35. Byzantium Emerging

Marcian defied Attila and the Huns left Constantinople alone as they went to ravage the Western empire. But his freedom was largely illusory, since he was as much the creature of his Teutonic patrician Aspar as was Majorian of Ricimer in Ravenna.

This ivory disk celebrates the Patrician Flavius Aspar’s pre-eminent position in the Byzantine government with the inscription:
FL ARDABUR ASPAR VIRINIUSTRIS COM.ET.MAG.MILITUM ET CONSUL ORDINARIUS

Leo's wife Aelia Verina continued to have a profound effect on the affairs of the Eastern empire after her husband's death, both in concert with and against her brother Basiliscus.

Basiliscus (right) – an ineffective and clumsy ruler – was usually at loggerheads with his far more able but meddlesome sister, the empress-dowager Aelia Verina (coin right below)

Above: after a seven-month “sabbatical,” Zeno returned to the throne in the summer of 477, only to find himself entangled in the political machinations of his mother-in-law Aelia Verina.

Leontius (coin right) who is thought to be Isaurian in origin, managed to mint coins as a usurping Augustus during the 12 days he ruled in Antioch, before being ousted by Zeno’s forces and besieged for four years in the Isaurian fortress of Papirius.

Anastasius brought common sense to the government.