Career
Her glittering genealogy aside, Juliana is primarily remembered as one of the first non-reigning female patrons of art in recorded history. From what little we know about her personal predilections, it appears that she "directly intervened in determining the content, as well, perhaps, as the style" of the works she commissioned. Juliana"s name is attached to the Vienna Dioscurides, also known as the Anicia Juliana Codex, one of the earliest and most lavish illuminated manuscripts still in existence.
The frontispiece features her depiction, the first donor portrait in the history of manuscript illumination, flanked by the personifications of Magnanimity and Prudence, with an allegory of the "Gratitude of the Arts" prostrate in front of her.
The encircling inscription proclaims Juliana as a great patron of art Of her architectural projects, we know only three churches which she commissioned to be erected and embellished in Constantinople.
The ornate basilica of Saint Polyeuctus was built on her extensive family estates during the last three years of her life, with the goal of highlighting her illustrious pedigree which ran back to Theodosius I and Constantine the Great. Until Justinian"s extension of the Hagia Sophia, it was the largest church in the imperial capital, and its construction was probably seen as a challenge to the reigning dynasty.
The dedicatory inscription compares Juliana to King Solomon and overtly alludes to Aelia Eudocia, Juliana"s great-grandmother, who founded this church:.
