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An issue with my inktober list is that there wasn’t any empress in it, so I thought to remedy to that by drawing at least one, even if it isn’t linked to any of the prompts. And what better choice than empress Irene (I’ll do a coin for her as well, but later), without a doubt, the woman that enjoyed the most power in the entire history of the roman empire (plus one of my personal favorite).

The background is the lodge of the empress in the Hagia Sophia btw.

Irene is all the things I find appealing about roman rulers, machiavelic, ruthless, cruel, highly intelligent and entirely consumed by her thirst for power. She actually was a contender when I started planning my ongoing byzantine comic, the only problem (if you can call it that) with her is that, first she wasn’t completely insane (for dramatic purpose, that’s kind of a problem) and the empire wasn’t fighting for its very existence at the time (and me always like tales of cataclysmic apocalypse).

But enough with my concerning fascination with all that can feed my immature misanthropy…

Act I: By What Means Irene Sarantapecha Acquired the Style and Title of Empress of the Romans

Origin

The choice of Irene to become the bride of Constantine V’s son Leo IV hasn’t been clearly understood. Some have even argued that she was part of the first of the many bride shows which took place during that period for the imperial heir to select a wife. But, considering that she was selected while still in Athens, her birthplace, and brought to Constantinople with all the apparatus worthy of an imperial princess before she even met the emperor’s retinue and family, this thesis isn’t convincing.

One more plausible argument is that her family, the Sarantapechos clan played a role during the reign of emperor Constantine V and the promotion of a few of its members to important posts (her uncle was allegedly strategos -general- of the Helladics) shows their fidelity to the regime. Hence why it is supposed that her family was iconoclast and Irene raised as one herself. The praised beauty of the (around) 15 years old girl must have played a role as well (to the Byzantines, an empress is meant to provide an heir, help with family connections to assert the authority of the emperor and to take part in public events, hence why her good looks is key to her selection).

She arrived in the imperial city on November 1st 769 and was both married to Leo and crowned princess on the 3rd. The marriage was fruitful, and Irene gave birth to a son, Constantine VI in 771. Four years later, Constantine V “the dragon slayer”, died, and Leo IV was crowned emperor. The new basileus ruled for a few somewhat successful years, even if he had to quash a palace revolt centered around one of his brothers, Nicephorus, before unexpectedly dying in 780. It is to note that during that period, Irene must have started to develop her personal network, mostly composed of careerists and meritocrats, especially the eunuchs of the Gynaeceum, the only male personnel allowed to surround her on a regular basis. Irene took control of the government as regent for Constantine.

Regent

Before he died, Leo IV ensured that the army and state officials made an oath of loyalty to his young son, for he feared that the regency would be vulnerable since his brothers could still be rallying points to palace coups against the young emperor. Sure enough, a few weeks later, a new conspiracy was uncovered, lead once again by Nicephorus and a few of the senior generals and ministers which was swiftly crushed. Irene took the opportunity to purge the government of these adversaries to her rule and forced all her stepbrothers to be tonsured and sent to monasteries around the capital, removing them from power completely. To ensure their quietness, she cleverly had them publicly serv communion to her and Constantine on Christmas day (780) in the Hagia Sophia, for all the Constantinopolitans to see that they were not to take any part in state affairs ever again.

To rule uncontested, Irene pursued the same thing that all of her predecessors and successors lusted after, legitimacy. For now, her authority was tolerated thanks to her son, but even then, she still wanted to reinforce his position by having him married to the daughter of the other great European ruler at the time, Rotrud (or Erythro in Greek), daughter of Charlemagne. When receiving this proposal, the Frankish king enthusiastically agreed and byzantine agents were sent to his court to teach the imperial bride “the Greek letters and customs and to educate her in the customs of the Roman empire”. This alliance also aimed at protecting the Italian byzantine positions (Venetia and southern Italy) from Frankish expansion since they became active actors in the peninsula after they had toppled the Lombard realms and took control of the former byzantine exarchate of Ravenna and the city of Rome herself.

Yet another revolt rose in 781 this time in Sicily. The strategos of the province supported Leo’s brothers right to the throne. In retaliation, Irene had his family flogged and locked away. A fleet was also sent to Sicily and the revolted strategos escaped to Abbasid Africa while imperial authority was reestablished on the island. All too aware of the danger which the generals appointed by her predecessors posed to her, the empress made the eunuch John responsible of all the Anatolian themes (provincial troops), though, only temporarily as this move was to invite trouble in the army ranks. Also, she promoted her most trusted advisor, the eunuch Staurakios logothete of the Dromos, making him in effect her prime minister.

An Arab army sent by the Abbasid caliphate was successfully neutralized by the eunuch John and Constantine V’s highly capable and ruthless general Michael Lachanodrakon. This however enticed a heavy counter attack from the Muslims in 782 who sent yet another expedition, this time lead by the caliph son, a man destined to a brilliant future, Harun al-Rashid. Irene made Staurakios protostrategos (commander in chief) and sent him against this new threat. The logothete successfully trapped the Arabs but in the meantime, one of his political adversaries, the strategos of the Bukolarions defected to the enemy. The encirclement was broken off and a message sent to Staurakios, inviting him to meet Harun in person and negotiate peace terms. The minister carelessly advanced toward the Abbasid lines and he and his retinue were captured. Thus, the Arabs now had the high ground in the negotiations. The empire had to pay an annual tribute of around 2222 pounds of gold (something like one tenth of the state’s annual treasury), send 10000 silk garments and signed a three years truth. The romans also had to supply all the resources needed to ensure the safe return of the caliphal army to Syria.

After this massive setback, Irene turned her attention to the west in hope to find easier military glory there. She once again sent Staurakios with an army (783) and had him re assert roman authority over the Slav enclaves in the Peloponnese. This time he was successful and returned to Constantinople in triumph, bringing back with him booty and captives. Southern Greece was back into the fold and the sklavenias of northern Greece had to pay tribute to the empire.
During his campaign, Staurakios also prepared the ground for an imperial procession which was to take place. In 784, Irene and her son, alongside a parading army toured through Thrace, proclaiming her authority in the region, refortified Anchialous, had Philippopolis reoccupied by roman troops and had the city of Beroia refunded as Irenopolis. As proof of the return of byzantine power in the Balkans and to prepare for future reconquests, she also founded the new theme of Macedonia. It is to be highlighted that the reincorporation of Thrace was possible thanks to all the laborious work performed by Constantine V during his Balkanic wars.

Church matters and the army

Playing with the rivalry between the icon worshippers (iconodules) and the orthodox, who held most places of power in the army and clergy, Irene started to support the monks (who repeatedly conspired against Constantine V and had seen their wealth taken by the emperor to support the war effort). She also wanted to finally put an end to the dogmatic controversies surrounding the higher spheres of the church and be seen as the restorer of church unity. Hence why she prepared for a new church council. First in 781, she supervised the staging of the “discovery” of a coffin in the vicinity of Constantinople on which was inlaid “sun look on me again in the reign of the emperors Constantine and Irene”, implying that Irene was to cast away the dark shroud of current orthodoxy and replace it by that of Iconoduly, according to iconophile propaganda. In 784, the patriarch of Constantinople, Paul, conveniently fell ill and retired, allowing the empress to promote one of her allies, the administrator (so, not a cleric) Tarasios.

In 785, Constantinople sent a message hostile to iconoclasm to the pope Hadrian and asked him to send legates to participate in a new council debating the issue. The patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria were also informed of the holding of the meeting and asked to send representatives as well. Finally, the council was organized in 786 in the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Trusting her patriarch and not wanting to interfere, Irene and her son did not preside the sessions. But most of the bishops present were iconoclasts and the absence of imperial authority allowed opposition and hostility to rise. Aware of the anti-iconoclast tendencies of those who presided the council, the soldiers of the Tagmata, the central army still faithful to the memory of their founder Constantine V, entered in the church and dispersed the delegates. Irene, having returned to the capital was forced to put on hold the whole affair. This was a huge setback for her and proof that some of the armies were still beyond her control, an issue she was soon the remedy.

In the same year, the Arabs broke the truce signed earlier and, in September, the empress sent the Tagmata to Malagina, a military camp in the east to prepare for a counter attack. But when the troops had reached the camp, they got surrounded and overpowered by thematic armies, having been led to what was effectively a trap. Meanwhile, in the capital, the army of the Trakians, loyal to Irene entered in Constantinople and seized the families of the soldiers of the Tagmata. With their wives and children taken hostages, the rebellious soldiers had no choice but to yield and surrender. The thrakian army was promoted as the new tagmata while the old one was disbanded, and its soldiers dispersed in the various provinces, their families given back to them. In the meantime, the Augusta founded a new regiment, entirely loyal to her and formed out of provincials, the Arithmoi, or the Watch, under the command of the distinguished Armenian Alexios Mousele. This was a tactical masterstroke from Irene who was now leader of an administration and army who owed their promotion to her and her alone. Now, only the dissident church stood between her and total undisputed domination of the empire.

The seventh Ecumenical council and the adoption of icon worship

Irene herself must have been somewhat indifferent to icons (like most of the Byzantines really), contrary to what later sources claim. To acknowledge that Irene was a devout iconophile is placing far too much trust in sources written by convinced iconodules who, under her guidance and that of her successors rewrote history extensively. In other words, believing Theophanes and co about her having icons always hidden in her chest before the termination of iconoclasm is a bit like blindly following Snowball’s propaganda in Animal farm, or, to keep with Orwellian analogies about Stalin, to believe that Big Brother invented the airplane.
So, then why did she become the champion of what later became byzantine orthodoxy? Simply enough because, once again, she was an extremely cunning state crafter who knew perfectly how to correctly place her pawns to assert her authority.

There’s a wise and famous idiom in politics: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Irene knew that she could find church allies only among the adversaries of her rivals. So, she naturally went to the iconodules.
Choosing Nicaea to try once again to hold a council debating the issue (787) was also of great symbolic significance, for it was there that Constantine I called out the first ecumenical council and her propagandist hailed her son a new Constantine (the first) and herself as a new Helena.
Tarasios had a few of the more turbulent bishops removed and forced the others to publicly apologies for their “past conduct” but overall and lucidly to prevent too much strife, the patriarch was very accommodating.

The result for the council was the establishment of the veneration of icons as an inherent part of orthodox faith. It is to be emphasized that the icons haven’t been part of Christian rites until the fourth century and that no arguments in the bible speaks of anything of the sort. The only thing referring to it would be in the decalogue and it is against such practices. Icons were used in (parts of) the populations only to replace the old idols through a process of syncretism.
Stating that the council “restored the veneration of the icons” (like Wikipedia writes) as if it was official practice in the days of Constantine and Justinian is an historical nonsense but one orchestrated by Irene’s propaganda to defend the iconodule position during the council. But, it does prove that she did her work of whitewashing history very well.

Thus, for the third time in less than a century, orthodoxy was changed, and Irene has now tamed the clergy who now too bowed down before her. This is at this moment that she was at the height of her political career. But as she was to find out soon, this situation would not last.

Act II: Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Irene, Emperor of the Romans

Family bickering

In 787, Constantine turned 16, the legal age in which a young emperor could start his effective rule. However, Irene still kept him away from any matters of government. For all of his life until now, the rightful heir to the roman throne was used entirely as a figurehead and this wasn’t going to change even though he finally reached adulthood.

Messages were sent to Charlemagne to prepare for his daughter’s retrieval to Constantinople but, the Frankish king, probably worried of how this diplomatic marriage could turn on him now that he was building his own empire, broke the arrangement. Hence, Rotrud remained in Aachen and a new wife needed to be found for Constantine. Vexed by this turn of events, Irene ordered the dispatch of imperial agents throughout Rhomania to find suitable candidates (she wanted to make it look like no foreign woman was worthy of an imperial heir). This delegation of judges had with them an archetypal portrait, plus precise measurements of “ideal” height, foot size and maybe even waist (though the last one isn’t specified). All the girls found were brought back to the capital where Constantine was meant to make his choice, but, the life of Philaretos the Almsgiver (the main source for this whole affair) indicates that Irene and Staurakios actually oversaw the final decision. And so, Constantine was gruntingly married to the daughter of a bankrupt magnate of Paphlagonia, Maria of Amnia. The prince certainly disliked his wife especially because of his cordial correspondence with Rotrud made this unwanted marriage all the more bitter. This also showed clearly to him his impotence against the regency and he started to act to take his power back.

Meanwhile things didn’t look so hot for Irene either. 788 was a dark year for her as her forces suffered heavy military blows. In Italy, now that the alliance with Charlemagne was ended, Irene sent the eunuch John to make an alliance with the only Lombard realm still independent, the duchy of Benevento. But, the Lombards, preferring to ally themselves with the franks, defeated the romans.
In the east, a new offensive by the Arabs resulted in a heavy defeat for the Anatolics and the Muslims raided the region unmolested.
Finally, a surprise attack by the Bulgars on an army sent to Thrace lead to a complete debacle.
But, to look at the positive side of things, an Armenian population, escaping Arab domination, was resettled in the Armeniac theme and supplied new recruits there.

Constantine wanted to profit from this discrediting series of defeats to ascend to the throne. In 789, he started plotting to have Staurakios removed and exiled to Sicily, so that he could take his place. But, Irene got wind of this through her minister and countered the scheme. Constantine’s accomplices were exiled, and she allegedly even hit her son before locking him up in one of his apartments for seven days (that’s the byzantine equivalent of “go to your room”, I suppose…).

The fact that Constantine was still backed up by some while her mother had seized all functions of the government is explained by the recent series of setbacks, the armies, still remembering the days where they were led by Constantine V, eagerly waited for the return of a male emperor to lead them personally, something Irene could never do. The empress thus asked the tagmata to swear an oath of loyalty to her and promise that they would never hail her son as emperor as long as she lived. The oath was then sent to the theme armies so that they would take it as well. The theme of the Armeniacs refused but didn’t entered into revolt just yet. Irene sent Alexios Mousele to deal with them. But when the troops saw this fellow Armenian, they imprisoned their commander and acclaimed him strategos. This mutiny spread to the other themes who appointed their own commanders as well, locking away the ones loyal to the empress, and hailed Constantine emperor. The armies marched to the Opsikion and awaited Constantinople’s response. Irene was forced to release her son and give his titles back. Constantine sent Lachanodrakon to confirm their oath to him, not to Irene, and the elevation of Mousele as the general of the armeniacs.

The deeds and failures of Constantine VI

The emperor, finally able to rule in his own right first recalled his allies form exile and got Staurakios flogged, striped of his rank and sent to the Armeniac theme (790). Somewhat of a purge was orchestrated as many of Irene’s advisors and relatives (including the protospatharios Aetios) were expelled from the government. However, most of the administration was still loyal to her, and since Constantine had yet to prove his worthiness to rule, no one in the palace was entirely faithful to him. As for Irene, while she still bore her title of Augusta, she was confined to one of her palaces.

Wanting to earn respect from his subjects, Constantine prepared a campaign against the Bulgars in 791. In the vicinity of Adrianople, the two armies met but the fighting was inconclusive while both sides suffered heavy casualties. To avoid further loses, the emperor retreated with his troops during night and returned to the capital.
He tried his chance in the east as well, assembling his forces at Amorion to attack Cilicia but the lack of supplies from his line forced him again to return home having accomplished nothing.
The lack of success or even real action resulted in the loss of parts of his supporters who saw him as just as inept as the men previously appointed by Irene.

In 792, being drawn to a corner, Constantine was forced to recall his mother and then Staurakios, which caused anger and protest in the armeniac ranks. Mousele, while in Constantinople, was incarcerated, feeding the theme’s discontentment even more.

Constantine prepared for yet another expedition against the Bulgars. When arriving at the city of Markellon, he started to have it refortified, but the enemy made an attack and trapped the romans inside. To escape, the emperor lunched a poorly planned out surprise attack and got badly rooted. Constantine himself escaped but many of the soldiers, including Michael Lachanodrakon as well as the strategoi of Thrace and Macedonia, plus many public figures got slaughtered. This defeat wasn’t short of a disaster for the Basileus.

Once again, the army schemed to have one of Constantine’s uncles replace him as emperor, but Irene was yet again informed of this and encouraged her son to take harsh measures. Nicephoros was blinded and his brothers had their tongue cut out. While at it, he also had Alexios Musele blinded, again, at the instigation of Irene.
As she had planned, the armeniacs entered into full revolt and Constantine sent the themes of the Opsikion and Bukollarion against them but the imperial armies were defeated, their leaders captured and blinded in retaliation (feeling a pattern about eye gouging yet?). The emperor marched against them leading the whole of the eastern armies. Part of the armeniac theme being made of those recently enrolled Armenians that escaped from the caliphate, seeing the turning of event, switched side and so, the rebels were crushed. Their commanders were executed, and many others were brought back to Constantinople in chain and paraded in the hippodrome with the words “Armeniac plotter” tattooed on their faces (the same treatment emperor Theophilos gave to the Graptoi brothers) and then exiled to Sicily. Making use of this civil war, the Arabs captured the easternmost roman post of Kamacha.

The imperial couple’s relationship didn’t look better than the military one. The basileus loathed his wife (who was said to be pious, that it to say that she was boring as a nun) and started an affair with Theodote, one of Irene’s kubikoularia (lady in waiting). So, Constantine wanted to divorce his current wife and Irene encouraged her son in his decision. Second marriages were seen with a very bad eye by the church, especially in the case of Maria since no valid reason could be brought up to justify a divorce. The emperor (still listening to the wise counsel of his mother, wink wink) accused her of an attempt to poison him and got her and both of their daughters sent to a convent. Tarasios, on Irene’s orders, quietly nodded. Also, a smaller Arab raiding party was successfully defeated by Constantine and in this somewhat relaxed atmosphere, the emperor married his mistress. To wash his hands of the whole matter, the patriarch let the wedding be performed by an abbot, discreetly in a smaller church. Still, many in the clergy protested, guided by two monks, Plato and Theodore, (the future Theodore Stoudios). In the dispute, Irene naturally supported the monastic side. In the end, Constantine, fed up with those protestations got Plato, Theodore and a few of their friends sent to Thessaloniki.

So, just to recap, Constantine, at this point has successfully alienated the entirety of Byzantine society. The harsh treatment he gave the armeniac theme, his one hard core supporter, the lack of military successes, the banishments and punishing acts against members of all of the establishments meant that nobody was to side up to him anymore.

In 796, an earth quack struck the capital and the khan of the Bulgars daunted the emperor, asking him for a tribute and should he not comply, the Bulgars would raid Thrace and besiege Constantinople. Constantine very gracefully replied by sending horse excrement back to the khan and then left for the Balkans. However, the Bulgars eluded the romans and in the end, the basileus was forced to withdraw without having performed a single encounter with the enemy.

Infanticide

Although having a less than stellar record yet, the emperor was slowly catching on military and government matters; Irene and Staurakios started to worry that he might become dangerous to them. This is when the empress began to draw up plans to get rid of her son once and for all. She ensured the loyalty of the army by well-placed bribes and scattered spies among the emperor’s retinue.
In 797, Constantine prepared yet another offensive against Syria and assembled his troops in Cappadocia. Irene had him take Staurakios with him. During his advance, the scouts sent to assess the Arab forces, obeying the eunuch’s orders, fed misinformation to Constantine and told him that the Muslims had already left. So, the army withdrew and only after did the basileus learned that the enemy freely raided across the provinces.

After the emperor’s return to Constantinople, Irene sent orders to capture and imprison her son, but he managed to escape on one of his warships and took refuge with his supporters (among whom were some of Irene’s loyalists) in a fort on the other shore of the Propontis. Hearing about the failure of her son’s capture, the empress immediately sent a representative to Constantine (who didn’t know she was behind the attempted coup) to ask how he was but also to contact her agents around him and threaten them that should they not deliver her son back to her in chain, she would denounce them to him.
The emperor was thus sent to Irene and locked in the Porphyra, the room where she gave birth to him (very dramatic choice) and there, she ordered him to be blinded in such a way that he would die of his wound.

The assassination of Constantine was without a doubt the dumbest decision Irene ever took. By removing him, she made the regency she led entirely obsolete and her position constitutionally untenable. Although her firm grip over the state allowed her to keep the reins of government, the vacuum left by Constantine, the lack of any heir, rendered worth by the fact she never remarried (understandable from her point of view), invited trouble inside her inner circle. From now on, her loyal and servile ministers shall fight over the succession while Irene herself became more and more isolated.
(A very personal hypothesis that I have is that the decision to assassinate the emperor was enticed to Irene (the sources tell she was pretty panicked when her attempted capture of Constantine first failed, so it must have been easy to guide her in that moment of irrationality) by Staurakios. He knew that his position was vulnerable since Constantine had already fired him once, while Irene depended on him. In effect, he was the only one that profited from the murder since now he could rule behind the throne quietly. And his later attempt to seize the crown for himself proves that he had the ambition to do anything that could bring him closer to absolute power.
That is not to defend Irene from the crime itself, just to try and understand what led her to take such a decision which she most certainly knew would be fatal to her.
It is also possible that she might have been overconfident about her ability to remain in power, who knows.
I really don’t get why historians always make a big fuss about it though. Killing off family members to cling to the throne is a constant throughout not just roman but world history. The Julio Claudians, the Constantinians, the Heraclids and many other dynasties all have committed such crimes, and women participated in these as well.)

All mighty Irene

Thus, the pious Basilissa (or sometime even Basileus) Irene ruled alone over her realm. Soon after her takeover, in 797, for the hundredth time by now, a conspiration around her stepbrothers took place. Aetios took them out of the Hagia Sophia where they’ve been taken by the conspirators in the hope to start a popular uprising with no result. They were all sent to Athens.
In 798, the caliph Harun al-Rashid lunched a new invasion force against Rhomania which plundered as far as Ephesus, on the Aegean cost. Irene was forced to resume a four years annual tribute to the Muslim empire. The critical military situation resulted in another scheme to have one of the brothers take her place, this time backed up by the theme of the Helladics. Fortunately for Irene, she was informed, and the uprising repressed (there’s just so many ways to say the same thing again and again, sigh). The few brothers that weren’t yet blinded got their eyes gouged out (don’t you feel sorry for these poor guys? This is becoming rather comical by now).

By now, Irene’s position was very badly deteriorating and to try to regain support, she started to make populist and demagogic decisions, such as parading in Constantinople tossing gold coins, distributed tax exemptions and build monasteries and other public houses. She also, had Plato and Theodore recalled from their exile and gave to the later the Stoudios monastery in the suburbs of the capital. Said monastery was promised to a brilliant future. All while discontentment rose in the army and the treasury, Irene now had to deal with the rising rivalry between Staurakios and Aetios who wanted both to place their relatives in the line for succession. When the Basilissa fell ill in 799, their rivalry worsened dramatically with Staurakios twice trying to seize the throne. But Irene still could stop him. He wasn’t removed but saw his power diminished at the profit of Aetios who received the command of the most powerful of the themes, the Anatolics as a reward.

The fall of the empress

In 800, Staurakios made another failed coup attempt. He tried to entice a rebellion in the army stationed in Cappadocia, within the Anatolikon, but died soon after thankfully, as this prevented a civil war to occur between him and Aetios who was now all powerful. The atmosphere in the palace was fairly sordid by now and a shroud of paranoia surrounded Irene. Still in 800, new developments occurred in the west with the crowning of Charlemagne emperor of the Romans by the pope. The Byzantines first though that the franks wanted to lunch an offensive against them but Charlemagne instead sent a marriage proposal to Irene but that didn’t go anywhere for obvious practical reasons.
Aetios, increasingly unpopular among the ruling class, appointed his brother Leo strategos of Macedonia and Thrace while he himself controlled the Anatolics and the Opsikion: his forces surrounded the capital, the time drew near when he could strike. But he got overtaken by the swifter Nicephoros, the logothete of the Genikon -finance minister- (702). The logothete went to Irene’s palace with a few supporters and told to the guards that Irene was ill and had appointed him emperor to prevent Aetios’ takeover. The empress was arrested and brought to the great palace to face Nicephoros. He had her tell him where her fortune was and then sent her to one of the monasteries she founded on one of the princes’ islands while he himself was crowned in the Hagia Sophia by Tarasios. She was left there at first but got quickly relocated when the new emperor heard about her starting conspiring against him with Aetios. She was exiled to the island of Lesbos where she died on the 9th of August 803.

Epilogue

The assessment of Irene’s time in power is fairly negative overall. One of the constants of her reign is the endless repetitions of attempted revolts, palace schemes and coups. For that reason, she had to focus almost entirely on keeping power and that was made at the expense of good government management. Her brutality in dealing with them severely weakened the ability of Byzantium to defend itself. The empress’s need to find loyal supporters outdid the one for capable generals. It is in this state of extreme vulnerability that Rhomania faced the Carolingian realm and the Abbasid caliphate at the height of their power.
Speaking of Charlemagne, his proclamation as emperor of the romans was a huge diplomatic setback as well, not so much for prestige reasons, as the collapse of the Frankish empire after Charlemagne’s death limited its effects, but more gravely, the pretentions of the Byzantines to northern Italy were severely weakens if not entirely swept away.

Still in military affairs, the reconquest of parts of Thrace was undermined by the battle of Pliska (811) during which the byzantine army was entirely defeated and the Bulgars recovered all the territories they had previously lost. This is not to blame Irene for this, as she was already dead, but this shows how fickle progresses in the Balkans were and how much she profited from a favorable geopolitical situation (the same can be said about Constantine V’s breakthroughs in the east, done during the Arab civil war). It is in this light that her conquests in Thrace should be considered. The quiet reconquest of southern Greece is the only positive aspect of her whole military legacy.

During the second half of her reign, her ruthlessness completely clouded her judgment and was increasingly detrimental to her subjects, going as far as to sabotage her son’s expeditions against the Arabs and destabilizing the state by encouraging him in making bad decisions while she could’ve been a great tutor for him. In the end, it was that blinding obsession with the need to stay in power that lead to her downfall, the end of the Syrian dynasty and around twenty years of anarchy in Byzantium.

Of course, this bad record shouldn’t give the wrong idea. Irene showed huge amount of resourcefulness and had she had the time to actually do things, she probably would’ve made a fine job, a great one maybe, she was more than up to the task. Her story is very reminiscent to that of Andronikos Komnenos in that regard, a highly intelligent mind who was entirely wasted clinging to his throne because of the turbulent nature of court life.
Naturally, it is hard to talk about Irene without bringing up the “issue” of her gender. Her entire time in power was seen as abnormal by both her subjects and neighbors and this might be one of the reasons why her rule was so prolific in coup attempts. The people around her made the huge mistake of thinking that she would be easy to remove and instead of working with her for the greater good of the roman empire they wasted their time and hers as well in petty civil wars.
Underestimating her abilities as a woman to control the government was the true wrench which blocked the byzantine clockwork.

Description

An issue with my inktober list is that there wasn’t any empress in it, so I thought to remedy to that by drawing at least one, even if it isn’t linked to any of the prompts. And what better choice than empress Irene (I’ll do a coin for her as well, but later), without a doubt, the woman that enjoyed the most power in the entire history of the roman empire (plus one of my personal favorite).

The background is the lodge of the empress in the Hagia Sophia btw.

Irene is all the things I find appealing about roman rulers, machiavelic, ruthless, cruel, highly intelligent and entirely consumed by her thirst for power. She actually was a contender when I started planning my ongoing byzantine comic, the only problem (if you can call it that) with her is that, first she wasn’t completely insane (for dramatic purpose, that’s kind of a problem) and the empire wasn’t fighting for its very existence at the time (and me always like tales of cataclysmic apocalypse).

But enough with my concerning fascination with all that can feed my immature misanthropy…

Act I: By What Means Irene Sarantapecha Acquired the Style and Title of Empress of the Romans

Origin

The choice of Irene to become the bride of Constantine V’s son Leo IV hasn’t been clearly understood. Some have even argued that she was part of the first of the many bride shows which took place during that period for the imperial heir to select a wife. But, considering that she was selected while still in Athens, her birthplace, and brought to Constantinople with all the apparatus worthy of an imperial princess before she even met the emperor’s retinue and family, this thesis isn’t convincing.

One more plausible argument is that her family, the Sarantapechos clan played a role during the reign of emperor Constantine V and the promotion of a few of its members to important posts (her uncle was allegedly strategos -general- of the Helladics) shows their fidelity to the regime. Hence why it is supposed that her family was iconoclast and Irene raised as one herself. The praised beauty of the (around) 15 years old girl must have played a role as well (to the Byzantines, an empress is meant to provide an heir, help with family connections to assert the authority of the emperor and to take part in public events, hence why her good looks is key to her selection).

She arrived in the imperial city on November 1st 769 and was both married to Leo and crowned princess on the 3rd. The marriage was fruitful, and Irene gave birth to a son, Constantine VI in 771. Four years later, Constantine V “the dragon slayer”, died, and Leo IV was crowned emperor. The new basileus ruled for a few somewhat successful years, even if he had to quash a palace revolt centered around one of his brothers, Nicephorus, before unexpectedly dying in 780. It is to note that during that period, Irene must have started to develop her personal network, mostly composed of careerists and meritocrats, especially the eunuchs of the Gynaeceum, the only male personnel allowed to surround her on a regular basis. Irene took control of the government as regent for Constantine.

Regent

Before he died, Leo IV ensured that the army and state officials made an oath of loyalty to his young son, for he feared that the regency would be vulnerable since his brothers could still be rallying points to palace coups against the young emperor. Sure enough, a few weeks later, a new conspiracy was uncovered, lead once again by Nicephorus and a few of the senior generals and ministers which was swiftly crushed. Irene took the opportunity to purge the government of these adversaries to her rule and forced all her stepbrothers to be tonsured and sent to monasteries around the capital, removing them from power completely. To ensure their quietness, she cleverly had them publicly serv communion to her and Constantine on Christmas day (780) in the Hagia Sophia, for all the Constantinopolitans to see that they were not to take any part in state affairs ever again.

To rule uncontested, Irene pursued the same thing that all of her predecessors and successors lusted after, legitimacy. For now, her authority was tolerated thanks to her son, but even then, she still wanted to reinforce his position by having him married to the daughter of the other great European ruler at the time, Rotrud (or Erythro in Greek), daughter of Charlemagne. When receiving this proposal, the Frankish king enthusiastically agreed and byzantine agents were sent to his court to teach the imperial bride “the Greek letters and customs and to educate her in the customs of the Roman empire”. This alliance also aimed at protecting the Italian byzantine positions (Venetia and southern Italy) from Frankish expansion since they became active actors in the peninsula after they had toppled the Lombard realms and took control of the former byzantine exarchate of Ravenna and the city of Rome herself.

Yet another revolt rose in 781 this time in Sicily. The strategos of the province supported Leo’s brothers right to the throne. In retaliation, Irene had his family flogged and locked away. A fleet was also sent to Sicily and the revolted strategos escaped to Abbasid Africa while imperial authority was reestablished on the island. All too aware of the danger which the generals appointed by her predecessors posed to her, the empress made the eunuch John responsible of all the Anatolian themes (provincial troops), though, only temporarily as this move was to invite trouble in the army ranks. Also, she promoted her most trusted advisor, the eunuch Staurakios logothete of the Dromos, making him in effect her prime minister.

An Arab army sent by the Abbasid caliphate was successfully neutralized by the eunuch John and Constantine V’s highly capable and ruthless general Michael Lachanodrakon. This however enticed a heavy counter attack from the Muslims in 782 who sent yet another expedition, this time lead by the caliph son, a man destined to a brilliant future, Harun al-Rashid. Irene made Staurakios protostrategos (commander in chief) and sent him against this new threat. The logothete successfully trapped the Arabs but in the meantime, one of his political adversaries, the strategos of the Bukolarions defected to the enemy. The encirclement was broken off and a message sent to Staurakios, inviting him to meet Harun in person and negotiate peace terms. The minister carelessly advanced toward the Abbasid lines and he and his retinue were captured. Thus, the Arabs now had the high ground in the negotiations. The empire had to pay an annual tribute of around 2222 pounds of gold (something like one tenth of the state’s annual treasury), send 10000 silk garments and signed a three years truth. The romans also had to supply all the resources needed to ensure the safe return of the caliphal army to Syria.

After this massive setback, Irene turned her attention to the west in hope to find easier military glory there. She once again sent Staurakios with an army (783) and had him re assert roman authority over the Slav enclaves in the Peloponnese. This time he was successful and returned to Constantinople in triumph, bringing back with him booty and captives. Southern Greece was back into the fold and the sklavenias of northern Greece had to pay tribute to the empire.
During his campaign, Staurakios also prepared the ground for an imperial procession which was to take place. In 784, Irene and her son, alongside a parading army toured through Thrace, proclaiming her authority in the region, refortified Anchialous, had Philippopolis reoccupied by roman troops and had the city of Beroia refunded as Irenopolis. As proof of the return of byzantine power in the Balkans and to prepare for future reconquests, she also founded the new theme of Macedonia. It is to be highlighted that the reincorporation of Thrace was possible thanks to all the laborious work performed by Constantine V during his Balkanic wars.

Church matters and the army

Playing with the rivalry between the icon worshippers (iconodules) and the orthodox, who held most places of power in the army and clergy, Irene started to support the monks (who repeatedly conspired against Constantine V and had seen their wealth taken by the emperor to support the war effort). She also wanted to finally put an end to the dogmatic controversies surrounding the higher spheres of the church and be seen as the restorer of church unity. Hence why she prepared for a new church council. First in 781, she supervised the staging of the “discovery” of a coffin in the vicinity of Constantinople on which was inlaid “sun look on me again in the reign of the emperors Constantine and Irene”, implying that Irene was to cast away the dark shroud of current orthodoxy and replace it by that of Iconoduly, according to iconophile propaganda. In 784, the patriarch of Constantinople, Paul, conveniently fell ill and retired, allowing the empress to promote one of her allies, the administrator (so, not a cleric) Tarasios.

In 785, Constantinople sent a message hostile to iconoclasm to the pope Hadrian and asked him to send legates to participate in a new council debating the issue. The patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria were also informed of the holding of the meeting and asked to send representatives as well. Finally, the council was organized in 786 in the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Trusting her patriarch and not wanting to interfere, Irene and her son did not preside the sessions. But most of the bishops present were iconoclasts and the absence of imperial authority allowed opposition and hostility to rise. Aware of the anti-iconoclast tendencies of those who presided the council, the soldiers of the Tagmata, the central army still faithful to the memory of their founder Constantine V, entered in the church and dispersed the delegates. Irene, having returned to the capital was forced to put on hold the whole affair. This was a huge setback for her and proof that some of the armies were still beyond her control, an issue she was soon the remedy.

In the same year, the Arabs broke the truce signed earlier and, in September, the empress sent the Tagmata to Malagina, a military camp in the east to prepare for a counter attack. But when the troops had reached the camp, they got surrounded and overpowered by thematic armies, having been led to what was effectively a trap. Meanwhile, in the capital, the army of the Trakians, loyal to Irene entered in Constantinople and seized the families of the soldiers of the Tagmata. With their wives and children taken hostages, the rebellious soldiers had no choice but to yield and surrender. The thrakian army was promoted as the new tagmata while the old one was disbanded, and its soldiers dispersed in the various provinces, their families given back to them. In the meantime, the Augusta founded a new regiment, entirely loyal to her and formed out of provincials, the Arithmoi, or the Watch, under the command of the distinguished Armenian Alexios Mousele. This was a tactical masterstroke from Irene who was now leader of an administration and army who owed their promotion to her and her alone. Now, only the dissident church stood between her and total undisputed domination of the empire.

The seventh Ecumenical council and the adoption of icon worship

Irene herself must have been somewhat indifferent to icons (like most of the Byzantines really), contrary to what later sources claim. To acknowledge that Irene was a devout iconophile is placing far too much trust in sources written by convinced iconodules who, under her guidance and that of her successors rewrote history extensively. In other words, believing Theophanes and co about her having icons always hidden in her chest before the termination of iconoclasm is a bit like blindly following Snowball’s propaganda in Animal farm, or, to keep with Orwellian analogies about Stalin, to believe that Big Brother invented the airplane.
So, then why did she become the champion of what later became byzantine orthodoxy? Simply enough because, once again, she was an extremely cunning state crafter who knew perfectly how to correctly place her pawns to assert her authority.

There’s a wise and famous idiom in politics: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Irene knew that she could find church allies only among the adversaries of her rivals. So, she naturally went to the iconodules.
Choosing Nicaea to try once again to hold a council debating the issue (787) was also of great symbolic significance, for it was there that Constantine I called out the first ecumenical council and her propagandist hailed her son a new Constantine (the first) and herself as a new Helena.
Tarasios had a few of the more turbulent bishops removed and forced the others to publicly apologies for their “past conduct” but overall and lucidly to prevent too much strife, the patriarch was very accommodating.

The result for the council was the establishment of the veneration of icons as an inherent part of orthodox faith. It is to be emphasized that the icons haven’t been part of Christian rites until the fourth century and that no arguments in the bible speaks of anything of the sort. The only thing referring to it would be in the decalogue and it is against such practices. Icons were used in (parts of) the populations only to replace the old idols through a process of syncretism.
Stating that the council “restored the veneration of the icons” (like Wikipedia writes) as if it was official practice in the days of Constantine and Justinian is an historical nonsense but one orchestrated by Irene’s propaganda to defend the iconodule position during the council. But, it does prove that she did her work of whitewashing history very well.

Thus, for the third time in less than a century, orthodoxy was changed, and Irene has now tamed the clergy who now too bowed down before her. This is at this moment that she was at the height of her political career. But as she was to find out soon, this situation would not last.

Act II: Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Irene, Emperor of the Romans

Family bickering

In 787, Constantine turned 16, the legal age in which a young emperor could start his effective rule. However, Irene still kept him away from any matters of government. For all of his life until now, the rightful heir to the roman throne was used entirely as a figurehead and this wasn’t going to change even though he finally reached adulthood.

Messages were sent to Charlemagne to prepare for his daughter’s retrieval to Constantinople but, the Frankish king, probably worried of how this diplomatic marriage could turn on him now that he was building his own empire, broke the arrangement. Hence, Rotrud remained in Aachen and a new wife needed to be found for Constantine. Vexed by this turn of events, Irene ordered the dispatch of imperial agents throughout Rhomania to find suitable candidates (she wanted to make it look like no foreign woman was worthy of an imperial heir). This delegation of judges had with them an archetypal portrait, plus precise measurements of “ideal” height, foot size and maybe even waist (though the last one isn’t specified). All the girls found were brought back to the capital where Constantine was meant to make his choice, but, the life of Philaretos the Almsgiver (the main source for this whole affair) indicates that Irene and Staurakios actually oversaw the final decision. And so, Constantine was gruntingly married to the daughter of a bankrupt magnate of Paphlagonia, Maria of Amnia. The prince certainly disliked his wife especially because of his cordial correspondence with Rotrud made this unwanted marriage all the more bitter. This also showed clearly to him his impotence against the regency and he started to act to take his power back.

Meanwhile things didn’t look so hot for Irene either. 788 was a dark year for her as her forces suffered heavy military blows. In Italy, now that the alliance with Charlemagne was ended, Irene sent the eunuch John to make an alliance with the only Lombard realm still independent, the duchy of Benevento. But, the Lombards, preferring to ally themselves with the franks, defeated the romans.
In the east, a new offensive by the Arabs resulted in a heavy defeat for the Anatolics and the Muslims raided the region unmolested.
Finally, a surprise attack by the Bulgars on an army sent to Thrace lead to a complete debacle.
But, to look at the positive side of things, an Armenian population, escaping Arab domination, was resettled in the Armeniac theme and supplied new recruits there.

Constantine wanted to profit from this discrediting series of defeats to ascend to the throne. In 789, he started plotting to have Staurakios removed and exiled to Sicily, so that he could take his place. But, Irene got wind of this through her minister and countered the scheme. Constantine’s accomplices were exiled, and she allegedly even hit her son before locking him up in one of his apartments for seven days (that’s the byzantine equivalent of “go to your room”, I suppose…).

The fact that Constantine was still backed up by some while her mother had seized all functions of the government is explained by the recent series of setbacks, the armies, still remembering the days where they were led by Constantine V, eagerly waited for the return of a male emperor to lead them personally, something Irene could never do. The empress thus asked the tagmata to swear an oath of loyalty to her and promise that they would never hail her son as emperor as long as she lived. The oath was then sent to the theme armies so that they would take it as well. The theme of the Armeniacs refused but didn’t entered into revolt just yet. Irene sent Alexios Mousele to deal with them. But when the troops saw this fellow Armenian, they imprisoned their commander and acclaimed him strategos. This mutiny spread to the other themes who appointed their own commanders as well, locking away the ones loyal to the empress, and hailed Constantine emperor. The armies marched to the Opsikion and awaited Constantinople’s response. Irene was forced to release her son and give his titles back. Constantine sent Lachanodrakon to confirm their oath to him, not to Irene, and the elevation of Mousele as the general of the armeniacs.

The deeds and failures of Constantine VI

The emperor, finally able to rule in his own right first recalled his allies form exile and got Staurakios flogged, striped of his rank and sent to the Armeniac theme (790). Somewhat of a purge was orchestrated as many of Irene’s advisors and relatives (including the protospatharios Aetios) were expelled from the government. However, most of the administration was still loyal to her, and since Constantine had yet to prove his worthiness to rule, no one in the palace was entirely faithful to him. As for Irene, while she still bore her title of Augusta, she was confined to one of her palaces.

Wanting to earn respect from his subjects, Constantine prepared a campaign against the Bulgars in 791. In the vicinity of Adrianople, the two armies met but the fighting was inconclusive while both sides suffered heavy casualties. To avoid further loses, the emperor retreated with his troops during night and returned to the capital.
He tried his chance in the east as well, assembling his forces at Amorion to attack Cilicia but the lack of supplies from his line forced him again to return home having accomplished nothing.
The lack of success or even real action resulted in the loss of parts of his supporters who saw him as just as inept as the men previously appointed by Irene.

In 792, being drawn to a corner, Constantine was forced to recall his mother and then Staurakios, which caused anger and protest in the armeniac ranks. Mousele, while in Constantinople, was incarcerated, feeding the theme’s discontentment even more.

Constantine prepared for yet another expedition against the Bulgars. When arriving at the city of Markellon, he started to have it refortified, but the enemy made an attack and trapped the romans inside. To escape, the emperor lunched a poorly planned out surprise attack and got badly rooted. Constantine himself escaped but many of the soldiers, including Michael Lachanodrakon as well as the strategoi of Thrace and Macedonia, plus many public figures got slaughtered. This defeat wasn’t short of a disaster for the Basileus.

Once again, the army schemed to have one of Constantine’s uncles replace him as emperor, but Irene was yet again informed of this and encouraged her son to take harsh measures. Nicephoros was blinded and his brothers had their tongue cut out. While at it, he also had Alexios Musele blinded, again, at the instigation of Irene.
As she had planned, the armeniacs entered into full revolt and Constantine sent the themes of the Opsikion and Bukollarion against them but the imperial armies were defeated, their leaders captured and blinded in retaliation (feeling a pattern about eye gouging yet?). The emperor marched against them leading the whole of the eastern armies. Part of the armeniac theme being made of those recently enrolled Armenians that escaped from the caliphate, seeing the turning of event, switched side and so, the rebels were crushed. Their commanders were executed, and many others were brought back to Constantinople in chain and paraded in the hippodrome with the words “Armeniac plotter” tattooed on their faces (the same treatment emperor Theophilos gave to the Graptoi brothers) and then exiled to Sicily. Making use of this civil war, the Arabs captured the easternmost roman post of Kamacha.

The imperial couple’s relationship didn’t look better than the military one. The basileus loathed his wife (who was said to be pious, that it to say that she was boring as a nun) and started an affair with Theodote, one of Irene’s kubikoularia (lady in waiting). So, Constantine wanted to divorce his current wife and Irene encouraged her son in his decision. Second marriages were seen with a very bad eye by the church, especially in the case of Maria since no valid reason could be brought up to justify a divorce. The emperor (still listening to the wise counsel of his mother, wink wink) accused her of an attempt to poison him and got her and both of their daughters sent to a convent. Tarasios, on Irene’s orders, quietly nodded. Also, a smaller Arab raiding party was successfully defeated by Constantine and in this somewhat relaxed atmosphere, the emperor married his mistress. To wash his hands of the whole matter, the patriarch let the wedding be performed by an abbot, discreetly in a smaller church. Still, many in the clergy protested, guided by two monks, Plato and Theodore, (the future Theodore Stoudios). In the dispute, Irene naturally supported the monastic side. In the end, Constantine, fed up with those protestations got Plato, Theodore and a few of their friends sent to Thessaloniki.

So, just to recap, Constantine, at this point has successfully alienated the entirety of Byzantine society. The harsh treatment he gave the armeniac theme, his one hard core supporter, the lack of military successes, the banishments and punishing acts against members of all of the establishments meant that nobody was to side up to him anymore.

In 796, an earth quack struck the capital and the khan of the Bulgars daunted the emperor, asking him for a tribute and should he not comply, the Bulgars would raid Thrace and besiege Constantinople. Constantine very gracefully replied by sending horse excrement back to the khan and then left for the Balkans. However, the Bulgars eluded the romans and in the end, the basileus was forced to withdraw without having performed a single encounter with the enemy.

Infanticide

Although having a less than stellar record yet, the emperor was slowly catching on military and government matters; Irene and Staurakios started to worry that he might become dangerous to them. This is when the empress began to draw up plans to get rid of her son once and for all. She ensured the loyalty of the army by well-placed bribes and scattered spies among the emperor’s retinue.
In 797, Constantine prepared yet another offensive against Syria and assembled his troops in Cappadocia. Irene had him take Staurakios with him. During his advance, the scouts sent to assess the Arab forces, obeying the eunuch’s orders, fed misinformation to Constantine and told him that the Muslims had already left. So, the army withdrew and only after did the basileus learned that the enemy freely raided across the provinces.

After the emperor’s return to Constantinople, Irene sent orders to capture and imprison her son, but he managed to escape on one of his warships and took refuge with his supporters (among whom were some of Irene’s loyalists) in a fort on the other shore of the Propontis. Hearing about the failure of her son’s capture, the empress immediately sent a representative to Constantine (who didn’t know she was behind the attempted coup) to ask how he was but also to contact her agents around him and threaten them that should they not deliver her son back to her in chain, she would denounce them to him.
The emperor was thus sent to Irene and locked in the Porphyra, the room where she gave birth to him (very dramatic choice) and there, she ordered him to be blinded in such a way that he would die of his wound.

The assassination of Constantine was without a doubt the dumbest decision Irene ever took. By removing him, she made the regency she led entirely obsolete and her position constitutionally untenable. Although her firm grip over the state allowed her to keep the reins of government, the vacuum left by Constantine, the lack of any heir, rendered worth by the fact she never remarried (understandable from her point of view), invited trouble inside her inner circle. From now on, her loyal and servile ministers shall fight over the succession while Irene herself became more and more isolated.
(A very personal hypothesis that I have is that the decision to assassinate the emperor was enticed to Irene (the sources tell she was pretty panicked when her attempted capture of Constantine first failed, so it must have been easy to guide her in that moment of irrationality) by Staurakios. He knew that his position was vulnerable since Constantine had already fired him once, while Irene depended on him. In effect, he was the only one that profited from the murder since now he could rule behind the throne quietly. And his later attempt to seize the crown for himself proves that he had the ambition to do anything that could bring him closer to absolute power.
That is not to defend Irene from the crime itself, just to try and understand what led her to take such a decision which she most certainly knew would be fatal to her.
It is also possible that she might have been overconfident about her ability to remain in power, who knows.
I really don’t get why historians always make a big fuss about it though. Killing off family members to cling to the throne is a constant throughout not just roman but world history. The Julio Claudians, the Constantinians, the Heraclids and many other dynasties all have committed such crimes, and women participated in these as well.)

All mighty Irene

Thus, the pious Basilissa (or sometime even Basileus) Irene ruled alone over her realm. Soon after her takeover, in 797, for the hundredth time by now, a conspiration around her stepbrothers took place. Aetios took them out of the Hagia Sophia where they’ve been taken by the conspirators in the hope to start a popular uprising with no result. They were all sent to Athens.
In 798, the caliph Harun al-Rashid lunched a new invasion force against Rhomania which plundered as far as Ephesus, on the Aegean cost. Irene was forced to resume a four years annual tribute to the Muslim empire. The critical military situation resulted in another scheme to have one of the brothers take her place, this time backed up by the theme of the Helladics. Fortunately for Irene, she was informed, and the uprising repressed (there’s just so many ways to say the same thing again and again, sigh). The few brothers that weren’t yet blinded got their eyes gouged out (don’t you feel sorry for these poor guys? This is becoming rather comical by now).

By now, Irene’s position was very badly deteriorating and to try to regain support, she started to make populist and demagogic decisions, such as parading in Constantinople tossing gold coins, distributed tax exemptions and build monasteries and other public houses. She also, had Plato and Theodore recalled from their exile and gave to the later the Stoudios monastery in the suburbs of the capital. Said monastery was promised to a brilliant future. All while discontentment rose in the army and the treasury, Irene now had to deal with the rising rivalry between Staurakios and Aetios who wanted both to place their relatives in the line for succession. When the Basilissa fell ill in 799, their rivalry worsened dramatically with Staurakios twice trying to seize the throne. But Irene still could stop him. He wasn’t removed but saw his power diminished at the profit of Aetios who received the command of the most powerful of the themes, the Anatolics as a reward.

The fall of the empress

In 800, Staurakios made another failed coup attempt. He tried to entice a rebellion in the army stationed in Cappadocia, within the Anatolikon, but died soon after thankfully, as this prevented a civil war to occur between him and Aetios who was now all powerful. The atmosphere in the palace was fairly sordid by now and a shroud of paranoia surrounded Irene. Still in 800, new developments occurred in the west with the crowning of Charlemagne emperor of the Romans by the pope. The Byzantines first though that the franks wanted to lunch an offensive against them but Charlemagne instead sent a marriage proposal to Irene but that didn’t go anywhere for obvious practical reasons.
Aetios, increasingly unpopular among the ruling class, appointed his brother Leo strategos of Macedonia and Thrace while he himself controlled the Anatolics and the Opsikion: his forces surrounded the capital, the time drew near when he could strike. But he got overtaken by the swifter Nicephoros, the logothete of the Genikon -finance minister- (702). The logothete went to Irene’s palace with a few supporters and told to the guards that Irene was ill and had appointed him emperor to prevent Aetios’ takeover. The empress was arrested and brought to the great palace to face Nicephoros. He had her tell him where her fortune was and then sent her to one of the monasteries she founded on one of the princes’ islands while he himself was crowned in the Hagia Sophia by Tarasios. She was left there at first but got quickly relocated when the new emperor heard about her starting conspiring against him with Aetios. She was exiled to the island of Lesbos where she died on the 9th of August 803.

Epilogue

The assessment of Irene’s time in power is fairly negative overall. One of the constants of her reign is the endless repetitions of attempted revolts, palace schemes and coups. For that reason, she had to focus almost entirely on keeping power and that was made at the expense of good government management. Her brutality in dealing with them severely weakened the ability of Byzantium to defend itself. The empress’s need to find loyal supporters outdid the one for capable generals. It is in this state of extreme vulnerability that Rhomania faced the Carolingian realm and the Abbasid caliphate at the height of their power.
Speaking of Charlemagne, his proclamation as emperor of the romans was a huge diplomatic setback as well, not so much for prestige reasons, as the collapse of the Frankish empire after Charlemagne’s death limited its effects, but more gravely, the pretentions of the Byzantines to northern Italy were severely weakens if not entirely swept away.

Still in military affairs, the reconquest of parts of Thrace was undermined by the battle of Pliska (811) during which the byzantine army was entirely defeated and the Bulgars recovered all the territories they had previously lost. This is not to blame Irene for this, as she was already dead, but this shows how fickle progresses in the Balkans were and how much she profited from a favorable geopolitical situation (the same can be said about Constantine V’s breakthroughs in the east, done during the Arab civil war). It is in this light that her conquests in Thrace should be considered. The quiet reconquest of southern Greece is the only positive aspect of her whole military legacy.

During the second half of her reign, her ruthlessness completely clouded her judgment and was increasingly detrimental to her subjects, going as far as to sabotage her son’s expeditions against the Arabs and destabilizing the state by encouraging him in making bad decisions while she could’ve been a great tutor for him. In the end, it was that blinding obsession with the need to stay in power that lead to her downfall, the end of the Syrian dynasty and around twenty years of anarchy in Byzantium.

Of course, this bad record shouldn’t give the wrong idea. Irene showed huge amount of resourcefulness and had she had the time to actually do things, she probably would’ve made a fine job, a great one maybe, she was more than up to the task. Her story is very reminiscent to that of Andronikos Komnenos in that regard, a highly intelligent mind who was entirely wasted clinging to his throne because of the turbulent nature of court life.
Naturally, it is hard to talk about Irene without bringing up the “issue” of her gender. Her entire time in power was seen as abnormal by both her subjects and neighbors and this might be one of the reasons why her rule was so prolific in coup attempts. The people around her made the huge mistake of thinking that she would be easy to remove and instead of working with her for the greater good of the roman empire they wasted their time and hers as well in petty civil wars.
Underestimating her abilities as a woman to control the government was the true wrench which blocked the byzantine clockwork.