here occurred the
last sad tragedy of her career.

Basil, who in spite of all carousals could always keep his head,
observed how his friend Michael had thrown away the high privileges of
his station and had become an object of contempt in the eyes of all good
men. His overweening ambition to mount the throne overcame every noble
sentiment, and he plotted to assassinate the emperor and to usurp
supreme power. The tragedy occurred in the palace of the empress-mother.
Basil and his wife, Eudocia Ingerina, were invited by her to a feast at
her house, where Michael was present. An orgy ensued; Michael was
carried to his room in a state of intoxication, and Basil and his
conspirators succeeded in despatching him in his drunken sleep. Basil
mounted the throne, and was destined to found the longest dynasty in the
annals of the Empire. Theodora, bowed down with sorrows, and distressed
beyond measure at the cruel destiny of her first-born, died in the first
year of the reign of Basil I.

Theodora, because of her zeal for image worship, was eulogized as a
saint by the ecclesiastical writers of both the Western and the Eastern
Church, and is honored with a place in the Greek Calendar. Had her
devotion to her children equalled her self-sacrificing loyalty to church
affairs, she might have changed the course of Byzantine history. But,
failing in her maternal duties, her name shared the ignominy as well as
the glory of Irene, and, while not possessing the wickedness of the
latter, she must rank as a queen who in neglecting her son brought
disgrace on the Empire.

Basil I. was one of those remarkable men who after a career of infamy
are sobered by great responsibilities and perform well the part which it
was destined for them to play. But in his relations with women he had to
endure the natural outcome of his earlier licentiousness. His first
wife, whom he married at the beginning of his career, had lived but a
few years, leaving him a son, Constantine, whom he associated with him
on the throne, but who died after a lapse of ten years. Eudocia
Ingerina, whom Michael had compelled him to marry, had a son, Leo, who
succeeded Basil on the throne, but the emperor was ever haunted with the
suspicion that this lad was the son not of himself but of Michael. The
adventures of this empress and of Michael's sister, Thekla, who also
shared imperial honor, are sad proofs of the corruption of morals of the
age. With her brother's consent, Thekla