XLVIII. were tormented by the thirft of power, and CHAP. tempted by a Sclavonian chief, who offered to break their prifon, and to lead them in arms, and in the purple, to the gates of Conftantinople. But the Athenian people, ever zealous in the cause of Irene, prevented her juftice or cruelty; and the five fons of Copronymus were plunged in eternal darkness and oblivion. For himself, that emperor had chofen a Barbarian wife, the daughter of the khan of the Chozars but in the marriage of his heir, he preferred an Athenian virgin, an orphan, seventeen years old, whofe fole fortune muft have confifted in her perfonal accomplishments. The nuptials of Leo and Irene were celebrated with royal pomp; fhe foon acquired the love and confidence of a feeble husband, and in his teftament he declared the emprefs, guardian of the Roman world, and of their fon Conftantine the fixth, who was no more than ten years of age. During his childhood, Irene most ably and affiduously difcharged, in her public administration, the duties of a faithful mother; and her zeal in the restoration of images has deferved the name and honours of a faint, which fhe still occupies in the Greek calendar. But the emperor attained the maturity of youth; the maternal yoke became more griev ous; and he liftened to the favourites of his own age, who fhared his pleasures, and were ambitious of fharing his power. Their reafons convinced him of his right, their praises of his ability, to reign; and he confented to reward the fervices of Irene by a perpetual banishment to the ifle of Sicily 9 Conftan tine VI. and Irene, A. D. 78c, Sept. 8, XLVIII. CHAP. Sicily. But her vigilance and penetration eafily difconcerted their rash projects: a fimilar, or more fevere, punishment was retaliated on themselves and their advifers; and Irene inflicted on the ungrateful prince the chastisement of a boy. After this conteft, the mother and the fon were at the head of two domeftic factions; and,, inftead of mild influence and voluntary obedience, she held in chains a captive and an enemy. The emprefs was overthrown by the abufe of victory; the oath of fidelity which the exacted to herself alone, was pronounced with reluctant murmurs; and the bold refufal of the Armenian guards encouraged a free and general declaration, that Conftantine the fixth was the lawful emperor of the Romans. In this character he afcended his hereditary throne, and difmiffed Irene to a life of folitude and repose. But her haughty fpirit condefcended to the arts of diffimulation: fhe flattered the bishops and the eunuchs, revived the filial tenderness of the prince, regained his confidence, and betrayed his credulity. The character of Conftantine was not deftitute of fenfe or fpirit; but his education had been studioufly neglected; and his ambitious mother expofed to the public cenfure the vices which she had nourished and the actions which he had fecretly advised; his divorce and second marriage offended the prejudices of the clergy, and by his imprudent rigour he forfeited the attachment of the Armenian guards. A powerful confpiracy was formed for the restoration of Irene; and the fecret, though widely diffused, was faithfully kept above eight months, till the emperor, fufpicious of XLVIII. of his danger, escaped from Conftantinople, with CHAP. the defign of appealing to the provinces and armies. By this hafty flight, the emprefs was left on the brink of the precipice; yet before fhe implored the mercy of her fon, Irene addreffed a private epistle to the friends whom she had placed about his perfon, with a menace, that unless they accomplished, he would reveal, their treafon. Their fear rendered them intrepid; they seized the emperor on the Afiatic fhore, and he was transported to the porphyry apartment of the palace, where he had first feen the light. In the mind of Irene, ambition had stified every fentiment of humanity and nature; and it was decreed in her bloody council, that Conftantine fhould be rendered incapable of the throne: her emiffaries affaulted the fleeping prince, and stabbed their daggers with fuch violence and precipitation into his eyes, as if they meant to execute a mortal fentence. An ambiguous paffage of Theophanes perfuaded the annalist of the church that death was the immediate confequence of this barbarous execution. The Catholics have been deceived or fubdued by the authority of Baronius; and protestant zeal has re-echoed the words of a cardinal, defirous, as it fhould feem, to favour the patronefs of images. Yet the blind fon of Irene furvived many years, oppreffed by the court and forgotten by the world: the Ifaurian dynasty was filently extinguished; and the memory of Constantine was recalled only by the nuptials of his daughter Euphrofyne with the emperor Michael the fecond. VOL. IX. D The С НА Р. The most bigoted orthodoxy has justly execrated the unnatural mother, who may not eafily XLVIII. Irene, A. D. 792, be paralleled in the hiftory of crimes. To her Auguft 19. bloody deed, fuperftition has attributed a subsequent darkness of seventeen days; during which many veffels in mid-day were driven from their course, as if the fun, a globe of fire so vast and so remote, could fympathife with the atoms of a revolving planet. On earth, the crime of Irene was left five years unpunished; her reign was crowned with external fplendour; and if fhe could filence the voice of confcience, fhe neither heard nor regarded the reproaches of mankind. The Roman world bowed to the government of a female; and as fhe moved through the streets of Conftantinople, the reins of four milk-white fteeds were held by as many patricians, who marched on foot before the golden chariot of their queen. But these patricians were for the most part eunuchs; and their,black ingratitude juftified, on this occafion, the popular hatred and contempt. Raised, enriched, entrusted with the firft dignities of the empire, they bafely confpired against their benéfactress the great treasurer Nicephorus was fecretly invested with the purple; her fucceffor was introduced into the palace, and crowned at St. Sophia by the venal patriarch. In their first interview, fhe recapitulated with dignity the revolutions of her life, gently accufed the perfidy of Nicephorus, infinuated that he owed his life to her unfufpicious clemency, and, for the throne and treasures which the refigned, folicited a decent and and honourable retreat. His avarice refufed this modest compensation; and, in her exile of the isle of Lesbos, the emprefs earned a fcanty subsistence by the labours of her distaff. Many tyrants have reigned undoubtedly more criminal than Nicephorus, but none perhaps have more deeply incurred the univerfal abhorrence of their people. His character was stained with the three odious vices of hypocrify, ingratitude, and avarice: his want of virtue was not redeemed by any fuperior talents, nor his want of talents, by any pleafing qualifications. Unfkilful and unfortunate in war, Nicephorus was vanquished by the Saracens, and flain by the Bulgarians; and the advantage of his death overbalanced, in the public opinion, the destruction of a Roman army. His fon and heir Stauracius escaped from the field with a mortal wound yet fix months of an expiring life were fufficient to refute his indecent, though popular declaration, that he would in all things avoid the example of his father. On the near prospect of his decease, Michael, the great master of the palace, and the husband of his sister Procopia, was named by every perfon of the palace and city, except by his envious brother. Tenacious of a fceptre now falling from his hand, he conspired against the life of his fucceffor, and cherished the idea of changing to a democracy the Roman empire. But these rash projects ferved only to inflame the zeal of the people and to remove the fcruples of the candidate: Michael the first accepted the purple, and before he funk into the grave, D 2 CHA P. XLVIII. Nicepho rus 1. A. D. 8c2, C&ober 31, Stauracius, A. D. 811, |