Purple is the Noblest Shroud

If you’ve heard of her, you probably know her as the wife of Justinian, the greatest emperor of the Byzantine Empire. But before Theodora was an empress, she was an actress. We know little about Theodora’s early life except this:

She was bound to the theatre, meant to perform for the rest of her life.
She was not allowed to marry any man of rank, including the emperor.
She was a member of a persecuted religious doctrine — The Monophysites.

Despite this, Theodora carved out a space for herself and others to move up from the lowest rungs of society and had the most powerful man of her time madly in love with her.

How did she do it?