One-woman defied emperors, outwitted popes, and shaped the modern world as we know it.
Without her, society, education, and medicine would look completely different.
Here’s how Empress Theodora built the legal foundations that still protect millions today. 🧵👇
Theodora wasn’t born into power. She was born into poverty.
Her father was a bear trainer. When he died, she and her sisters were left destitute. In Constantinople, that meant one thing—survival by any means necessary.
But Theodora was more than just a survivor. She was a strategist.
She became an actress, a profession that, at the time, was seen as scandalous—many actresses were forced into sex work.
But Theodora didn’t just survive in this world. She used it as a training ground—learning politics, persuasion, and power.
Michelangelo never wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel—but when he defied Pope Julius II, he set off a battle of wills that would push him to the edge of madness. 🧵
Michelangelo was a sculptor at the peak of his career.
When Pope Julius II commanded him to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, he refused—he wasn’t a painter.
Imagine being forced to create a masterpiece you never wanted to make.
What would you have done?
Michelangelo fled Rome, hoping the Pope would forget.
Julius II, known as the “Warrior Pope,” didn’t just fight battles on the battlefield—he fought them in art, politics, and power.
He sent threats. If Michelangelo refused, his career was over.
The artist remained in Florence until the Florentine government pressed him to return to the pope.