Irene of Athens
752 CE–803 CE · Constantinople
Irene of Athens was a Byzantine empress who governed as regent for her son Constantine VI from 780 and then reigned as sole ruler from 797 to 802, the first woman to hold sole imperial power in her own name. A supporter of the icons, she convened the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which restored the veneration of religious images and formally ended the first period of iconoclasm. She came to sole power by deposing and blinding her son, an act that darkened her reputation. She was overthrown in 802 by the finance minister Nikephoros and died in exile the following year.
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Constantinople
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In Constantinople at the same time
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Irene of Athens’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
Christian world
Jewish world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Rulers world
- Hisham I· 757 CE–796 CE
- al-Hadi· 764 CE–786 CE
- Charlemagne· 747 CE–814 CE
- Emperor Kanmu· 737 CE–806 CE
- Nikephoros I· 760 CE–811 CE
- Harun al-Rashid· 763 CE–809 CE
- al-Mahdi· 744 CE–785 CE
- Abd al-Rahman I· 731 CE–788 CE
- al-Amin· 787 CE–813 CE
- Jayavarman II· 770 CE–835 CE
- K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat (Cauac Sky)· –785 CE
- Yaxun Bahlam IV (Bird Jaguar IV)· 709 CE–
- Emperor Xuanzong of Tang· 685 CE–762 CE
- K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak (Smoking Squirrel)· 688 CE–
Works
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