The name of Eirene 4 is lost from the text of Theophanes Continuatus, but is preserved in Scylitzes; cf. C. Mango, "The Liquidation of Iconoclasm and the Patriarch Photios", in Iconoclasm, ed. A. Bryer and J. Herrin (Birmingham, 1977), p. 10. Sister of Theodora 2 (and therefore sister-in-law of the emperor Theophilos 5), Kalomaria 1 and Sophia 1, and of Petronas 5 and Bardas 5: Theoph. Cont. IV 22 (p. 175), Scyl., p. 98. All the sisters were handsome and virtuous: Scyl., p. 98 (αἱ πάσαι καλαὶ καὶ ἀγαθαὶ τὰς ὄψεις καὶ ἀρετῆς ἐλάσασαι πρὸς ἀκρωρείαν). She probably married the brother of Eirene 6 (mother of the future patriarch Photios 1) and bore two sons, Stephanos 76 and Bardas 13; after her husband's death she chose to remain a widow and lived a very austere and plain life in the palace with her sister (presumably Theodora 2), performing notable acts of charity among persons held in the prisons of the Chalke, the Praitorion and the Noumera: Theoph. Cont. IV 22 (p. 175). This view depends on whether or not her name has fallen from the text of Theophanes Continuatus on p. 175, line 4, where the editors have restored it; if not, then the mother of Stephanos 76 and Bardas 13 was Kalomaria 1 and their father, and the brother of Eirene 6, was Arsaber 6, and it was Kalomaria 1 who visited the prisons. In Scylitzes, which apparently used the same source as Theophanes Continuatus, Eirene is said to have married Sergios the patrikios and brother of Photios 1; this is certainly wrong but probably represents a garbled version of the account in Theophanes Continuatus; see further Eirene 6. Eirene's father was Marinos 10, and her mother was Theoktiste 1. Her husband was probably Sergios the patrikios; see Sergios 44.

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