Saint-Petersburg State University
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science

Khitova Anna
Midterm Paper on the Course of Comparative History of Europe
Topic:
«The Byzantium Gynarchy of the Late VIII: Irene The Athenian»

Professors:
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Elif Demirtiken

Saint-Petersburg
2015

The Byzantium Gynarchy of the Late VIII: Irene The Athenian
There is no doubt that the Byzantine Empire was one of the greatest civilizations in the world’s history. It lasted approximately 1120 years more than any other empire. Of course, the central figure of the Byzantine statehood was an emperor. However, it would be wrong to claim that they ruled without any external help and support. Here I mean not only the civil servants but also - and especially - emperors’ wives. Empresses, whose status had not been as different from the emperors’ as it might seem, had a significant impact on the empire’s existence. Even though it was an era of androcracy, they influenced the emperors’ decisions and sometimes even replaced them. Was it possible for women to rule the Byzantine Empire solely? Was it legitimate? The exercise of full imperial power by women was of course not common, like in the Western Europe where queens seldom attain power, as power should always be reinforced by army and, consequently, military success1. That does not mean that Byzantine women were somehow different; it is just that men themselves sometimes hired other people to deal with all the military problems. Thus, imperial women could use this tactic as well and entrust different governmental issues to civil servants - eunuchs2. However, having such support did not make it easier to hold the power up and empresses still needed all the willpower and inner strength to assume the reins of government. To prove that, I am going to examine the period when Irene, wife of Leo IV, had been regent