ABSTRACT
The fifth-century stories of Theodosius' apple and Marcian's eagles illustrate several aspects of the significance of good stories in Byzantine culture. The apple and eagle stories were created for political reasons. The story has been used to help date Eudocia's journeys to Jerusalem and interpret political machinations in Theodosius' court. Marcian's eagles were obviously created to show that, despite his obscure and lowly background, he was the right and proper emperor and had God's support. Evagrius provides a further story that Marcian, on his way to enrol in the army, reported his discovery by the roadside of a dead soldier but then escaped execution for the soldier's murder only through divine providence. The story of Theodosius' journey to Ephesos and vision, like the stories of the eagle and the dead soldier Augustus, was invented to shore up Marcian's dubious claim.
