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108-506: Irene of Athens ( Greek : Εἰρήνη , Eirḗnē ; 750/756 – 9 August 803), surname Sarantapechaena ( Greek : Σαρανταπήχαινα , Sarantapḗchaina ), was Byzantine empress consort to Emperor Leo IV from 775 to 780, regent during the childhood of their son Constantine VI from 780 until 790, co-ruler from 792 until 797, and finally empress regnant and sole ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire from 797 to 802. A member of

216-567: A strategos ("military general") of the theme of Hellas at the end of the eighth century. Constantine Sarantapechos's son, Theophylact, was a spatharios and is mentioned as having been involved in suppressing a revolt in 799. According to Theophanes the Confessor , Irene was related to Theophano of Athens who would become empress consort after her marriage to the Byzantine emperor Staurakios . Another unnamed female relative of Irene

324-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

432-455: A bride for the emperor through the method of bride-show is known to have been used at least from the 8th century onward. Irene of Athens was likely chosen for Leo IV the Khazar by this method, though it has not been confirmed. The first recorded bridal show in Byzantine was however the one in 788, in which Maria of Amnia was selected for emperor Constantine. The method was regularly used in

540-718: A daughter of Charlemagne by his third wife Hildegard . During this time Charlemagne was at war with the Saxons , and would later become the new king of the Franks. Irene went as far as to send an official to instruct the Frankish princess in the "language and literature of the Greeks and [...] in Roman imperial ways", according to Theophanes. According to Charlemagne's biographer Einhard , he could not bear to lose his daughter and broke off

648-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

756-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

864-469: A fever after putting on the jeweled crown from the Great Church that had been dedicated by either Maurice ( r.  582–602 ) or Heraclius ( r.  610–641 ). It is uncertain whether Irene herself had promoted this rumor, perhaps in an attempt to smear her iconoclast husband's memory. Quickly after Leo IV's death, Irene became regent for their nine-year-old son Constantine VI and secured

972-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1080-425: A full imperial procession. Possibly hoping to placate supporters of her husband's family, Irene is reported to have proposed that Leo IV's sister Anthousa should join her as co-regent, but Anthousa is said to have rejected the offer. From the beginning, Irene seems to have taken more power for herself than was traditionally expected of female regents. Her earliest coins depict both herself and her son Constantine VI on

1188-646: A huge Abbasid army under Harun al-Rashid invaded Anatolia in summer 782, reaching Chrysopolis on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus The stratēgos of the Bucellarian Theme , Tatzates , defected to the Abbasids, and Irene had to agree to pay an embarrassing annual tribute of 100,000 dinars to the Abbasids. In 783, Staurakios , eunuch and logothete of the dromos under Irene led

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1296-469: A legation under the spatharios Leo. However the campaign was abandoned and the Franks resumed marriage negotiations with the Byzantines. Relations between the two empires remained difficult. The coronation was viewed by the Byzantines as merely another Italian usurpation against imperial authority. Rather than opting for a military response, Irene maintained her contacts and endeavored to bring about

1404-498: A marriage between herself and Charlemagne, which was reciprocated to some degree by his court. However as reported by Theophanes the Confessor , the scheme was frustrated by Aetios , eunuch and favorite of Irene, who was attempting to usurp her on behalf of his brother Leo. The discussions proved fruitless by the time Irene was overthrown, and Charlemagne remained resolute in his imperial ambitions. In her four-and-a-half years of sole rule (797–802), Irene renewed diplomatic contact with

1512-541: A pension. She is listed in some Byzantine Catholic and Eastern Orthodox sources as a saint commemorated on 7 August, but her name is not found in the Menaion . H. Rider Haggard incorporated Irene as a villain in his novel The Wanderer's Necklace . Primary sources Modern sources Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

1620-647: A successful campaign against the Sclaveni of Thessaly , Greece and the Peloponnese , returning with booty and captives. In 784, Irene capitalized on Constantine V's successes in Thrace and ordered Veria and Anchialos to be "rebuilt". By 786, Harun, then the Abbasid Caliph , had made Raqqa his residence in order to secure control over the frontier. In 797/798, the Abbasids were said to have reached

1728-525: A symbolic location as the site of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, to convene the seventh ecumenical council , which formally declared the veneration of icons as an article of faith, reuniting the Eastern church with that of Rome , which was signified by Adrian I's sending of two papal legates . The council determined that the honorary veneration ( timētikē proskynēsis ) of the holy icons

1836-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1944-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

2052-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

2160-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2268-832: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Bride-show The method to select

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2376-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

2484-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

2592-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

2700-552: The Caesar Nikephoros (son of Constantine V). Following the advice of Irene and Staurakios, Constantine had his uncle's eyes put out and the tongues of his father's four other half-brothers cut off. His former Armeniac supporters revolted after he had blinded their stratēgos Alexios due to alleged involvement in the plot. They also disapproved of Irene's return as co-ruler. Constantine crushed this revolt with extreme cruelty in 793. In summer 793, Arab raiders captured

2808-492: The dromos ), and Konstantinos (the count of the excubitors ) scourged, tonsured, and banished. She replaced all of them with dignitaries who were loyal to her. She had Nikephoros and his four brothers ordained as priests , a status which disqualified them from ruling, and forced them to serve communion at the Hagia Sophia on Christmas Day 780. On the same day, Irene returned the crown her husband had removed as part of

2916-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

3024-469: The Franks and negotiated a tribute to Harun al-Rashid to cease hostilities, but also brutally crushed rebellions against her rule, blinding four of Constantine V's five sons. Irene's rule was popular due to her financial concessions, but weakened by factionalism, notably between two of her eunuch advisers, Staurakios and Aetios . In 800, Aetios accused Staurakios of plotting against Irene, but he died before

3132-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

3240-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

3348-433: The tagmata with soldiers from the thematic corps. Tarasios dealt with the episcopal opposition by allowing notoriously iconoclast bishops to retain their positions so long as they made a public admission of error, and also by disguising two eastern monks as envoys of the patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem , to justify the council's claim to ecumenical status. On 1 October 787, the monks and bishops assembled at Nicaea ,

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3456-412: The 11th century historian George Kedrenos , who wrote many centuries after Irene's death, this crackdown on iconophiles began after Leo IV discovered two icons hidden underneath Irene's pillow. Leo IV launched an investigation and discovered the courtiers who had brought the icons. He had them tortured and scolded Irene for violating the law and breaking with her faith. Irene insisted that she had not known

3564-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

3672-529: The 8th and 9th centuries. Among notable bride-shows was the one in which Theodora was selected by Theophilos and Kassia rejected. None of the empresses of the 10th century onward, however, are confirmed to have been selected this way, and the custom was surely dead by the 13th century. Imperial China practiced a similar method in which to choose wives for the emperor at least from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward; in this case not just one empress, but also

3780-469: The Abbasids, and in 782 and 798 had to accept the terms of the respective Caliphs al-Mahdi and Harun al-Rashid . As Constantine VI approached maturity he began to grow restless under the autocratic sway of his mother. In 787, the plans for the marriage of Constantine and Rotrude , daughter of Charlemagne , were aborted, and in 788, Irene chose Maria of Amnia as a wife for him, beginning their unhappy marriage. In November 788, Irene suffered losses to

3888-576: The Armenian commander Alexios Mosele to persuade the Armeniacs, but they instead deposed their stratēgos (who was appointed by Irene) and proclaimed Alexios the new stratēgos . When word of this spread throughout Asia Minor , other soldiers followed suit and deposed their commanders, marching into the Opsician Theme outside Constantinople. Irene was pressured to release Constantine, who

3996-522: The Bosphorus again, but agreed to negotiate with the Byzantines due to the threat of the Khazars in the north. Nonetheless, he engaged in a campaign of assiduously strengthening the frontier with new districts and strongholds ( al-Awasim ), specifically from Cilicia through Germanikeia to Melitene . There was significant settlement and economic activity in the frontier region by the Abbasids, which

4104-662: The Bulgars and the failure of the expedition to Calabria , weakening her position. Although Constantine had reached the age of majority, Irene continued to administer the affairs of state in his place and was autocratess of the Romans. Constantine no longer accepted his secondary status and attempted to free himself by force. He plotted with his supporters, including Peter, a magistros and confidant of Constantine V , against Irene's advisers, especially Staurakios , who he planned to exile to Sicily . In early 790, Staurakios discovered

4212-682: The Bulgars in April 791 and the Arabs in September. In a hollow semblance of friendship, Constantine restored Irene's titles and confirmed her position as ruler in 792, even recalling Staurakios from exile. As a result, the official Irene-Constantine duumvirate began. Constantine proved incapable of sound governance, and suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kardam of Bulgaria in the Battle of Marcellae of 792. A plot developed in favor of his uncle,

4320-460: The Duke of Benevento sided with the Franks and defeated the Byzantines in Calabria . Alcuin of York claimed that 4,000 Byzantines were killed and 1,000 captured, including Patriarch Tarasios ' brother, Sisinnius. The defeat led to a breakdown of Frankish-Byzantine relations. In 798, Irene diplomatically secured the return of Sisinnius. From 797, Irene once again attempted to normalize relations with

4428-591: The Eastern Roman Empire. Whether he actually desired a coronation at all, remains controversial—Einhard related that Charlemagne had been surprised by the Pope—but the Eastern Empire felt its role as the sole Roman Empire threatened and began to emphasize its superiority and its Roman identity. In 802, there were reports of a possible Frankish invasion of Sicily, to which Irene responded by sending

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4536-468: The Franks, and a Byzantine legation arrived in the Frankish court in 798. However on Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III . The clergy and nobles attending the ceremony proclaimed Charlemagne Augustus . In support of Charlemagne's coronation, some argued that the imperial position was actually vacant, deeming a woman unfit to be emperor; however, Charlemagne made no claim to

4644-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

4752-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

4860-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

4968-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

5076-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

5184-720: The Saxon tribes in northern Germany for more than thirty years, annexing their territory and compelling them to convert to Christianity, and defeated the Avars in Central Europe . In what is known as the Carolingian Renaissance , Charlemagne increasingly modelled his rule after that of the Roman emperors, sponsoring construction programs in conscious imitation of Roman and Byzantine architecture, as well as intellectual and artistic revival in general. His father Pepin

5292-625: The Short had reformed the currency and standardized weights, tightening royal control over mints. As early as 781, Irene began to seek a closer relationship with the Carolingian dynasty and the Papacy in Rome, and Charlemagne's conquest of Pavia had allowed for renewed relations with the Byzantines. Through the eunuch Elissaeus, Irene negotiated a marriage between her son Constantine and Rotrude ,

5400-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

5508-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

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5616-515: The antiquity of iconodulia and the Incarnation of Christ , which was said to make acceptable the depiction of Christ, were emphasized. The Libri Carolini states that the ruling of the council against iconoclasm led to "civil war" within the Empire, and other ninth-century iconodule sources condemn clergymen and laymen who remained iconoclasts. While the council greatly improved relations with

5724-488: The case, then she would have been the first imperial bride to be selected in this manner. However, there is no solid evidence to support this hypothesis other than the apparent oddity of Irene's selection as Leo IV's bride. Irene arrived in Constantinople on 1 November 769, escorted, per Theophanes , by decorated dromones and chelandia ( warships ang galleys ). She was betrothed to 19-year-old Leo IV ,

5832-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

5940-421: The eighth century. It was Irene's financial laxity and benevolent tax policy that led to the palace coup by the minister of the treasury, Nikephoros , in 802, which was witnessed by Charlemagne 's ambassadors. A female relative of Irene, Theophano , was chosen by Nikephoros ( r.  802–811 ) as the bride of his son and heir Staurakios . Although Irene was an iconodule, Theophanes the Confessor , one of

6048-481: The emperor in her own right and her name took precedence in the oath of allegiance. Apart from that, she did not allow Constantine any voice in public affairs. At the same time, Irene appears to have been well aware that her position as regent was insecure. The last female regent of the Byzantine Empire had been Empress Martina , who had only managed to survive as regent for less than a year before her tongue

6156-407: The emperor on the battlefield, were supported by Constantine V but demoted and reconstituted by Irene for frustrating the meeting of the iconodule council in 786. She elevated eunuchs to power against the imperial administration, one of the most significant of whom was Staurakios . In contrast, Constantine V supported the imperial office, which proved resilient to the political and military crises of

6264-403: The engagement. However it is also possible that the new Frankish-Byzantine border, along with the oscillating allegiance of the powerful Duchy of Benevento , soured relations. In 787, Pope Adrian I informed Charlemagne of reports of Byzantine invasion to restore Adalgis , the deposed Lombard king, with the support of Benevento, and drive the Franks from Italy. The invasion began in 788, but

6372-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

6480-602: The few major primary sources of the eighth century, depicts her very unsympathetically due to his dislike of the involvement of women in imperial matters. However, Irene's zeal in restoring the icons and monasteries made Theodore the Studite praise her as a saint . He also commended her for ending the Isaurian policy of demanding payments from soldiers' widows as compensation for the loss of military personnel, in order for their households to continue receiving tax exemptions and

6588-629: The first and greatest Isaurian emperors, Leo III and Constantine V , was the rescue of the Empire from destruction at the hands of the Arabs and the Bulgars , while Irene's reign saw increasing losses and threat of war. Her character also departs significantly from her Isaurian predecessors, who were typically warlike, just and populist . She contradicted them in the blinding of her son, abolishing of iconoclasm and military weakness. The tagmata , old guard units stationed in Constantinople who surrounded

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6696-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

6804-572: The icons were there. After the incident, Leo refused to have marital relations with Irene ever again. Lynda Garland , a historian of the Byzantine Empire, states that this story too closely resembles a different story told about the later empress Theodora, wife of Theophilos , to be historically true. Nonetheless, she maintains that it is possible that Irene may have been trying to fill the palace with supporters of iconophilism, which may have triggered Leo IV's crackdown. When Leo IV died on 8 September 780, rumors were circulated claiming that he had died of

6912-461: The important fortresses of Kamachon and Thebasa in Asia Minor, however a larger force accompanied by the rebellious former stratēgos of Sicily, Elpidius retreated due to an early winter in 794, and Constantine defeated an Arab army in 795. Nevertheless, Arab raiders reached Amorion in 796, Ankara and Malagina in 798 and Ephesos in 799. Constantine personally led a force to meet Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid ( r.  786–809 ), but

7020-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

7128-399: The influence of his mother. In the early 790s, several revolts attempted to proclaim him as sole ruler. One of these revolts succeeded, but in 792 Irene was re-established in all imperial powers as co-emperor with Constantine VI. In 797, Irene organized a conspiracy in which her supporters gouged out her son's eyes. Constantine was imprisoned and probably died shortly afterwards. With him out of

7236-419: The island of Lesbos , supplanting her on the throne with Nikephoros I . Irene died in exile less than a year later. Irene was born in Athens sometime between 750 and 756. She was a member of the noble Greek Sarantapechos family, which had significant political influence in central mainland Greece. Although she was an orphan, her uncle or cousin Constantine Sarantapechos was a patrician and possibly also

7344-414: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

7452-413: The matter was resolved. In October 802, officers led by the minister of finance ( logothetēs tou genikou ) Nikephoros deposed Irene. They were motivated both by Irene's financial laxity and benevolent tax policy as well as by the implications of a marriage alliance with the Franks. On 31 October, Nikephoros was crowned "Nikephoros I" by Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia . Irene

7560-458: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

7668-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

7776-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

7884-600: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

7992-408: The obverse, listing them as co-rulers rather than as ruler and regent. Furthermore, Irene is shown holding the orb, not Constantine, and only Irene's name is listed on the obverse of the coin, with Constantine VI's name only listed on the reverse, the less important side. Also, in all orders, both oral and written, Irene's name took precedence over her son's name, and she signed her orders in the name of

8100-478: The official iconoclasm. During Lent of 780, however, Leo IV's policies on iconophiles became much harsher. He ordered for a number of prominent courtiers to be arrested, scourged, tonsured , and tortured after they were caught venerating icons. Prior to the death of her husband, Irene appears to have accepted the prevailing iconoclasm, regardless of her private beliefs. During this period, her activities are unknown, recorded only in later obscure accounts. According to

8208-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

8316-505: The papacy, it did not prevent the outbreak of a war with the Franks , who took over Istria and Benevento in 788. In spite of these reverses, Irene's military efforts met with some success: in 782 her favoured courtier Staurakios subdued the Slavs of the Balkans and laid the foundations of Byzantine expansion and re-Hellenization in the area. Nevertheless, Irene was constantly harried by

8424-503: The plot and informed Irene, who arrested the plotters, confined Constantine to his quarters and demanded that the army across the Empire take an oath of fidelity in her name alone. Irene also tried to convince the army to legitimize her absolute power over the state. The discontent which this caused swelled into open resistance and at first the Armeniacs refused to swear an oath to Irene alone but rather to Constantine and Irene. She sent

8532-490: The politically prominent Sarantapechos family, she was selected as Leo IV 's bride for unknown reasons in 768. Even though her husband was an iconoclast , she harbored iconophile sympathies. During her rule as regent, she called the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which condemned iconoclasm as heretical and brought an end to the first iconoclast period (730–787). During her 5 year sole reign, her public figure

8640-721: The position of Patriarch of Constantinople in 784. As he was a layman, Pope Adrian I disapproved of his election. Irene and Tarasios summoned two church councils to solemnize the reversal of imperial policy to iconodulia. The first of these, assembled on 1 August 786 in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople , was dispersed by iconoclast tagmata (battalions stationed in the city) who were backed by iconoclast bishops. In autumn, Irene ordered them to respond to an alleged Arab attack in Asia Minor, then reconstituted

8748-476: The rebels. Elpidius fled to Africa , where he defected to the Abbasid Caliphate . The fact that this revolt appears to reflect personal ambition or political conflicts centring in the capital, rather than local separatism, demonstrates the loyalty of the island to the Empire. After the success of Constantine V 's general, Michael Lachanodrakon , who foiled an Abbasid attack on the eastern frontiers,

8856-718: The son of emperor Constantine V , on 3 November at the Church of the Virgin of Pharos . The coronation took place the following month, on 17 December, in Augoustaion and was followed by the couple's marriage at the Palace of Daphne within the Great Palace of Constantinople . On 14 January 771, Irene gave birth to a son, the future Constantine VI , who was named after his grandfather, Irene's father-in-law, Constantine V. When Constantine V died in September 775, Leo IV ascended to

8964-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

9072-492: The throne at the age of twenty-five, and Irene became empress consort. Leo IV, though an iconoclast like his father, pursued a policy of moderation towards iconophiles. He removed the penalties on monasteries that had been imposed by his father and began appointing monks as bishops. When Patriarch Nicetas I of Constantinople died in 780, Leo IV appointed Paul of Cyprus , who had iconophile sympathies, as his successor, although he did force him to swear oaths that he would uphold

9180-480: The throne for him by crushing the usurpation plots in favour of Leo's brothers in the following month. In October, only six weeks after Leo IV's death, Irene was confronted with the conspiracy led by a group of prominent dignitaries that sought to raise Caesar Nikephoros , a half-brother of Leo IV, to the throne. Irene had Bardas (the former strategos of the Armeniac Theme ), Gregory (the logothete of

9288-473: The title "basileus": two legal documents in which she signed herself as "Emperor of the Romans" and a gold coin of hers found in Sicily bearing the title of "basileus". In relation to the coin, the lettering is of poor quality and the attribution to Irene may be problematic. She used the title "basilissa" in all other documents, coins, and seals. Irene's unprecedented position as an empress ruling in her own right

9396-421: The traditional method to select a bride from the boyar nobility for the tsar in a culture where the terem otherwise secluded women of the aristocracy from men. The method was regularly used in the 16th and 17th centuries. This was the case with the three wives of Ivan IV . The first time this method was securely recorded was in 1505, when Solomoniya Saburova was selected for Vasily III this way. The method

9504-427: The two co-rulers. Irene's faction also returned, with her powerful eunuch minister Staurakios once again at the helm, they began to take revenge on anyone who had opposed them in the past or present. The moechian controversy (from moicheia , "adultery") was begun in 795, when Constantine forced his wife Maria to enter a convent because she allegedly attempted to poison him. He then married his mistress Theodote , which

9612-488: The various consorts and concubines of lower ranks for the emperor. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), daughters of the elite families were summoned to the imperial palace prior to marriage for inspection, and selected by the emperor to become his empress, secondary imperial consorts or concubines before the rest of them were released and allowed to marry. The Byzantine method was imported to Muscovite Russia , where it became

9720-552: The way, Irene proclaimed herself sole ruler. Pope Leo III —already seeking to break links with the Byzantine East—used Irene's alleged unprecedented status as a female ruler of the Roman Empire to proclaim Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day of 800 under the pretext that a woman could not rule solely and thus the Roman throne was actually vacant. A revolt in 802 overthrew Irene and exiled her to

9828-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

9936-400: Was a militant iconoclast who was known for persecuting venerators of icons, Irene herself displayed iconophile predilections. This fact, combined with the limited information available about her family, has led some scholars to speculate that Irene may have been selected in a bride-show , in which eligible young women were paraded before the bridegroom until one was finally selected. If this was

10044-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

10152-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

10260-554: Was blinded and confined to a monastery. It is unknown whether he managed to survive this event. Tarasios was reconciled with Theodore, who was made the abbot of the Monastery of Stoudios and became one of Irene's most loyal supporters. Although it is often asserted that, as monarch, Irene called herself " basileus " ( Greek : βασιλεύς ), "emperor", rather than " basilissa " ( Greek : βασίλισσα ), "empress", in fact there are only three instances where it can be proven that she used

10368-401: Was cut out and she was exiled to the island of Rhodes . Most people were probably expecting that Irene's reign would come to a similarly swift and bloody end. In 781, Irene accused the stratēgos of Sicily , Elpidius , of participating in the conspiracy involving her brother-in-law Nikephoros . The military in Sicily prevented his arrest, so Irene sent a fleet which succeeded in defeating

10476-782: Was emphasized by the coincidental rise of the Carolingian Empire in Western Europe , which rivaled Irene's Byzantium in size and power. In 773, Charlemagne invaded Italy , annexing the Kingdom of the Lombards , in order to neutralize a threat to his succession in the form of his late brother Carloman I 's wife and sons, who fled to the Lombard court in Pavia when Charlemagne seized his kingdom. He also campaigned against

10584-518: Was initially exiled to the nearby island of Prinkipo , but was suspected of plotting with Aetios, and was soon banished to Lesbos , where she supported herself by spinning wool . She died in Lesbos the following year, on 9 August 803; her remains were later moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Irene's reign represents the decline of the Isaurian dynasty. The legacy of

10692-473: Was later married to the Bulgar ruler Telerig in 776. It is unclear why and how Irene was selected as the bride for the young Leo IV. The influence of the prominent Sarantepechos family in the theme of Hellas likely played a part in the selection of Irene as the wife of the emperor's son, indicating the emperor's interest in restoring order in the Greek mainland. Especially unusual is that, while Constantine V

10800-508: Was not typical in the time of the Umayyad Caliphate . Harun proved to be a capable commander and Irene and her successor Nikephoros I struggled to effectively resist his campaigns. Irene's most notable act was the restoration of the veneration of icons (images of Christ or the saints). Upon the death of the iconoclast Patriarch Paul IV of Constantinople , Irene elevated Tarasios , one of her partisans and former secretary, to

10908-461: Was permitted, and that the true adoration ( alēthinē latreia ) was reserved for God alone. It further stated that the honor paid to the icon eventually passes over to the individual that it represents, thus, veneration of an icon could not be idolatrous as the iconoclasts believed. The iconodule position was not justified by Christological arguments (as in the Council of Hieria of 754), rather,

11016-573: Was polarizing, due to the setbacks faced by the Empire and her iconophilic stances, often attributed to her gender and the influence of her retinue. Her reign as sole ruler made her the first ever empress regnant, ruling in her own right, in Roman and Byzantine imperial history. After the death of her husband, Irene secured the throne for her family, setting herself in charge. During her regency with Constantine VI, she became very influential in government policies, largely overshadowing her son. As Constantine VI reached maturity, he began to move out from under

11124-443: Was sabotaged by agents of Irene who falsely reported an Arab retreat, prompting Constantine himself to retire. In 796, Constantine partially compensated for his previous losses against the Bulgars by ceasing to pay the tribute extracted after Marcellae and avoiding military defeat thereafter. The Balkan frontier was in general successfully stabilized by the Byzantines in this period. Despite their collaboration, rivalry remained between

11232-424: Was significant. In 797, Irene exploited the controversy to prepare the overthrow of her son. She bribed palace officers to remain neutral and encouraged monastic opposition to the marriage. In August, her agents attempted to capture Constantine as he was travelling by boat from Constantinople to his summer residence. He fled to Pylae , but Irene persuaded her supporters there to capture him. On 19 August, Constantine

11340-484: Was technically an act of adultery . Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople only offered a light penance for Constantine and Theodote, which caused monks of the monastery of Sakkoudion including Theodore the Stoudite to condemn the union and excommunicate Tarasios. Constantine closed the monastery and banished Theodore to Thessaloniki . Theodore was a prestigious and influential figure, so his opposition to Constantine

11448-491: Was then proclaimed sole ruler in November 790 with the support of the military. Constantine restored his supporters including Michael Lachanodrakon , the famed general of Constantine V, and banished Staurakios and another eunuch and adviser to Irene, Aetios , to the Armeniac Theme . He confined Irene to her palace but did not formally depose her. He began a distinct foreign policy from his mother, beginning campaigns against

11556-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

11664-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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