Zeno (Emperor)

  • Zeno (474-491 CE) was a Roman Emperor of the East who also played Backgammon, known as ‘Tabula’.
  • He was Emperor during the End of the Western Empire. He formally abolished the Western Roman Empire in 480 CE and claimed to rule over both parts.

1. BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

  • NAME:
  • ZENO’S DATES OF REIGN AS EMPEROR:
    • August 476 CE to 9 April 491 CE.
    • The Emperor in the West was Julius Nepos (474-480 CE)
    • The Last Emperor in the West was Romulus Augustus (475-476 CE)
  • ZENO’S DATE OF BIRTH AND DEATH:
    • Born in c. 425 CE. Died 9 April 491 CE. Aged 65.
  • PLACE OF BIRTH AND DEATH:
  • ZENO’S PREDECESSOR:
  • ZENO’S SUCCESSOR:
  • HEIR TO THE THRONE BECAUSE:
    • He was married to the Ariadne, daughter of Leo I and promoted by Leo I as part of the Leonid Dynasty.
    • When his son, the Emperor Leo II died at the age of five, the Senate made him Emperor.
  • WIVES AND CHILDREN:
    • Arcadia
    • Ariadne
      • Leo II (died aged 5 in 474 CE)
  • DIED PEACEFULLY OR ASSASSINATED:
    • Zeno died either from Dysentery or Epilepsy.
  • WHERE BURIED:
    • Unknown.
  • ZENO WAS FAMOUS BECAUSE:
    • After the death of the last Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos in 480 CE, Zeno declared himself sole Emperor over the whole Roman Empire.
    • Most Historians give the end of the Western Empire as 476 CE, with the death of Romulus Augustus who had succeeded Julius Nepos in 475 CE.
    • However, Zeno thought his appointment unconstitutional and favoured Julius Nepos who died in 480 CE.
    • Zeno played Backgammon, known then as ‘Tabula’.
  • EVENTS:
    • Fall of the Western Empire (474 CE).

2. BRIEF SYNOPSIS

Rise of Zeno

  • Zeno was an Issaurian, who had changed his name from Tarasis. He was the father of Leo II.
  • The Issaurians lived in the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia. They were Orthodox Christians and not Arians.
  • Leo I had promoted Zeno to Consul, then Magister Militum and then married him to his daughter Ariadne. Their son, Leo II, became the Heir to Leo I in the absence of his own male child who had died.
  • Despite being invited into the Leonid Dynasty, Zeno was unpopular with the Byzantine Aristocracy, who considered the Issaurians to be Barbarians.

Usurpation of Basiliscus (475-6 CE)

  • Zeno (Emperor) was forced to flee the capital in a Plot organised by Verina, sister of Basiliscus and wife of Leo I.
  • Basiliscus became Emperor and it was 20 months before Zeno (Emperor) was able to oust him.
  • Basiliscus organised a mob to massacre the Issaurians living in Constantinople.
  • He sent an army to defeat Zeno (Emperor), but Zeno bribed the Generals who then joined him in the siege of Constantinople.
  • The Senate opened the Gates, and Basiliscus and his wife and child were taken prisoner and executed, being left to die in a cistern without food or water.

End of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE)

  • Leo I had refused to accept Glycerius as Emperor of the West in 473 CE. Instead he promoted Julius Nepos who was unable to travel to Italy until 474 CE.
  • Zeno supported Julius Nepos who arrived in  Ravenna and deposed Glycerius without a struggle. The Senate proclaimed him as Emperor in June 474 CE.
  • But while Zeno was usurped by Basiliscus, the Magister Militum in the West, Orestes, deposed Julius Nepos and proclaimed his own son, Romulus Augustus as Emperor.
  • Odoacer, the Commander of the German Guards in Italy, then deposed Orestes and his son, Romulus Augustus.
  • When Zeno deposed Basiliscus, the Roman Senate in Italy sent him a request to return to being the Emperor of both East and West and promote Odoacer as Governor of Italy. Julius Nepos simultaneously sent him a request to send him an army and reinstate him as Emperor of the West.
  • Zeno asked the Roman Senate to accept Julius Nepos as Emperor, but he failed to send Nepos an Army.
  • When Julius Nepos was assassinated in 480 CE, Zeno officially announced the End of the Western Empire and himself as Ruler of a reunited Roman Empire. Odoacer recognised Zeno as Emperor of the reunited Empire, but also proclaimed himself ‘King of Italy’.

Revolts

  • In 479 CE Zeno narrowly avoided a coup in Constantinople by his brother-in-law Marcian.
  • Then between 484-488 CE, Zeno banished Verina, widow of Leo I, to the Fort of Papurius, after she had attempted to assassinate Illus.
  • In 484 CE, Illus retired from Constantinople, became Magister Militum in the East and proclaimed Leontius as Emperor. Zeno sent an army to defeat Illus but it was defeated, and Illus occupied the Fort of Papurius, and releasing Verina who willingly crowned Leontius as Emperor.
  • It took a siege of four years to capture the Fort of Papurius, and when it fell, Illus and Leontius were beheaded.

The Goths

  • The East had been threatened since 472 E, by two Ostrogothic Commanders, both called Theodoric:
    • Theodoric the Amal, Head of the Moesian Ostrogoths.
    • Theodoric Strabo, head of the Thracian Ostrogoths.
  • Zeno successfully played them off against each other.
  • Theodoric Strabo had brought Basiliscus to power, but when he became unpopular, he had not defended Constantinople upon Zeno’s return.
  • When Theodoric Strabo died in 481 CE, Theodoric the Amal became Leader of a united Ostrogothic Nation and Army.
  • In 484 CE, Zeno made Theodoric the Amal, now known as Theodoric the Great, Magister Militum and Consul of the Eastern Empire.
  • Zeno sent Theodoric the Great to fight the Revolt of Issus in the East, but when the Fortress of Papurius fell in 488 CE, Theodoric returned and converged on Constantinople. He was bought off with gold and a Treaty and persuaded to go and invade Italy in 489 CE to fight Odoacer instead.
  • The War between Theodoric the Great and Odoacer lasted from 489 CE until 493 CE when Theodoric took over Italy.
  • After 488 CE, the Eastern Empire was therefore free from the Germanic threat.

Edict of Henotikon (482 CE)

  • Meaning ‘The Act of Union’. This was an attempt to reconcile the dispute between Monophysitism and Dyophysitism.
  • Prepared by Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Nicene Creed was reaffirmed, excluding the conclusions of the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE).
  • In 484 CE, Pope Felix III in Rome, excommunicated Acacius, which resulted in the Acacian Schism (484-519 CE).
  • In 488 CE, Zeno gave the Church of Cyprus to the Patriarch of Antioch.
  • In 489 CE Zeno closed the Persian School at Edessa, which followed Nestorianism, and the Nestorian Christians all emigrated to Persia.

Death

  • Zeno died of Dysentery or Epilepsy, and with no living sons to inherit, his wife Ariadne proclaimed a Court favourite, Anastasius I, as Emperor.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • CLASSICAL SOURCES:
    • Evagrius Scholasticus: Ecclesiastical History (431-593 CE)
    • Jordanes
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