Zeno (emperor)
Zeno | |
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Zeno (.
Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded in foreign issues. His reign saw the end of the
When Odoacer deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople, he expressly acknowledged the suzerainty of Zeno over the West. The imperial government had no choice but to face the facts, and thus the new master of Italy was appointed magister militum per Italiam and received the administration of the Italic peninsula as viceroy of the Emperor, who thus became the theoretical ruler of a reunified Roman Empire.
Biography
Rise to power
Early life
Zeno's original name was Tarasis or more fully Tarasikodissa (
The Isaurians were a people who lived inland from the Mediterranean coast of
According to some scholars, in the mid-460s, the Eastern Roman Emperor, Leo I, wanted to balance the weight of the Germanic component of the army, whose leader was the Alan magister militum Aspar. He thought that Tarasis and his Isaurians could be that counterweight, and called him, with many Isaurians, to Constantinople. This interpretation, however, has been contested.[9] By the mid-460s, Arcadia and Zeno had been living at Constantinople for some time,[4] where Lallis and Longinus also lived, the latter married to a Valeria, possibly a woman of aristocratic rank.[9]
According to ancient sources, the earliest reference to Tarasis dates back to 464, when he put his hands on some letters written by Aspar's son,
In 465, Leo and Aspar quarrelled about the appointment of consuls for the following year; it was on this occasion that Tarasis' position was strengthened, as he became friend and ally of the Emperor.[11]
Son-in-law of Leo I
To make himself more acceptable to the Roman hierarchy and the population of Constantinople, Tarasis adopted the Greek name of Zeno and used it for the rest of his life. In mid-late 466, Zeno married Ariadne, elder daughter of Leo I and Verina; there is no reference to him divorcing Arcadia who evidently died prior to this. The next year their son was born, and Zeno became father of the heir apparent to the throne, as the only son of Leo I had died in his infancy; to stress his claim to the throne, the boy was called Leo.[12] Zeno, however, was not present at the birth of his son, as in 467, he participated in a military campaign against the Goths.[9][13]
Zeno, as a member of the protectores domestici, did not take part in the disastrous expedition against the
After the attack, Zeno did not return to
While living in Antioch with his family, Zeno sympathised with the
With Zeno far from Constantinople, Aspar had increased his influence by having his son
Reign
First reign and Basiliscus' revolt (475–476)
In October 473, Leo I appointed as caesar his grandson Leo II, the son of Zeno and Ariadne. On 18 January 474, Leo I died; if Leo II had not already been proclaimed co-emperor by his grandfather, he would have become augustus on that occasion. Since Leo II was seven years old (too young to rule himself) Ariadne and her mother Verina prevailed upon him to crown Zeno, his father, as co-emperor, which he did on 29 January 474.[22] When Leo II became ill and died, Zeno became sole emperor.
Zeno had to settle matters with the
Despite this success, Zeno continued to be unpopular with the people and Senate because of his barbarian origins; his right to the throne was limited to his marriage with Ariadne and his relationship to Verina, the dowager Empress. Therefore, he chose to draw support from the Isaurian component of the army, in particular, the Isaurian generals Illus and Trocundes, both brothers. However, Verina decided to overthrow her son-in-law Zeno and replace him with her lover, the ex-magister officiorum Patricius, with the help of her brother Basiliscus. The conspirators fomented riots in the capital against the Isaurian emperor; Basiliscus succeeded also in convincing Illus, Trocundes and the Ostrogothic general Theodoric Strabo to join the plot.[23]
On 9 January 475,[24] Zeno was forced to flee Constantinople to Isauria with his wife and mother, some Isaurian fellows and the Imperial treasure. Illus and Trocundes were sent to chase him, and Zeno was compelled to shut himself up in a fortress, where Illus besieged him, also capturing Zeno's brother Longinus and keeping him as a hostage.[23]
However, the conspirators quickly fell in conflict with each other. Basiliscus took the throne for himself, putting to death Verina's lover and candidate, Patricius. He also allowed the mob to kill all of the Isaurians left in Constantinople, an episode that damaged relations with the Isaurian generals Illus and Trocundes. Basiliscus appointed his nephew
In August 476, Zeno besieged Constantinople. The Senate opened the gates of the city to the Isaurian, allowing the deposed emperor to resume the throne. Basiliscus fled with his family to the baptistery of
After his restoration, Zeno fulfilled his promises, letting Armatus keep his title of magister militum praesentalis (possibly even raising him to the rank of
In 477, however, Zeno changed his mind, probably instigated by Illus, who stood to gain from the fall of Armatus. Armatus was executed, his property confiscated, and his son Basiliscus removed from power and ordained as a priest.[30][31][32]
End of the Western Empire
The western emperor
In August 475, during
Perhaps in deference to Zeno, Odoacer recognised Nepos' de jure reign in Italy until his death, ruling and even minting coins in his name, but he never allowed his return. After Nepos' assassination in 480, Odoacer invaded Dalmatia to pursue and punish the assassins (and also to take Dalmatia for himself). Zeno legitimised Odoacer's authority in Dalmatia; Odoacer recognised Zeno as sole emperor of the again unitary Empire, but increasingly started using the title of king for himself.[35]
Revolt of Marcian (479)
In 479 Marcian tried to overthrow Zeno and claim the throne for himself. With the help of his brothers
Zeno sent Marcian and his brothers to
Revolt of Illus (484–488)
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2011) |
The commanding position and popular favour of Illus rendered him an object of suspicion, and Zeno in various ways sought to rid himself of him. Also
From her prison she managed to persuade her daughter Ariadne, the wife of Zeno, to attempt to obtain her release, first from Zeno, and then from Illus, to whom the Emperor referred her. Illus refused her request. Ariadne, like her mother, attempted to assassinate Illus. Jordanes ascribes her hatred to another cause: he says that Illus had infused jealous suspicions into Zeno's mind which had led Zeno to attempt to end her life, and that her knowledge of these things stimulated her to revenge. The assassin whom she employed only wounded Illus; the assassin was taken prisoner and Zeno, who appears to have been privy to the affair, was unable to prevent his execution.
Illus—with his friend Pamprepius, Leontius and his brother Trocundes—now retired from court. They first went to Nicaea and then, on pretence of change of air and of procuring a cure for his wound, into the East where he was made magister militum. Having traversed Asia Minor, they raised the standard of revolt in 484, when Illus declared Leontius Emperor. Zeno sent an army to fight them, but Illus won, obtained possession of Papurius, released Verina, and induced her to crown Leontius at Tarsus.
In 485 Zeno sent against the rebels a fresh army, said to consist of
Affairs with the Goths (474–487)
The aggressions of the two
At the death of Leo II, Theodoric Strabo rebelled against Zeno. His support was instrumental in overthrowing Zeno and raising Basiliscus to the Byzantine throne (475), but Theodoric and Basiliscus had a falling-out, so when Zeno returned to Constantinople in 476 and defeated Basiliscus, Strabo was reported to have not defended the city.[39][40]
In 476/477, Zeno allied himself with Strabo's rival, Theoderic the Amal, and ordered him to attack Strabo. The leader of the Thracian Goths sent an embassy to the Emperor, offering peace and blaming the Moesian Theodoric. Zeno understood that this offering was hiding further conspiracies, and convinced the Senate and army to declare Strabo a public enemy.[32]
Zeno's plan was to have the two Theoderics attack each other. He sent the Amal against Strabo, who supported the revolt of
Zeno tried to divide the two Theoderics by bribing the Amal, but he refused the bribe. The Imperial army obtained some initial successes, but Zeno did not press his advantage, and allowed the Amal to move westward in Thrace, plundering territories as he went. With the Amal far away, Strabo accepted an agreement with Zeno: Strabo was to be given back his wealth, money to pay 13,000 soldiers, the command of two
After Theodoric Strabo died in 481, the future Theoderic the Great became king of the entire Ostrogoth nation and continued to be a source of trouble in the
Promulgation of the Henotikon (482)
In religious matters, Zeno is famous for his
Therefore, in 482 Zeno issued the Henotikon, a document he had developed with the support of Acacius and addressed to the factions in Egypt. The edict affirmed the
The bishop of Rome, Pope Felix III, refused to accept the document and excommunicated Acacius (484), thus beginning the Acacian schism, which lasted until 519.[44]
In 488 the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller, came to Constantinople to have his right to the Church of Cyprus confirmed. Zeno called the bishop of Cyprus, Anthemius, to answer the accusations. The bishop claimed that before his departure, he had had a vision of St. Barnabas, in which the position of the tomb of the apostle had been revealed to him. In the tomb, Anthemius had found the relics of the apostle and a copy of the Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew by Barnabas himself. Zeno received the relics and the manuscript, and in exchange he proclaimed the autonomy of the Church of Cyprus.[45]
In 489 Zeno closed the Persian
Suppressing the Samaritan revolt (484)
According to
Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted. The rebels attacked Sichem, burnt five churches built on Samaritan holy places and cut off the fingers of bishop Terebinthus, who was officiating the ceremony of
Modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signalling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.[49]
Death and succession
Zeno died on 9 April 491,
The chroniclers George Kedrenos (eleventh century) and Joannes Zonaras (twelfth century) allege that Ariadne had Zeno locked up in a tomb while he was unconscious from drinking or acute illness. She ordered passersby to ignore Zeno's cries for help after he awoke; he survived for a time by eating the flesh of his own arms, but eventually perished. This is one of the first historical mentions of the theme of the buried alive devouring their arms or hands.[53] This tale is not likely, as earlier and contemporary sources do not mention it, even though they too were hostile to his memory.[54]
In popular culture
Zeno was a player of τάβλη (tabula), a game nearly identical to modern backgammon.[55] (Τάβλη is still used to refer to backgammon in Greece.) In 480 he had a hand that was so unlucky that he wrote an epigram to record it; Agathias reproduced it half a century later and this allowed the game to be reconstructed in the 19th century. Zeno, who was red, had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of two checkers and two blots, checkers that stand alone on a point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. As in backgammon, Zeno could not move to a space occupied by two opponent (black) pieces. The red and black checkers were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all of the three results, as required by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two checkers into blots, thus exposing them to capture and ruining the game for Zeno. This is considered by some historians to be the first recorded bad beat story in human history.[55][56]
Zeno is the protagonist of a theatrical drama in Latin, called Zeno, composed c. 1641 by the Jesuit playwright Joseph Simons and performed in 1643 in Rome at the Jesuit English College.[57] An anonymous Greek drama is modelled on this Latin Zeno, belonging to the so-called Cretan Theatre. This version was written and performed at Zakynthos in 1682–83 and has Zeno buried alive and his brother Longinus executed.[58]
The play Romulus the Great (1950), by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, has Zeno as one of its characters. The plot is loosely based on history; here Zeno flees to Italy and tries to convince Romulus Augustulus to unite their forces and fight together, but his plan fails. Dürrenmatt's Zeno is an Emperor oppressed by the Byzantine ceremonial.
Notes
- ^ a b The sources call him "Tarasicodissa Rousombladadiotes", and for this reason it was thought his name was Tarasicodissa. However, it has been demonstrated that this name actually means "Tarasis, son of Kodisa, [coming from] Rusumblada", and that "Tarasis" was a common name in Isauria (R.M. Harrison, "The Emperor Zeno's Real Name", Byzantinische Zeitschrift 74 (1981) 27–28).
- ^ Rösch 1978, p. 166.
- ^ ISBN 1-4051-0856-8, p. 114.
- ^ a b c Croke 2005, pp. 160–161.
- ISBN 0-472-06612-9, p. 35.
- ^ a b Martindale, "Zenon 4", p. 1198.
- ^ Jordanes, 333; Evagrius, ii.15.
- ISBN 1-4051-0857-6, pp. 114–115.
- ^ a b c d Croke 2005, pp. 166–168.
- ^ Life of Daniel the Stylite, 55, cited in Croke 2005, p. 168.
- Candidus of Isauria's chronicle (Croke 2005, p. 161).
- ^ Croke 2005, pp. 172–173.
- ^ Croke 2005, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Croke 2005, pp. 185–186.
- ^ Croke 2005, pp. 188–190.
- Justinian Code(1.3.29).
- ^ Croke 2005, p. 194.
- ^ Croke 2005, p. 198.
- ^ Auctarium Prosperi Havniense 474.
- ^ John Malalas, Book XIV, 376.
- ISBN 9781000388305.
The Continuator's date for Leo I's death is definitely to be preferred to that of Malalas
- ^ The Auctarium Prosperi Havniense dates Leo's death and Zeno's coronation on 18 January and 29 January respectively.[19] John Malalas gives February 3 and February 9.[20] The first source is generally considered the most reliable. However, and contradictorily, most authorities use Malalas' 9 February.[21]
- ^ a b c d Williams and Friell, pp. 181–183.
- ήμέρα" ["On the ninth day of his consulship"].
- ^ a b John Malalas, Chronographia XV.3–5.
Jeffreys, Elizabeth; Jeffreys, Michael; Scott, Roger, eds. (2017) [1986]. The Chronicle of John Malalas. Byzantina Australiensia 4. Leiden [Melbourne]: Brill. pp. 209–210. ISBN 978-90-04-34460-0.
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.8
The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus. Translated Texts for Historians 33. Translated by Whitby, Michael. Liverpool University Press. 2000. pp. 142–143 & note 31. ISBN 978-0-85323-605-4.
- ^ Anonymus Valesianus, 41–44. The Anonymus Valesianus, First Part: History of Theodoric I: Chapter 9: Section 44. Loeb Classical Library 331. Translated by Henderson, Jeffrey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1939. pp. 534–535. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ Elton, Hugh (10 June 1998). "Flavius Basiliscus (AD 475–476)". De Imperatoribus Romanis. Archived from the original on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
- ISBN 0-88402-193-9, pp. 181–182).
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiae, 3.xxiv. Evagrius reports that Basiliscus, the son of Armatus, later became bishop of Cyzicus.
- ^ Suda, s.v. "Ἁρμάτιος".
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-20159-9.
- ^ a b Ralph W. Mathisen, "Julius Nepos (19/24 June 474 – [28 August 475] – 25 April/9 May/22 June 480)" Archived 4 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine, De Imperatoribus Romanis
- ^ Malchus, fragment 10, cited in Ralph W. Mathisen, "Romulus Augustulus (475–476 A.D.) – Two Views" Archived 4 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine, De Imperatoribus Romanis.
- ^ Williams and Friell, p. 187.
- ^ a b John Bagnall Bury, "X.2 The Revolts of Marcian and Illus (A.D. 479–488)", in History of the Later Roman Empire, Dover Books [1923], 1958. pp. 395, 397–398.
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica, 3.26.
- ^ William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, volume 2, p. 570.
- ^ Martindale 1980, pp. 1073–1074
- ISBN 978-0-631-20932-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-06983-1.
- ISBN 1-4051-0856-8, pp. 118–119
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica III. 14.
- ISBN 0-299-80925-0, pp. 107–109.
- ISBN 0-521-83445-7, p. 400.
- ISBN 1-59333-059-6, p. 95.
- ^ Malalas, 15.
- ^ Procopius, 5.7.
- ISBN 3-16-145237-2, pp. 72–73.
- ^ John Malalas Book XV, 391. "On 9th Xanthikos of the 14th indiction."
- ^ Malalas, 391.1–4. Cited in Whitby, ibidem.
- ^ Evagrius Scholasticus, 3.29.
- ^ The passages from Kedrenos and Zonaras are quoted by Michael Whitby, The ecclesiastical history of Evagrius Scholasticus , Liverpool University Press, 2000, p. 164. The theme of the person buried alive, exhumed and found dead after having devoured his hands, is repeated later for other characters, such as the scholastic Duns Scotus or others less known. See also Claudio Milanesi, Apparent death, imperfect death. Medicine and mentalities in the 18th century, Paris, Payot, 1991, p. 16–17.
- .
- ^ a b c Austin, Roland G. "Zeno's Game of τάβλη", The Journal of Hellenic Studies 54:2, 1934. pp 202–205.
- ISBN 0-486-23855-5, pp. 33–35.
- ISBN 90-04-08094-5, pp. 177–178.
- ISBN 0-313-30813-6, p. 419.
Bibliography
Primary sources
The events of Zeno's reign are quite obscure; only one continuous account of his reign has been preserved, by Evagrius Scholasticus, in his Historia Ecclesiastica (Chapter 3). Other sources are:
- Life of Daniel the Stylite
- Suda
- Cedrenus, A concise history of the world
- Malchus, Bizantiaka
- John Malalas, Chronographia
- Procopius of Caesarea, De Aedificiis
- Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle
- Joannes Zonaras, Epitome Historiarum
Secondary sources
For a full-length biography of the emperor, see:
- Peter Crawford (2019). Roman Emperor Zeno. The Perils of Power Politics in Fifth-Century Constantinople.
For a scholarly study of Zeno's religious policy, see:
- Rafał Kosiński (2010). The Emperor Zeno: Religion and Politics (Byzantina et slavica cracoviensia 6), Cracow.
Further studies of his religious policy are:
- Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- ISBN 978-0-88-141056-3.
For a discussion of recent scholarship on the life of Zeno until Aspar's death, see:
- Brian Croke (2005). "Dynasty and Ethnicity: Emperor Leo and the Eclipse of Aspar", Chiron 35, 147–203.
An account of the reign of Zeno and his successors after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, see:
- Stephen Williams & J.G.P. Friell (1999). The Rome that did not fall: the survival of the East in the fifth century, CRC Press. ISBN 0-203-98231-2.
For Zeno's accession, see:
- McEvoy, M. A. (2019). 'Leo II, Zeno, and the transfer of power from a son to his father in AD 474', in J.-W. Drijvers and N. Lenski (eds). The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation. Edipuglia.
- Rösch, Gerhard (1978). Onoma Basileias: Studien zum offiziellen Gebrauch der Kaisertitel in spätantiker und frühbyzantinischer Zeit. Byzantina et Neograeca Vindobonensia (in German). Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-7001-0260-1.