THE FIRST ROMAN EMPRESS

In 768, a teenage girl called Irene arrived in Constantinople from Athens, accompanied by a fleet of warships loaded with silk. There, she was met by the city’s leading men and women, who walked her down to the imperial palace. Days later, amidst much pomp, a crown was placed upon her head, and with that she was married – to Emperor Constantine V’s son, who would become Leo IV. Ji

Born in 753, Irene may have been discovered through an eastern ritual called the bride show – introduced to the court by the emperor’s wife, a Khazar princess. Officials scoured the empire for well-educated, exceptionally | attractive women from reputable families, bringing them back to the capital and parading them past the groom, who simply picked his favourite. The adolescent Irene, though, was an odd choice. Since the reign of Leo’s grandfather, Leo Ill, the Byzantines had pursued a policy of aggressive iconoclasm – suppressing religious imagery. Irene, in contrast, was a proud iconophile.

Ten years later, Constantine died during a campaign against