Theodora greatly influenced the Church in the disputes on doctrine, she often attempted to dispose Bishops and install new ones that were monothosites, and there are numerous letters between the Goths who had taken power in the West, often talking about her great influence. Her influence was mainly through unofficial channels, though Procopius does mention that Justinian and Theodora never did anything apart from the other in regards to Imperial policies and there was a mutual co-operation, John the Lydian describes it as co-sharing the empire. Theodora appears to be the dominant partner in the relation and Justinian allows it because of his great love for her, so much so that Procopius states that Theodora used sorcery to make Justinian love sick with her.
Theodora advances the status of her friends and favorites, is regularly involved in the politics at the senate and even takes sides on political issues, Procopius says that if anyone did something without the consent of Theodora, that the man comes to a most unfortunate end. Theodora attempted to control every part of the general public affairs and has mentioned attempts to persuade to put bishops in power and remove bishops but also is involved in selecting juries as punishing generals and torturing her enemies.
Theodora influenced the government of the Roman Empire by influencing Justinian to pass laws that would give women more status and rights in the empire. The first law that was influenced by Theodora was the law that prevented senators to marry courtesans, given that Theodora was a courtesan it meant that Justinian could not marry her, so he changed the law enabling them to get married. It is evident that many laws passed were in regards to prostitutes attempting to give them a better start in life as well trying to stop the practice altogether, she even set up a building to house young prostitutes that had fallen victim to the trade because of various reasons such as poverty. Much of Justinian’s laws were in regards to protecting women and encouraging equality between men and women especially in the lower classes.
The most well known of her influence is at the Nika riots where it is said that Justinian had packed up and was ready to leave as the crowds at the hippodrome were calling on him to advocate and were rioting, however Theodora could not bear the thought of losing her status as empress and the purple that she convinced Justinian to stay and stay he did. He called upon the military to eliminate the rioters and around thirty thousand were killed.
Theodora according to Procopius was the daughter of Acacius who was a bear keeper in the hippodrome and was part of the Green faction. He had died naturally and left three daughters one of whom was Theodora. At a young age Theodora was involved with helping her sisters in the prostitution trade in Constantinople and would often help carry the stool on which her sister would perform with on stage. Theodora did not entertain with the flute or musical instruments but rather sold her youthful beauty to those who came along; later on she started to get involved in theatrical acts on stage as sort of a jester conducting buffoonish acts just to make the audience laugh.
Procopius says that Theodora was shameless and would often reveal herself naked front and back and she would go to a dinner with many young men and sleep with them all at the banquet and when they were tired she would start to have sex with the other attendants. Procopius talks of a specific act that Theodora would perform in the theater, where she had laid naked and the slaves would place barley on her groins and then had some geese pick them off with their beaks and eat them. Procopius extensively portrays Theodora as a harlot who could not get enough sex, shameless and never hesitating to display her licentiousness. She was also portrayed as a vindictive person, who plotted to have people removed from power and even killed, according to Procopius she had planned to have the financial advisor to Justinian removed from office and even killed. This was because he would simply go against her wishes and often convinced Justinian to do the same, it took her nine years to plot against him and finally she succeeded in trapping him.