From Sentiment to Fact: How Did the Letter 20 of Ambrose of Milan Shape Empress Justina as a Bad Feminine Figure?
Résumé
As a controversial female character of the end of the fourth century AD, Empress Justina suffers a hostile literary tradition, as the sharp quill of Christian authors always deliver her a denigrating portrait. One might wonder how the widow of Valentinian Ist ended up portrayed as the evil Jezebel, willing to fight the rightful bishop Ambrose of Milan? Scrutinising the contemporary sources, this paper aims to demonstrate how a single letter, written by Ambrose himself, was able to shift the entire historical discourse. As an actor in these events, he recounted his feelings to his sister Marcellina in a letter later used by authors as a primary source to describe his opposition to Justina at the end of the fourth-century or between the years 384 and 386. His sentiments swayed his judgement, which soon became a new truth through the quill of late antique authors. Because of the success of such narratives, the person of Justina soon vanished behind a fictional negative character, shaping the archetype of the bad sovereign as a new Jezebel.