TEODORA, MOGLIE DI TEOFILATTO

TEODORA, moglie di Teofilatto. - Compare nei documenti con il titolo di vestaratrix che le veniva dal marito, vestaratris pontificio tra il 900 e il 926.
TEODORA, moglie di Teofilatto. - Compare nei documenti con il titolo di vestaratrix che le veniva dal marito, vestaratris pontificio tra il 900 e il 926.

THEODORA, wife of Theophilactus. — She appears in documents with the title of *vestaratrix*, which she derived from her husband, a papal *vestararius* between 900 and 926.

The relations between T., Theophilactus, and Pope Sergius III first, and then Pope John X, were interpreted in the worst possible light, based on Liutprand of Cremona, who speaks of her as a beautiful and dissolute woman who, precisely for this reason, wielded great political authority. Eugenius Vulgarius, on the other hand, describes her as a pious and virtuous woman, but from Caesar Baronius onward, more credence has been given to Liutprand, despite his well-known proclivity for obscene tales, than to Eugenius. Whatever the truth may be, there is no certain evidence of any individual or autonomous political actions by T.

Bibl.: besides the works cited in the entries GIOVANNI X and SERGIO III, see F. Fedele, *Per la storia di Roma nel sec. X*, in *Arch. stor. Soc. rom. st. patria*, 33 (1910), pp. 177 ff.; 34 (1911), pp. 75 ff.; 393 ff.; T. Venni, *Giovanni X*, ibid., new series, 2 (1936), pp. 1-136. Gina Fasoli