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Aelia Pulcheria was the daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. When her father Arcadius died in 408, her brother Theodosius II was made Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, at seven years old. On July 4, 414 a fifteen year old Pulcheria proclaimed herself regent over her brother, then thirteen, and made herself Augusta and Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire. Pulcheria took a vow of virginity when she became Augusta. Pulcheria's reasons for a vow of virginity may have been for her deeply religious virtue and her deep piety. Pulcheria had found herself in a position where she would have to give her power up to her potential husband, for once a woman in the imperial court married her power was to be relinquished to her husband. In order for Pulcheria to keep her power within the imperial court she took a vow of virginity to ensure that another man could not share her power. She also adopted model of ‘the New Helena'. The fathers identified Pulcheria with the famous mother of Constantine the Great. Most of Marcian and Pulcheria's time as emperors was marked with religious conflict like issues with Nestorianism and the Council of Chalcedon. The Council of Ephesus occurred in Theodosius's reign and involved two rival bishops. Nestorius, who was bishop of Constantinople, and Cyril of Alexandria. Nestorius was an advocate of diminishing the influence of the Mother of God, or Theotokos, from the Church. This came into conflict with the religious values Pulcheria represented as a virgin Empress, and a rivalry between the two ensued. Nestorius underestimated Pulcheria's power. With the council at a standstill with no decision made, Theodosius had to make the decision for them. On the influence of Pulcheria, Theodosius ruled in favor of Cyril that the title of Theotokos was orthodox. During her time as Augusta, Pulcheria held a great deal of power in politics and although she was a women treated equally among other men of power. In the senate of Constantinople lay a bust in her honor along with the other Augusti. Finally the meaning of Pulcheria's being in the byzantine women's history was in the imitation placed upon her actions for power by the byzantine posterior empresses.