★ First Empress of the Byzantine Empire ★

(Gold. 4.41g 20mm) Constantine VI and Irene, with Leo III, Constantine V, and Leo IV AV Solidus. Constantinople, AD 792-793.
COҺSTAҺTI' ЬASI' / Crowned facing busts of Constantine IV, draped and holding globus cruciger, and Irene, wearing loros and holding globus cruciger and cruciform sceptre; cross above,
Rev: SVNIRI AVΓOVT ΜΙΤΗR Constantine V, Leo III, and Leo IV seated facing, each crowned and draped.
DOC 2b; Sear 159
Irene of Athens, Empress of the Byzantine Empire, was the first woman to the Empire in her own name. First a regent for her son Constantine VI, then deposing him and ruling on her own, Irene is remembered by some as a great empress, or even a saint, who helped defeat the inconoclasts. To others, she is a woman who led the empire into a dark period and committed "one of the foulest murders that even byzantine history has to record