IRE'1TE, a celebrated Byzantine empress, was h. in Athens about 732 A.D. Her beauty and talent excited the admiration of the emperor Leo IV. who married her, 769 A.D. She is- believed to have poisoned her husband, 780 A.D., after which event she became regent during the minority of her son, Constantine VI., then only nine years of age. A great worshiper of images—in fact, this species of idolatry had during the lifetime of her husband caused her to he banished from the imperial palace—she quickly began to plot for their restoration, and with this purpose assembled a council of bishops at Con stantinople, 786 A.D., which, however, was broken up by the troops of the capital. A second council held at Nice in the following year was more successful, and image worship was re-established in the eastern church. In 788 A.D. her army was dufotted in Calabria by Charlemagne, who threatened the Byzantine empire. In 790 A.D. Con stantine succeeded in taking the government out of her hands; but seven years after she caused him to be deprived of his eyes, and shut up in a dungeon, where he soon died. Still she was not free from anxieties. Her two favorites, Stauracius and iEtins,
were constantly embroiled with each other, and their jealousies only ceased with the death of the former, 800 A.D. Site now tried to secure her possession of the throne by a marriage with Charlemagne, but the Frank emperor had apparently no relish for a woman who had committed so many crimes, and the scheme proved abortive. Two years later her treasurer, Nieephorus, rebelled against her, and suddenly seizing her person, banished her to the isle of Lesbos, where site was forced to spin for a livelihood. Here she died of grief. 803 A.D. Irene was a wise, able, and energetic ruler; but her crimes were so great and unnatural that history can speak of her character as a whole only in the language of reprobation. The Greek church, however, on account of her zeal for image worship, has placed her among its saints. •