00:00In the heart of ancient Rome, when the centuries slipped by, heavy as marble columns.
00:06From the ground, and the echoes of the empire whispered among ruins that refused to die, it rose again.
00:14A woman who dared to transform the world around her with the only weapon history possessed.
00:20He always underestimated female cunning.
00:24She did not wield a sword, command legions, or march on conquered territories.
00:31And yet, it dominated kings and popes, bending them to its will like the fragile branches of...
00:39an olive tree, bent over under the storm.
00:43His name echoed through the corridors of time like a dreaded whisper.
00:48Marózia, the Senatrix, of Rome.
00:52Like water that slowly erodes stone, it silently shaped the destiny of Christendom.
01:01Far from the public squares, but in the heart of the chambers where true power is negotiated.
01:08In glances, in promises, and in nights without witnesses.
01:12Born at the end of the 9th century, when the eternal city was no longer the capital of an empire,
01:19but rather the center of an ecclesiastical world corroded by greed and internal disputes,
01:27Marózia emerged from a lineage that knew how to transform decadence into opportunity, disorder into dominance.
01:36His mother, Teodora, an enigmatic and revered figure, was the first to understand that the church,
01:44And not the throne, it was now the axis around which Rome revolved.
01:50And so she taught her daughter that to rule, it was not necessary to crown herself empress.
01:56It would be enough to control who placed the crowns.
02:00It was in this thick broth of corruption, faith, and blood that Marozia learned the supreme art of power.
02:10political seduction.
02:13She married young, as tradition dictated.
02:17joining Alberico Pleu of Spoleto,
02:20a warlord who, like so many others, sought control of the eternal city.
02:26But Marozia would not only be a wife,
02:29Nor is she a prisoner of alliances forged by the men around her.
02:34She would be the brains and engine of a dynasty that, for decades,
02:39would dictate who sat on the Chair of Saint Peter,
02:43Who prayed and who died.
02:45And so began what history later knew as pornocracy.
02:51Not because the term implied scandal and desire,
02:55But because it synthesized what was most visceral at that time,
03:00the brutal fusion between sex and power,
03:03between the flesh and the spirit,
03:05between the woman and the throne.
03:08Marozia was the mistress of Pope Sergius III.
03:12a man who, like her,
03:13I saw the church not as a divine institution,
03:17but an instrument at the service of human ambitions.
03:21From this union, John was born.
03:23to whom fate would reserve not only an existence marked by blood and intrigue,
03:29but also the highest of spiritual offices,
03:33the papacy.
03:34Marozia conceived a child with a pope.
03:37and, years later,
03:39with the meticulous patience of those who know the workings of power,
03:45He ensured that he himself would be elevated to the See of Peter.
03:50Thus was born Pope John XI.
03:53anointed not only with holy oil,
03:56but through his mother's blood,
03:57which pushed him onto the throne as if it were the most natural of successions.
04:02For Marozia,
04:05Rome was his inheritance.
04:06and the papacy is just one more of the instruments
04:10to be handled with skill and composure.
04:14But before the world could comprehend the extent of its influence,
04:20Marózia was already in control behind the scenes with authority.
04:24that no man,
04:26not even the most powerful Italian lords,
04:30He dared to challenge.
04:32Carried the title of Senatrix and Patrician of Rome,
04:36ambiguous symbols of power
04:38which was not limited to positions,
04:41but which manifested itself in every decision,
04:43in each papal election,
04:46in every conspiracy that was stifled before it even broke out.
04:49She was neither queen nor empress.
04:53It was something even more feared,
04:55the shadow that hung over the Roman Curia.
04:59Not satisfied with the marriage that had guaranteed her military prestige,
05:04Marozia married Gai of Tuscany.
05:07one of the most powerful men in Italy,
05:10further expanding its sphere of influence.
05:14It was from this alliance
05:16that she consolidated almost absolute power over Rome,
05:20directly interfering in the appointment of popes,
05:24deciding which prelates would ascend to the highest positions.
05:29and which ones would be banned or eliminated.
05:33For her, there was no distinction between the sacred and the profane.
05:37Everything was part of a larger puzzle.
05:40where only victory mattered.
05:43And like any architect of a silent empire,
05:47Marózia knew how to surround herself with allies and produce descendants.
05:51that would perpetuate his legacy.
05:54His son Alberico II, from his first marriage,
05:58He would inherit not only his territorial domains,
06:02but, above all, his pragmatic conception of power.
06:07And so, under the protection of her mother,
06:11Alberic became prince and absolute ruler of Rome.
06:15ruling it with an iron fist,
06:18but also with the same diplomatic skill
06:21that the senatrix had taught her.
06:23While barbarian armies threatened the borders of the peninsula
06:29and the disputes between Roman aristocratic families
06:33They set the streets on fire,
06:36Marozia remained unperturbed,
06:39like a pagan goddess whom nothing could touch.
06:44Even the chroniclers,
06:46dominated by a church
06:47who preferred to forget the humiliation
06:50for having been led by a woman,
06:52They had to acknowledge their colossal influence.
06:56although they shrouded her in veiled descriptions,
07:00fearful,
07:01which combined criticism and admiration.
07:04But power, like Rome,
07:06It's never eternal.
07:08Upon reaching the peak of its influence,
07:11Marozia found herself involved.
07:13in a web of betrayals,
07:16conspiracies and revenge
07:18which she herself had helped to establish.
07:21After the death of Gaide Toscana,
07:23she sought to consolidate her authority
07:26through a third marriage,
07:29this time with Hugo of Arles,
07:31King of Italy.
07:33Perhaps that was a woman's fatal mistake.
07:36that until then
07:37He seemed to know no limits.
07:40His son Alberico,
07:42who had followed her faithfully until then,
07:45interpreted this new marriage
07:47as a direct threat to their power
07:49and to its autonomy over Rome.
07:52And then,
07:53in a gesture that carried the same coldness
07:56with which the mother,
07:57years earlier,
07:58had deposed popes and made kings,
08:00Alberico turned against Marozia.
08:03In 932,
08:05She was imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo.
08:08the fortress that so often
08:10outside the stage of their intrigues
08:12and that was now becoming his stone tomb.
08:16There are no detailed records.
08:19about the years that followed
08:21to his imprisonment.
08:24The story,
08:25so fascinated with recording her accomplishments,
08:28He seems to have fallen silent in the face of his downfall.
08:31as if, by erasing its presence,
08:34could purge the discomfort
08:36of a woman who dared to subvert
08:38the natural order of the medieval patriarchy.
08:42But Marozia never disappeared.
08:45Even enclosed within the cold walls of the castle,
08:49His work endured through his children.
08:52and descendants,
08:53who continued to dominate Rome
08:56and the church for decades,
08:57as if perpetuating the vision of power.
09:01that she had conceived.
09:02There is no way to tell the story.
09:04of the Roman Curia,
09:05of papal elections,
09:07of conflicts between empires
09:09and aristocratic families of Italy,
09:12without invoking the monumental shadow of Marozia.
09:16She was not only the Senatrix of Rome.
09:19She was the embodiment of an era.
09:22in which spiritual and temporal power
09:25They merged irreversibly.
09:28under the baton of a woman
09:31who refused to bend
09:33to the conventions of their time.
09:35His story is not a fairy tale.
09:38Regarding excessive ambition or corruption.
09:41It is, above all,
09:42A brutal lesson on the essence of human power.
09:46Their ability to adapt,
09:49to resist,
09:50to infiltrate the most unlikely corners
09:53and, most importantly,
09:55to survive,
09:56even when those who hold it
09:59They are no longer breathing.
10:00And when the church bells of Rome
10:03sound,
10:04spanning the centuries
10:06with its deep and solemn notes,
10:08maybe no one else
10:10Say your name out loud.
10:13but,
10:14in the ancient stones of the Basilicas,
10:16in the Vatican's secret archives
10:19and in the silent corridors
10:21where even today
10:22Peter's successors are chosen,
10:25the presence of Marósia,
10:27invisible,
10:28indomitable,
10:29eternal,
10:30It continues to echo,
10:32remembering that,
10:33behind every crown,
10:35of each cardinal purple,
10:38of each papal ring,
10:40there is always someone who,
10:42in the shadows,
10:43Pull the ropes.
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