I posted the paragraph, but it was not from wikipedia. The website is lost to me, but it covered the military exploits and reign of Justinian as well. That was part of the first chapter. The Nika revolt did occur early in his reign. When I find it I will post a link.
Here it is.
http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/II/1-Justinian.html
"Theodora's name may still be read with that of the Emperor on the walls of churches and over the doors of castles of that date. Her picture makes a fellow to that of her imperial husband in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, and also in the mosaics which decorated the rooms of the Sacred Palace, for it was Justinian’s wish to associate her with the military triumphs and the splendors of the reign. The grateful people raised statues to her as to Justinian, the officials also swore fidelity to her, for she was the Emperor's equal throughout her life, while ambassadors and foreign kings hastened to her to pay their respects and to gain her goodwill as well as that of the basileus. In deliberating on the most important occasions Justinian always took council of “the most honored wife which God had given him”, whom he loved to call “his sweetest charm”, and contemporaries agree in declaring that she did not scruple to use the boundless influence which she possessed, and that her authority was equal to, if not greater than, that of her husband. Certainly this ambitious lady possessed many eminent qualities to justify the supreme authority which she wielded. She was a woman of unshaken courage, as she proved in the troublous time of the Nika rising, proud energy, masculine resolution, a determined and a clear mind, and a strong will by which she frequently overruled the vacillating Justinian. She undoubtedly combined defects and even vices with these qualities. She was domineering and harsh, she loved money and power. To keep the throne to which she had risen she would stoop to deceit, violence, and cruelty; she was implacable in her dislikes, and inflexible towards those whom she hated. By means of a disgraceful intrigue she pitilessly destroyed the fortunes of John of Cappadocia, the all-powerful praetorian praefect, who dared for one moment to dispute her supremacy (541). She made Belisarius bitterly expiate his rare lapses into independence, and by the ascendancy which she gained over Antonina, the patrician's wife, she made him her humble and obedient servant. As passionate in her loves as in her hates, she advanced her favorites without scruple. Peter Barsymes was made praetorian praefect, Narses a general, Vigilius a pope, while she turned the imperial palace into a hotbed of incessant intrigues. Her influence was not always good—though the loungers of Constantinople have strangely lengthened the list of her cruelties and increased the number of her victims—but it was always powerful. Even when she was forced temporarily to give way before circumstances, her audacious and supple wit was always able to devise some startling retaliation. Wily and ambitious, she always aspired to have the last word—and she got it."
She sounds like a character similar to Lucretia from the Spartacus series. Though Lucretia has no more power than her deciet. Theodora sounds like an ambitious, conniving, and cruel woman. Whats not to like? What leaders did not do similar things? Would you count say, Richard the Lionheart as part of the good guys club? Hmmm? How about any leader they are all dirty in one way or another. When Gods and Kings comes out, if you hate her so much, put the Byzantines in as an AI civ and destroy her.
Otherwise give me a barbarian. Perhaps the Visigoths. 
