Byzantine women’s history, Byzantine attitudes towards women and men, Byzantine conceptions of gender: that these are all areas still awaiting their reseacher is a fact both obvious and well known. It is not my intention to reiterate here the problems connected with the enormous task of undertaking research in women’s history in general and Byzantine women’s history in particular. Such problems are well known to those interested in the subject and have already been partly pointed out in terms of suggested ‘avenues of approach’ and possible areas of research. It is my intention, however, to take up one of these suggestions, develop and apply it to Byzantine source material.