Marcia Euphemia

Marcia Euphemia was the wife of Anthemius, Western Roman Emperor.

Family

Marcia Euphemia was the only known daughter of Marcian, Byzantine Emperor, with an unknown woman Her stepmother was Pulcheria, second wife of her father, a relationship that was a mere political alliance to establish Marcian as a member of the Theodosian dynasty by marriage. As Pulcheria had taken a religious vow of chastity, the marriage was never consummated and Euphemia never had younger half-siblings.

Evagrius Scholasticus quotes Priscus, stating that Marcian was "by birth a Thracian, and the son of a military man. In his desire to follow his father's mode of life, he had set out for Philippopolis, where he could be enrolled in the legions". However Theodorus Lector reports Marcian to be an Illyrian.

Marriage

Her wedding to Anthemius is estimated to about 453. Her new husband was son to Procopius, magister utriusque militiae ("Master of Soldiers of both armies", commander of both cavalry and infantry) of the Eastern Roman Empire from 422 to 424. According to Sidonius Apollinaris, the magister militum was a namesake descendant of Procopius who had served as a rival emperor from 365 to 366.

Euphemia

Saint Euphemia (Greek: Ευφημία), "well-spoken [of]", known as the All-praised in the Orthodox Church, is a Christian saint, who was martyred for her faith in 303 AD. According to Christian tradition, this occurred at Chalcedon.

According to tradition, Euphemia was arrested for refusing to offer sacrifices to Ares. After suffering various tortures, she died in the arena at Chalcedon from wounds sustained from a bear. Her tomb became a site of pilgrimages. She is commemorated on September 16.

Historical background

Euphemia's name and year of death are recorded in the 5th century Martyrologium Hieronymianum, the earliest extant list of Christian martyrs. The year, 303, was the first year of the Great Persecution under Roman emperor Diocletian. The Fasti vindobonenses, a collection of liturgical documents from the 4th to 6th centuries, says she died on the 16th of October. Other than this, there is no verifiable historical information about Euphemia.Egeria, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381-384 and wrote an account of her travels, relates being shown the site of Euphemia's martyrdom in Chalcedon. Euphemia became a famous saint and stories about her accumulated; the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies from about 1260, includes an account of her martyrdom.

Euphemia (empress)

Euphemia (died 520s), whose original name was Lupicina, was the consort of Justin I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 517 to 527.

Empress Euphemia is credited with the ecclesiastical policies of Justin and she founded a Church of Saint Euphemia, where she was buried following her death, probably in either 523 or 524. Justin was buried by her side in 527.

According to the Secret History of Procopius, Lupicina was both a slave and a barbarian. He asserted that she had been the concubine of her owner. The information from the Secret History was published posthumously. The seven volumes of histories that were published in his lifetime were the antithesis of this published work, being most laudatory of the new dynasty. Critics of Procopius (whose secret history reveals a man seriously disillusioned with his rulers) have dismissed his posthumously published work as a severely biased source, being vitriolic and pornographic, but without other sources, critics have been unable to discredit some of the assertions in the publication. Although its motives are suspect and it can not be verified, its titillating nature has kept it as a popular reference.

Euphemia (typeface)

Euphemia is a sans-serif typeface for Unified Canadian Syllabics.

Usage

Various versions of "Euphemia" have been supplied in Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.OS X also supplies a version called "Euphemia UCAS".

Unicode Ranges

Euphemia has support for the following Unicode ranges:

References