Flavius Zeno (c. 425–491), original name Tarasicodissa or Trascalissaeus, Eastern Roman Emperor (February 9 474
- April 9 491) was one of the more prominent of the early
Byzantine emperors. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his
reign which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues. He presided over the official end of the Roman Empire in the west under Julius Nepos and
Romulus Augustus, while at the same time contributing much to stabilizing the empire in
the east.
Life
Military career
Tarasicodissa, as he was known as a young man, was an Isaurian, a people who lived on the
Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, in what is now Antalya. The Isaurians, like most
borderland tribes, were looked upon as barbarians by the Romans even though they had been
Roman citizens for more than two centuries. Still, a fortuitous turn of events ultimately placed Tarasicodissa on the throne in
Constantinople.
Well-known as a warrior, Tarasicodissa caught the eye of the Emperor Leo I in the
mid-460s, when Leo was searching for alternatives to using increasingly unreliable Germanic and Alan mercenaries in his army. In 466, Tarasicodissa exposed
the treachery of Ardabur, the son of the Alans eastern magister militum Aspar and made himself even more indispensable. By
468, when Leo's incompetent (and perhaps traitorous) generals led the Byzantine fleet to disaster in a campaign against the
Vandals, Tarasicodissa was considered Leo's best general. While on a campaign in
Thrace he narrowly escaped assassination instigated by Aspar. On Tarasicodissa's return to the
capital, Aspar was killed on Leo's orders and Tarasicodissa became magister militum in his own right.
To make himself more acceptable to the Roman hierarchy and the native Greek population of
Constantinople, Tarasicodissa adopted the Greek name of Zeno and used it for the rest of his life after his marriage to Leo's
daughter Ariadne in 468. Although designed by Leo to secure Isaurian support against the aforementioned ambitious minister Aspar,
this political arrangement brought them a son, who was to become the emperor Leo II
upon the death of his grandfather in 474.
In the meantime, Zeno continued to lead the eastern armies with a great deal of success, most notably in expelling the Vandals
from Epirus, which they invaded in 469 as part of King Geiseric's revenge for being attacked a year earlier. He also led troops against incursions by the
Huns and Gepids south of the Danube
River. Since Leo II was too young to rule himself, Ariadne and her mother Verina prevailed
upon Leo to crown Zeno as co-emperor, which he did on February 9, 474. When Leo became ill and died on November 17, Zeno became sole emperor.
Reign
Zeno continued to be unpopular with the people and senate because of his "foreign" origins. A revolt fomented by Verina in
favour of her brother Basiliscus in January of 475 and the antipathy to his Isaurian soldiers
and administrators in Constantinople forced him to flee the capital for the city of Antioch.
Zeno was compelled to shut himself up in a fortress and spent the next 20 months raising an army, largely made up of fellow
Isaurians, and marched on Constantinople in August
476. The growing misgovernment and unpopularity of Basiliscus ultimately enabled Zeno to
re-enter Constantinople unopposed in 476 after an army led by the general
Illus defected to Zeno. His rival was banished to Phrygia, where
he soon afterwards died.
This
solidus was minted by
Odoacer in name of Zeno. The
king of the
Heruli ruled Italy under the formal patronage of the Eastern Emperor.
Restored to rule of the entire empire, Zeno was within two months forced to make a momentous decision when Julius Nepos died in 480, Odoacer
ceremoniously sent the imperial regalia by sea back to Constantinople, and asked for Zeno's recognition as a patrician officer of
Zeno's court, and to name a new emperor in the West. Zeno granted this, but did not appoint a new Emperor and thus in theory
became the first emperor of a united Roman Empire since 395. In reality, he all but wrote off the west until several years later,
when Odoacer began to violate the terms of his agreement with Zeno.
At the same time, Zeno sent a mission to Carthage with the intent of making a permanent
peace settlement with Geiseric, who was still making constant raids on eastern cities and
merchant shipping. By recognizing Geiseric as an independent king and with the full extent of his conquests, Zeno was able to
hammer out a peace which ended the Vandal attacks in the east, brought freedom of religion to the Catholics under Vandal rule, and lasted for more than 50 years.
Since 472 the aggressions of the two Ostrogoth leaders, Theodoric the Great, son of Theodemir, and Theodoric Strabo, had been a constant source of danger. Although Zeno at times contrived to play them
off against each other, they in turn were able to profit by his dynastic rivalries. It was only by offering them pay and high
command that he kept them from attacking Constantinople itself.
Zeno survived another revolt in 478, when his mother-in-law Verina attempted to kill Illus for
turning against Basiliscus, her brother. The revolt was led by her son-in-law
Marcian and the Ostrogoth warlord Theodoric Strabo, but
Illus again proved his loyalty to Zeno by quashing the revolt. However, Illus and Zeno had a falling out by 484, and once again
Zeno had to put down a bloody revolt in the east.
After Theodoric Strabo died in 481, the future Theodoric became king of the entire Ostrogoth nation and began to be a source
of trouble in the Balkan peninsula. Zeno got rid of the problem in 487 by inducing him to invade
Italy to fight Odoacer who allegedly supported usperes Leontius and establish his new kingdom there. This all but eliminated the
German presence in the east.
Zeno died on April 9, 491, after ruling for 17 years and 2 months. Because he and Ariadne had
no other children, his widow chose a favoured member of the imperial court, Anastasius, to succeed him.
Opinions on Zeno
Zeno is described as a lax and indolent ruler, but he seems to have husbanded the resources of the empire so as to leave it
appreciably stronger at his death.
In ecclesiastical history, Zeno is associated with the Henoticon or "instrument of
union", promulgated by him and signed by all the Eastern bishops, with the design of solving the monophysite controversy.
Trivia
A composition of Agathias of Myrine describes Zeno playing tabula, a sort of backgammon.[1]
References
- ^ Austin, Roland G. "Zeno's Game of τάβλη", The
Journal of Hellenic Studies 54:2, 1934. pp 202-205.
External links
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