CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE EASTERN EMPIREOn the death of Valentinian III in 455, the intervention of the eastern
emperor was no longer sought, but the idea of an eastern intervention was
not altogether lost, and in 467 Leo helped to elevate Anthemius, the son-
in-law of Marcian. This involved an unequal contest with a rival candidate,
Olybrius, who was married to Valentinian III’s other daughter Placidia and
was being promoted by the Vandal king. The combination of circumstances
in Italy and the growing power of barbarian individuals and groups now made
such interventions by the eastern emperor less and less relevant. Even so,
certain aristocratic families in the west, especially in Italy, remained wealthy
and important in the sixth century during Ostrogothic rule, and their voice
continued to be heard in Constantinople. For this reason, too, the balance
struck in Ostrogothic Italy between Goths and Romans had to be delicately
maintained. We shall return to this issue below, and when considering Justini-
an’s attempt to reconquer Italy in the sixth century (Chapter 5).
The barbarian question in the eastThe immediate danger to Constantinople and the east in 399–400 had been
averted, but the barbarian danger to Constantinople was not yet solved. Leo I
(457–74) came to the throne as a member of the staff of a powerful Alan, Aspar,
the son of Ardaburius, and Aspar seems to have aspired to the same kind of
infl uence exerted by comparable barbarian generals in the west. Determined
that this should not happen, Leo tried to counteract the German infl uence by
recruiting heavily for the army among the Isaurians, a mountain people living
in Asia Minor. The future emperor Zeno (then called Tarasicodissa) was their
chief and married Leo’s daughter Ariadne. Though Leo had to make conces-
sions to Aspar by marrying him to another of his daughters, the fact that
Aspar was Arian probably helped Leo to take the next step, that of removing
Aspar and his father by having them murdered (471). But the promotion of
Isaurians also had problems. Contemporary writers are very hostile to them,
and refer to Leo himself as ‘the Butcher’.^47 Moreover, Zeno was deserted by
some of the Isaurians, who supported Basiliscus, the brother of his mother-
in-law, the Empress Verina, in a successful coup (475); he therefore fl ed back
to the wild mountains. Luckily for Zeno, Basiliscus’ Miaphysitism so alienated
the people of Constantinople that Zeno was encouraged to stage a return and
have him executed. But Zeno’s problems continued, and Verina’s support-
ers, especially her son-in-law Marcian and his brother, marched against him.
This too was unsuccessful, but Zeno had to face yet another threat from his
fellow-Isaurian, the powerful general Illus, which turned into a real war
lasting several years, during which Illus proclaimed Marcian emperor and
tried to get help from Odoacer in Italy (Chapter 2). Marcian not seeming
to Verina to be the best candidate, Leontius was proclaimed in his stead,
and crowned by the empress (484). In this context too Zeno was victorious,
though the remnants of Illus’ party held out in the mountains for another
four years. One can imagine the ferment created by such a prolonged period