Aetios (eunuch)

Aetios or Aetius (Greek: Ἀέτιος) was a Byzantine eunuch official and one of the most trusted advisers of Byzantine empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802). After Irene's rise to sole rule, Aetios developed an intense rivalry with her eunuch chief minister Staurakios. After Staurakios's death, Aetios became the leading man in the state. He plotted to usurp the throne for his brother, Leo, but lost power when Irene was deposed in 802.

Aetios first appears in 790, when he was a protospatharios and a confidant of Irene, then the Byzantine empress-mother and regent for her young son, Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780–797). In the autumn of that year, Irene tried to sideline her son and assume full rule over the Byzantine Empire. This, however, caused a mutiny by the army in favour of the young emperor. Constantine was installed as sole ruler, Irene confined to a palace in Constantinople, and her eunuch protégés, including Aetios, were exiled.

Aetios was restored to his position, along with the other eunuchs, when Irene was recalled to power as a co-ruler in 792. In August 797, Irene and her powerful eunuch minister Staurakios succeeded in overthrowing and blinding (and possibly also killing) Constantine, thus assuming governance of the state. However, the uncles of the deposed emperor, the surviving younger sons of Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775), who had in the past been involved in plots against Irene, were still a potential threat. They were persuaded by sympathizers to seek refuge in the cathedral of Hagia Sophia, where the capital's populace would supposedly rally to them and declare one of them as emperor. No such support materialized; instead, Aetios managed to achieve their surrender, and they were exiled to Irene's home town of Athens.

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