Anastasia 2

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexF
FloruitM IX
PmbZ No.231
ReligionIconophile
LocationsTa Gastria (Monastery of, Constantinople) (exileplace);
Ta Karianou (exileplace);
Ta Karianou (residence);
Ta Gastria (Monastery of, Constantinople) (residence);
Constantinople
OccupationNun
Textual SourcesConstantine 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);
Georgius Monachus Continuatus, in Theophanes Continuatus, ed I Bekker (Bonn, 1839), pp. 761-924 (history);
Grierson, P., A Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, II: Phocas to Theodosius III, 602-717; III: Leo III to Nicephorus III 717-1081 (numismatics);
Leo Grammaticus, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1842) (chronicle);
Pseudo-Symeon, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), pp. 603-760 (history);
Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838) (history);
Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history)

Anastasia 2 was the daughter of the emperor Theophilos 5 and Theodora 2; the emperor Michael III (Michael 11) was her brother, and she had four sisters, Thekla 1, Anna 2, Poulcheria 1 and Maria 4: Theoph. Cont. III 5 (p. 90), Leo Gramm. 237, Georg. Mon. Cont. 823, Ps.-Symeon 628, 658, Zon. XV 26.4 (τὰ τοῦ βασιλέως θυγάτρια, ἦσαν δὲ πέντε, καὶ αἱ κλήσεις ἐκείνων αὗται, Θέκλα καὶ Ἄννα, Ἀναστασία τε καὶ σὺν Πουλχερίᾳ Μαρία). She and her sisters used to visit their grandmother (either Euphrosyne 1 or Theoktiste 1; probably the latter since Euphrosyne 1 was their stepgrandmother) in the monastery of Ta Gastria but were stopped after Theophilos 5 discovered that they were being encouraged to venerate icons: Ps.-Symeon 628 (Euphrosyne 1), Theoph. Cont. III 5 (p. 90) (Theoktiste 1), Zon. XV 26.4-8 (Theoktiste 1). After Michael III (Michael 11) fell out with his mother, Anastasia 2 was exiled from the palace to Ta Karianou with her sisters Thekla 1 and Anna 2 and later with Poulcheria 1 to the monastery of Ta Gastria, where they were all tonsured: Leo Gramm. 237, Georg. Mon. Cont. 823, Ps.-Symeon 658, Zon. XVI 3. 4-6, Genesius IV 11. She was buried in the Monastery of Ta Gastria, in the same sarcophagus as her mother Theodora 2 and her sisters Thekla 1 and Poulcheria 1: Const. Porph., Cer. II 42 (Reiske, p. 647).

According to Scylitzes, Anastasia 2 was one of the children of Theodora 2 (τὰς τῆς Θεοδώρας ... παῖδας): Scyl., p.52, l.75. Anastasia 2 had four sisters, Anna 2, Thekla 1, Poulcheria 1 and Maria 4: Scyl., p.52, line 75. Anastasia 2 was influenced by her mother's mother, Theoktiste 1, towards the veneration of icons: Scyl., p.52, lines 76-81. Anastasia 2 visited Theoktiste 1's house which was later to become the Gastrion monastery: Scyl., 52, lines 74-75. Anastasia 2 had feelings of disgust for her father's heresy and felt drawn to the form of the Holy Icons (αἵρεσιν ... εἰκόνων μορφάς): Scyl., p.52, lines 80-81. Anastasia 2 did not betray the icons to her father Theophilos 5: Scyl., p.52, lines 84-86.

She was one of the daughters of Theophilos 5 whose name appears on her father's coinage: Grierson, Catalogue 3.1, p. 428.

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