Thekla 2 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
Sex | F |
Floruit | E IX |
Ethnicity | Armenian |
Textual Sources | Bar Hebraeus, Chronographia, tr. E. A. W. Budge, The Chronography of Abu 'l-Faraj (London, 1932; repr. Amsterdam, 1976) (history); Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae Libri II, ed. J. J. Reiske, CSHB (Bonn, 1829); also ed. (in part) A. Vogt (Paris, 1935, repr. 1967) (history); Genesii, Josephi, Regum Libri Quattuor, eds. A. Lesmüller-Werner and I. Thurn, CFHB 14 (Berlin, 1978) (history); Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, ed. and tr. J.-B. Chabot, La chronique de Michel le Syrien (Paris, 1899-1904) (chronicle); Nicephorus, Chronographikon Suntomon, ed. C. de Boor, Nicephori Archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani Opuscula Historica (Leipzig, 1880), pp. 79-135; Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838) (history); Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history) |
Thekla 2 is named in Nic., Chron., Const. Porph., De Cer. II 42 and in the Syriac sources.
Daughter of Bardanes Tourkos (Bardanes 3) and sister of Barka 1; Thekla 2 was the first wife of the emperor Michael II (Michael 10) and was the mother of the future emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5): Theoph. Cont. II 24 (p. 78) (unnamed first wife of Michael), Genesius II 1 (unnamed daughter of an unnamed strategos of the Anatolikoi, married to the future emperor Michael). See further Michael 10.
Her death apparently occurred after Michael 10 became emperor: Zon. XV 24. 8 (death of his first wife). Wife of Michael II (Michael 10); she was buried, like her husband, in the Mausoleum of Justinian at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople: Const. Porph., De Cer. II 42 (Reiske, 645).
The wives of the emperor Michael II are named as Thekla 2 and Euphrosyne 1 (Θέκλα καὶ Εὐφροσύνη): Nic., Chron., p. 108.
First wife of the emperor Michael II (Michael 10); she died after her husband had been four years on the throne (i.e. c. 824/825): Mich. Syr. III 72, Bar Hebr., p. 129, p. 131. She was perhaps the mother of the emperor Theophilos 5. The reference to the mother of Theophilos 5 at Bar Hebr., p. 136 can not be to Thekla 2, who was dead; it perhaps refers either to Theophilos 5's stepmother (Euphrosyne 1) or to Theophilos 5's wife (Theodora 2).
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