[4] Her father, an Athenian sophist named Leontius,[5] taught rhetoric at the Academy of Athens, where people from all over the Mediterranean came to either teach or learn.

[7] Her father was rich and had a magnificent house on the Acropolis with a large courtyard in which young Athenais frequently played as a child.

Both as a teacher and a role model, he had a great impact on her, prepared her for her destiny and influenced the literary work she created after she became Empress.

[citation needed] According to John Malalas, who wrote in the 6th century, when her father died, he left all his property to her brothers, with only 100 coins reserved for her in his will, saying that "[s]ufficient for her is her destiny, which will be the greatest of any woman.

[10][11] Historian Kenneth Holum further introduced the suggestion that her father, Leontius, was a native of Antioch rather than Athens, drawing from the "traditional link" between the two cities and their philosophers.

Pulcheria had heard about this young woman, who had only 100 coins to her name, and when she met her, she was "astonished at her beauty and at the intelligence and sophistication with which she presented her grievance.

[18] This rags-to-riches story, though it claims to be authentic and is accepted among historians, leads one to believe that the tale may have been twisted due to the detail of how the romance was portrayed.

The earliest version of this story appeared more than a century after Eudocia's death in the "World Chronicle" of John Malalas, "an author who did not always distinguish between authentic history and a popular memory of events infused with folk-tale motifs".

[19] The facts are that she was the daughter of Leontius and she did originally have the name Athenais, according to the contemporary historians Socrates of Constantinople, and Priscus of Panion; however, they leave out any mention of Pulcheria's role in playing match-maker for her brother.

[19] Eudocia also built the original Church of St. Polyeuctus in Constantinople, which her great-granddaughter Anicia Juliana greatly expanded and furnished in the 6th century.

Licinia Eudoxia had been betrothed since her birth to her cousin, the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III, whom she married on 29 October 437.

Their relationship created a "pious atmosphere" in the imperial court, and probably explains why Eudocia travelled to the Holy Land in 438.

[20] Her relationship with her husband had deteriorated, and with much pleading from Melania the Younger, a wealthy widow from Palestine and good friend of Eudocia, Theodosius allowed her to go.

[26] While on her pilgrimage to Jerusalem in spring of 438, Eudocia stopped in Antioch, and during her stay she addressed the senate of that city in Hellenic style (i.e., an encomium cast in Homeric hexameters) and distributed funds for the repair of its buildings.

[citation needed] On her arrival from Jerusalem, her position was allegedly undermined by the jealousy of Pulcheria and the suspicion of an affair with Paulinus, the master of the offices.

"[38] Soon after her accession as an empress, Eudocia wrote a hexameter poem eulogizing the Roman performance in the Persian wars of 421–22.

[20] Her most studied piece of literature is her Homeric cento, which has been analyzed recently by a few modern scholars, such as Mark Usher and Brian Sowers.

[39] There are three books (or volumes) to this epic poem, which tells the story of how "Justa, the Christian virgin, defeated the magician Cyprian through her faith in God.

The poem is very long despite not all of it surviving the centuries, and can be found in Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome (2004) edited by Michael Ian Plant.

This title line was added after the carving of the main inscription, making room for some doubt whether the poem was indeed authored by Eudocia.

The most extensive surviving portion of Eudocia's work is 2354 lines about Adam and Eve, based upon an incomplete poem by a man named Patricius.

[44] Mark Usher analyzed this poem as a way to understand why Eudocia chose to use Homeric themes as a means to express her biblical interpretations.

Whenever and wherever Eudocia needed to express greatness, pain, truthfulness, deceit, beauty, suffering, mourning, recognition, understanding, fear, or astonishment, there was an apt Homeric line or passage ready in her memory to be recalled.

Her classical educational background is clearly seen in her poetry, which captures her literary talent, as exemplified by her potential use of acrostics.

[47] According to Brian Sowers, Eudocia's work (including the Homeric centos and an epic poem on the martyrdom of St. Cyprian) has been mostly ignored by modern scholars, but her poetry and literary work are an example of how her Christian faith and paganism were intertwined, exemplifying a legacy that the Roman Empire left behind on the Christian world.

Eudocia is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor, associated with the place setting for Theodora (wife of Justinian I).