, I have no need of either rank or of royal blood or of wealth, but even if she is the daughter of just anyone, provided she is a virgin and very exceedingly comely, her I will take." And having heard these things, the Augusta Pulcheria sent everywhere, making inquiries; and Paulinus also ran about, to please him. In the meantime it happened that a comely, learned, Greek girl came to Constantinople with her own relatives, named Athenais, who was also called Eudocia, the daughter of Leontius, the very wealthy Athenian philosopher; this Athenais, also Eudocia, was forced to come to the imperial city to her own aunt for this reason. The philosopher Leontius, her father, having two grown sons, when about to die, made a will, appointing in his will his two sons, Valerius and Gesius, as heirs of all the property left by him, having said in his will, "To Athenais, my most longed-for, legitimate daughter, I wish one hundred nomismata and only that to be given; for her fortune is sufficient for her, her fortune which surpasses every woman's fortune." And the same Leontius the philosopher died in Athens. Therefore after his death, the same Athenais, also Eudocia, importuned her own brothers, as her elders, falling at their feet and asking them not to heed the will, but to divide the paternal inheritance into a third part with 354 them, saying she had done no wrong, "as you also know," "against your own father; and I do not know why he left me without means when about to die, yet granted me a fortune of prosperity after his death." But her brothers remained disobedient, and becoming angry drove her out also from her paternal house, where she was living with them. And the sister of her late mother received her as an orphan, and guarded her as a virgin. Taking her, she went up to Constantinople to the other sister of her father, also her aunt. And taking her, in order for her to make a petition against her own brothers, they prepared her to approach the most pious Augusta Pulcheria, sister of the emperor Theodosius. And so approaching, she explained how she was being wronged by her own brothers, speaking
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τοὺς κατέναντι τοῦ καθίσματος θεωροῦντας μετέστησεν ἐπὶ τὸ Βένετον μέρος· καὶ τὰ βάθρα ἔδωκε τοῖς τοῦ Πρασίνου μέρους, ἔχοντα μεσόστυλα ἕξ, εἰρηκὼς τῷ ἐπάρχῳ Κύρῳ ὅτι Οὓς φιλῶ κατέ 352 ναντί μου θέλω θεωρεῖν. καὶ ἔκραξαν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει οἱ ἐκ τοῦ Πρασίνου μέρους τῷ αὐτῷ βασιλεῖ, Τὰ ἴδια τοῖς ἰδίοις. καὶ ἔπεμψεν αὐτοῖς μανδᾶτα διὰ τοῦ πρωτοκούρσορος, λέγων ὅτι Ἐγὼ ὡς τιμῶν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰ ἀριστερὰ τοῦ καθίσματος, ἔνθα θεωρῶ, μετέστησα ὑμᾶς· καὶ εὐφήμησαν αὐτόν. καὶ ἐκέλευσε κατὰ πόλιν εἰς τὰ ἀριστερὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων θεωρεῖν τοὺς Πρασίνους. Ἐβασίλευσε δὲ παιδίον· ὅτε δὲ προέκοψε τῇ ἡλικίᾳ ὁ αὐτὸς Θεοδόσιος βασιλεύς, ἀνεγίνωσκεν ἔσω εἰς τὸ παλάτιον ἐν τῇ ζωῇ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πατρὸς Ἀρκαδίου. καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ συνανεγίνωσκεν αὐτῷ ἄλλος νεώτερος εὐφυέστατος ὀνόματι Παυλῖνος, υἱὸς κόμητος δομεστίκων. μετὰ δὲ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ αὐτοῦ πατρὸς ἀνδρωθεὶς Θεοδόσιος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐζήτει λαβεῖν γυναῖκα εἰς γάμον· καὶ ὤχλει τῇ αὐτοῦ ἀδελφῇ Πουλχερίᾳ τῇ δεσποίνῃ, οὔσῃ παρθένῳ, ἥτις ὡς φιλοῦσα τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῆς ἀδελφὸν οὐχ εἵλατο γαμηθῆναί τινι· καὶ δὴ περιεργασαμένη περὶ παρθένων πολλῶν κορασίων, θυγατέρων πατρικίων ἢ ἐξ αἵματος βασιλικοῦ, εἶπεν τῷ αὐτῷ Θεοδοσίῳ βασιλεῖ, ἀδελφῷ αὐτῆς, συνδιάγουσα αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς Θεοδόσιος ὅτι Ἐγὼ θέλω, εἰ εὕρῃς μοι νεωτέραν εὔμορφον πάνυ, ἵνα τοιοῦτον κάλλος μὴ ἔχῃ γυνὴ εἰς Κωνσταντινούπολιν, εἴτε ἐξ αἵματός ἐστι βασιλικοῦ εἴτε ἐξ αἵματός ἐστι συγκλητικοῦ 353 πρώτου. εἰ δὲ μή ἐστι καλὴ εἰς ὑπερβολήν, οὐ χρείαν ἔχω, οὔτε ἀξιωματικὴν οὔτε ἐκ βασιλικοῦ αἵματος οὔτε πλοῦτον, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τινος δή ποτέ ἐστι θυγάτηρ, μόνον παρθένον καὶ εὐπρεπεστάτην πάνυ, ταύτην λαμβάνω. καὶ ἀκηκοῶσα ταῦτα ἡ δέσποινα Πουλχερία πανταχοῦ ἔπεμψε περιεργαζομένη· καὶ Παυλῖνος δὲ περιέτρεχεν, ἀρέσαι αὐτῷ. Ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταξὺ συνέβη ἐλθεῖν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων συγγενῶν κόρην εὐπρεπῆ, ἐλλόγιμον, Ἑλλαδικήν, ὀνόματι Ἀθηναΐδα, τὴν καὶ Εὐδοκίαν μετακληθεῖσαν, θυγατέρα γενομένην Λεοντίου τοῦ φιλοσόφου Ἀθηναίου εὐπορωτάτου· ἥτις Ἀθηναῒς ἡ καὶ Εὐδοκία ἠναγκάσθη καταλαβεῖν τὴν βασιλεύουσαν πόλιν πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτῆς θείαν διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν ταύτην. ὁ φιλόσοφος Λεόντιος ὁ αὐτῆς πατὴρ ἔχων υἱοὺς τελείους δύο, μέλλων τελευτᾶν διέθετο, τάξας ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ διαθήκῃ τοὺς δύο αὐτοῦ υἱοὺς κληρονόμους πάσης τῆς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καταλιμπανομένης περιουσίας Οὐαλέριον καὶ Γέσιον, εἰρηκὼς ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ διαθήκῃ, Ἀθηναΐδι τῇ ποθεινοτάτῃ μου γνησίᾳ θυγατρὶ δοθῆναι βούλομαι νομίσματα ἑκατὸν καὶ μόνον· ἀρκεῖ γὰρ αὐτῇ ἡ αὐτῆς τύχη ἡ ὑπερέχουσα πᾶσαν γυναικείαν τύχην. καὶ ἐτελεύτησεν ὁ αὐτὸς Λεόντιος ὁ φιλόσοφος ἐν Ἀθήναις. μετὰ οὖν τὴν αὐτοῦ ἀποβίωσιν ἐδυσώπει ἡ αὐτὴ Ἀθηναῒς ἡ καὶ Εὐδοκία τοὺς ἰδίους ἀδελφούς, ὡς μείζονας, προσπίπτουσα αὐτοῖς καὶ αἰτοῦσα μὴ προσχεῖν τῇ αὐτῇ διαθήκῃ, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ τρίτον μέρος μερίσασθαι μετ' 354 αὐτῶν τὰ πατρῷα, λέγουσα μηδὲν ἡμαρτηκέναι, ὡς καὶ ὑμεῖς οἴδατε, πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον ὑμῶν πατέρα· καὶ οὐκ οἶδα διὰ τί ἄπορόν με κατέλιπε μέλλων τελευτᾶν καὶ εὐπορίας τύχην μετὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ νέκρωσιν ἐχαρίσατο. οἱ δὲ αὐτῆς ἀδελφοὶ ἔμειναν ἀπειθεῖς, καὶ ὀργισθέντες ἐδίωξαν αὐτὴν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ πατρῴου αὐτῆς οἴκου, ἔνθα συνέμενεν αὐτοῖς. καὶ ἐδέξατο αὐτὴν ἡ ἀδελφὴ τῆς γενομένης αὐτῆς μητρός, ὡς ὀρφανήν, καὶ ὡς παρθένον ἐφύλαξεν αὐτήν. ἥντινα λαβοῦσα ἀνῆλθεν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει πρὸς τὴν ἄλλην ἀδελφὴν τοῦ αὐτῆς πατρὸς καὶ θείαν αὐτῆς. καὶ λαβοῦσαι αὐτὴν ποιῆσαι ἀξίωσιν κατὰ τῶν αὑτῆς ἀδελφῶν παρεσκεύασαν αὐτὴν προσελθεῖν τῇ εὐσεβεστάτῃ δεσποίνῃ Πουλχερίᾳ, ἀδελφῇ Θεοδοσίου βασιλέως. καὶ δὴ προσελθοῦσα ἐδίδαξεν ὡς βιαζομένη παρὰ τῶν ἰδίων αὐτῆς ἀδελφῶν, διαλεγομένη