EUDO'CIA (Lat., from Gk. Ei/SoKia, Eudo hio. The name of several Byzantine princesses, of whom the most important was the wife of the Emperor Theodosius 11. She was born about 393, the daughter of the sophist Leontius, or Leon, and was educated by her father. her ac complishments and her singular beauty were reckoned by Leontius a sufficient fortune, for at his death he left all his property to her two brothers. Eudocia, appealed to the Emperor at Constantinople. Pnlcheria., the sister of Theodo sius, was interested in the maiden, and thought she would make a suitable wife for the Emperor. She was married to the Emperor in A.D. 421. For many years, however, Pulcheria ruled in the im perial household and councils. Eudocia, accord ing to Nieephorus, 'submitting to her as mother and Augusta': but in 447 a quarrel broke out between them in regard to the Eutychian heresy, of which Eudocia had become a supporter. At first Eudocia was triumphant, and Pulcheria was banished; but in a short time the Emperor was reconciled to his sister, and treated Eudocia so sharply that she retired in Jerusalem. where
she died A.D. 460-61. Her latter days were spent in works of piety and charity. Through the in fluence of the famous Symeon Stylites, she was induced to renounce Entychianism and become an orthodox Catholic Christian. She wrote poem in heroic verse on the victory obtained by the troops of Theodosius over the Persians. A.D. 421 or 422; a paraphrase of eight books of Scrip ture; a paraphrase of Daniel and Zechariah; and a poem in three books on the history and martyr dom of C'yprian and .lusting. The authorship of Honiero.rentoncs, a work composed of verses taken from 'Homer, and so arrange] as to appear a history of the fall of man and of his redemption by Christ, has also (but without sufficient rea son) been attributed to her.