PD Dr. Pratsch researches at the "Akademie der Wissenschaften Berlin Brandenburg" and teaches philology and history of the Byzantine Empire at the "Freie Universität Berlin".
Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer at the circus in Constantinople and owing to her beauty and intelligence rose to courtesan of influential men of the Byzantine Empire. Soon emperor Justinian, the most powerful man between Gibraltar and Persia, fell in love with her and after having changed the laws beforehand married her and raised her to Augusta.