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Leo I (emperor)

Leo I (Greek: Λέων, translit. Leōn; c. 401 – 18 January 474), also known as "the Thracian" (Latin: Thrax; Greek: ο Θραξ),[b] was Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474. He was a native of Dacia Aureliana near historic Thrace. He is sometimes surnamed with the epithet "the Great" (Latin: Magnus; Greek: ὁ Μέγας), probably to distinguish him from his young grandson and co-augustus Leo II (Greek: ὁ Μικρός, translit. ho Mikrós, lit. "the Small").[c]

Leo I
Portrait of Leo at the Louvre
Roman emperor of the East
Reign7 February 457 – 18 January 474
Coronation7 February 457
PredecessorMarcian
SuccessorLeo II
Western
emperors
Majorian (457–461)
Severus III (461–465)
Anthemius (467–472)
Olybrius (472)
Glycerius (473–474)
Bornc. 401
Dacia Aureliana
Died18 January 474 (aged 73)[1]
Constantinople
(now Istanbul, Turkey)
SpouseVerina
IssueAriadne, Leontia, unnamed son
Names
Leo[a]
DynastyLeonid

Leo the Great
16th cent. Russian Icon depecting St. Leo's enshrinement of the Robe of the Theotokos in Sts. Peter and Mark church, Blachernae
Holy and Right-Believing Emperor of the Romans
Venerated inEastern Orthodoxy
Feast20 January
AttributesImperial attire

Ruling the Eastern Empire for nearly 20 years, Leo proved to be a capable ruler. He oversaw many ambitious political and military plans, aimed mostly at aiding the faltering Western Roman Empire and recovering its former territories. He is notable for being the first Eastern Emperor to legislate in Koine Greek rather than Late Latin.[6] He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 20 January.[7][8]

Reign

 
The Roman Empire in 460 during the reign of Leo

He was born in Thracia or in Dacia Aureliana province in the year 401 to a Thraco-Roman family.[9] His Dacian origin[10] is mentioned by Candidus Isaurus,[11][12] while John Malalas believes that he was of Bessian stock.[11][13] He served in the Roman army, rising to the rank of comes rei militaris. Leo was the last of a series of emperors placed on the throne by Aspar, the Alan serving as commander-in-chief of the army, who thought Leo would be an easy puppet ruler. Instead, Leo became more and more independent from Aspar, causing tension that would culminate in Aspar's assassination.[4]

Leo's coronation as emperor on 7 February 457,[14] was the first to add a Christian element to the traditional Roman procedure, having been performed by the Patriarch of Constantinople,[15] a fact which symbolized the transformation of Roman imperial traditions into medieval and Christian ones. This Christian coronation ritual was later imitated by courts all over Europe.[16]

Leo I made an alliance with the Isaurians and was thus able to eliminate Aspar. The price of the alliance was the marriage of Leo's daughter to Tarasicodissa, leader of the Isaurians, who, as Zeno, became emperor in 474.[4] In 469, Aspar attempted to assassinate Zeno[17] and very nearly succeeded. Finally, in 471, Aspar's son Ardabur was implicated in a plot against Leo but was killed by palace eunuchs acting on Leo's orders.[18]

Leo sometimes overestimated his abilities and made mistakes that threatened the internal order of the Empire. The Balkans were ravaged by the Ostrogoths, after a disagreement between the Emperor and the young chief Theodoric the Great, who had been raised at Leo's court in Constantinople, where he was steeped in Roman government and military tactics. There were also some raids by the Huns. However, these attackers were unable to take Constantinople thanks to the walls, which had been rebuilt and reinforced in the reign of Theodosius II and against which they possessed no suitable siege engines.[clarification needed]

Leo's reign was also noteworthy for his influence in the Western Roman Empire, marked by his appointment of Anthemius as Western Roman emperor in 467. He attempted to build on this political achievement with an expedition against the Vandals in 468, which was defeated due to the arrogance of Leo's brother-in-law Basiliscus. This disaster drained the Empire of men and money. Procopius estimated the costs of the expedition to be 130,000 pounds of gold; John the Lydian estimated the costs to be 65,000 pounds of gold and 750,000 pounds of silver.[19] The expedition consisted of 1,113 ships carrying 100,000 men. The resulting battle heavely damaged the imperial treasury, partly of the treachery of Basiliscus, his wife's brother.[5]

Leo died of dysentery at the age of 73 on 18 January 474.[20][21][22]

Marriage and children

Leo and Verina had three children. Their eldest daughter Ariadne was born prior to the death of Marcian (reigned 450 – 457).[23] Ariadne had a younger sister, Leontia. Leontia was first betrothed to Patricius, a son of Aspar, but their engagement was probably annulled when Aspar and another of his sons, Ardabur, were assassinated in 471.[citation needed] Leontia then married Marcian, a son of Emperor Anthemius and Marcia Euphemia. The couple led a failed revolt against Zeno in 478–479. They were exiled to Isauria following their defeat.[24]

An unknown son was born in 463. He died five months following his birth. The only sources about him are a horoscope by Rhetorius and a hagiography of Daniel the Stylite.[24] The Georgian Chronicle, a 13th-century compilation drawing from earlier sources, reports a marriage of Vakhtang I of Iberia to Princess Helena of Byzantium, identifying her as a daughter of the predecessor of Zeno.[25] This predecessor was probably Leo I, the tale attributing a third daughter to Leo. Cyril Toumanoff identified two children of this marriage: Mithridates of Iberia; and Leo of Iberia. This younger Leo was father of Guaram I of Iberia. The accuracy of the descent is unknown.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Leo's full name is sometime given as "Flavius Valerius Leo",[2][3] but this is not corroborated by either the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire[1] nor the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.[4]
  2. ^ Despite the regular use of the nickname "Thrax" by modern sources,[5] this was not used by contemporary writers. Ancient sources rather call him "the Butcher" (Latin: Macellus; Greek: Μακέλλης), referencing the murder of Aspar and his son.[1][4]
  3. ^ Bury 1958, Chapter X: the reign of Leo I, p. 323, note 1. "After the coronation of the child the two Leos would be distinguished as Λέων ὁ Μέγας and Λέων ὁ Μικρός, and this I believe, must be the origin of the designation of Leo as "the Great"; just as reversely Theodosius II. was called "the Small," because in his infancy he had been known as ὁ μικρός βασιλεύς to distinguish him from Arcadius. Leo never did anything which could conceivably earn him the title of Great in the sense in which it was bestowed by posterity on Alexander or Constantine."

References

  1. ^ a b c PLRE 2 p. 664
  2. ^ Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy A. (1994). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 9780816074822.
  3. ^ Crawford, Peter (2019). Roman Emperor Zeno. Pen and Sword History. p. 45. ISBN 9781473859272.
  4. ^ a b c d ODB, pp. 1206–1207
  5. ^ a b Leo I. Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. ^ The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, Penguin Books Ltd. 2009, ISBN 978-0-670-02098-0 (page 90)
  7. ^ Great Synaxaristes (in Greek): Ὁ Ἅγιος Λέων Μακέλλης ὁ Μέγας [Saint Leo Makelles the Great]. 20 Ιανουαρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.
  8. ^ Mother of God of the "Life-Giving Spring". Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Retrieved: 27 October 2012.
  9. ^ Friell 1998, pp. 170, 261.
  10. ^ Friell 1998, pp. 170.
  11. ^ a b Bury 1958, p. 315.
  12. ^ Candidus, F.H.G. IV, p.135
  13. ^ John Malalas, XIV, p. 369
  14. ^ Bury 1958.
  15. ^ Edward Gibbon (1952) [1789]. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1. Chapter XXXVI. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 582. Bibl. Theophanes, p. 95 [ed. Par.; tom. i p. 170, ed. Bonn].
  16. ^ Herrin, Judith (2007). Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Penguin. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-0713999976.
  17. ^ Norwich, John Julius (1989), Byzantium: The Early Centuries. pg 167
  18. ^ . Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  19. ^ Bury 1958, p. 337.
  20. ^ Auctarium Prosperi Havniense 474. "Leo maior defunctus est XV k. Febr."
  21. ^ John Malalas Book XIV, 46. "On the following 3rd February the emperor Leo the Elder was stricken with illness and died of dysentery at the age of 73."
  22. ^ Croke, Brian (2021). Roman Emperors in Context. Routledge. pp. 150–151. ISBN 9781000388305. The correct date must be 18 January [...] Theophanes says merely 'January'. As corroboration for 18 January, Cyril of Scythopolis notes that Euthymius died on 20 January 473 and that the emperor Leo I died 'at the end of the first year after the death of the great Euthymius'.
  23. ^ Hugh Elton, "Leo I (457–474 A.D.)"
  24. ^ a b Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2
  25. ^ "Georgian Chronicle", Chapters 13–14. Translation by Robert Bedrosian (1991)

Sources

External links

  •   Media related to Flavius Valerius Leo at Wikimedia Commons
Leo I (emperor)
Born: 400 / 401 Died: 18 January 474
Regnal titles
Preceded by Eastern Roman emperor
457–474
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Roman consul
458
with Majorian Augustus
Succeeded by
Preceded by Roman consul
462
with Libius Severus Augustus
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Hermenericus
Basiliscus
Roman consul
466
with Tatianus (Gallia)
Succeeded by
Preceded by Roman consul
471
with Caelius Aconius Probianus
Succeeded by
Preceded by Roman consul
473
Succeeded by

emperor, greek, Λέων, translit, leōn, january, also, known, thracian, latin, thrax, greek, Θραξ, eastern, roman, emperor, from, native, dacia, aureliana, near, historic, thrace, sometimes, surnamed, with, epithet, great, latin, magnus, greek, Μέγας, probably, . Leo I Greek Lewn translit Leōn c 401 18 January 474 also known as the Thracian Latin Thrax Greek o 8ra3 b was Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474 He was a native of Dacia Aureliana near historic Thrace He is sometimes surnamed with the epithet the Great Latin Magnus Greek ὁ Megas probably to distinguish him from his young grandson and co augustus Leo II Greek ὁ Mikros translit ho Mikros lit the Small c Leo IPortrait of Leo at the LouvreRoman emperor of the EastReign7 February 457 18 January 474Coronation7 February 457PredecessorMarcianSuccessorLeo IIWesternemperorsMajorian 457 461 Severus III 461 465 Anthemius 467 472 Olybrius 472 Glycerius 473 474 Bornc 401Dacia AurelianaDied18 January 474 aged 73 1 Constantinople now Istanbul Turkey SpouseVerinaIssueAriadne Leontia unnamed sonNamesLeo a DynastyLeonidSaintLeo the Great16th cent Russian Icon depecting St Leo s enshrinement of the Robe of the Theotokos in Sts Peter and Mark church BlachernaeHoly and Right Believing Emperor of the RomansVenerated inEastern OrthodoxyFeast20 JanuaryAttributesImperial attireRuling the Eastern Empire for nearly 20 years Leo proved to be a capable ruler He oversaw many ambitious political and military plans aimed mostly at aiding the faltering Western Roman Empire and recovering its former territories He is notable for being the first Eastern Emperor to legislate in Koine Greek rather than Late Latin 6 He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church with his feast day on 20 January 7 8 Contents 1 Reign 2 Marriage and children 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 Sources 7 External linksReign Edit The Roman Empire in 460 during the reign of Leo He was born in Thracia or in Dacia Aureliana province in the year 401 to a Thraco Roman family 9 His Dacian origin 10 is mentioned by Candidus Isaurus 11 12 while John Malalas believes that he was of Bessian stock 11 13 He served in the Roman army rising to the rank of comes rei militaris Leo was the last of a series of emperors placed on the throne by Aspar the Alan serving as commander in chief of the army who thought Leo would be an easy puppet ruler Instead Leo became more and more independent from Aspar causing tension that would culminate in Aspar s assassination 4 Leo s coronation as emperor on 7 February 457 14 was the first to add a Christian element to the traditional Roman procedure having been performed by the Patriarch of Constantinople 15 a fact which symbolized the transformation of Roman imperial traditions into medieval and Christian ones This Christian coronation ritual was later imitated by courts all over Europe 16 Leo I made an alliance with the Isaurians and was thus able to eliminate Aspar The price of the alliance was the marriage of Leo s daughter to Tarasicodissa leader of the Isaurians who as Zeno became emperor in 474 4 In 469 Aspar attempted to assassinate Zeno 17 and very nearly succeeded Finally in 471 Aspar s son Ardabur was implicated in a plot against Leo but was killed by palace eunuchs acting on Leo s orders 18 Leo sometimes overestimated his abilities and made mistakes that threatened the internal order of the Empire The Balkans were ravaged by the Ostrogoths after a disagreement between the Emperor and the young chief Theodoric the Great who had been raised at Leo s court in Constantinople where he was steeped in Roman government and military tactics There were also some raids by the Huns However these attackers were unable to take Constantinople thanks to the walls which had been rebuilt and reinforced in the reign of Theodosius II and against which they possessed no suitable siege engines clarification needed Leo s reign was also noteworthy for his influence in the Western Roman Empire marked by his appointment of Anthemius as Western Roman emperor in 467 He attempted to build on this political achievement with an expedition against the Vandals in 468 which was defeated due to the arrogance of Leo s brother in law Basiliscus This disaster drained the Empire of men and money Procopius estimated the costs of the expedition to be 130 000 pounds of gold John the Lydian estimated the costs to be 65 000 pounds of gold and 750 000 pounds of silver 19 The expedition consisted of 1 113 ships carrying 100 000 men The resulting battle heavely damaged the imperial treasury partly of the treachery of Basiliscus his wife s brother 5 Leo died of dysentery at the age of 73 on 18 January 474 20 21 22 Marriage and children EditLeo and Verina had three children Their eldest daughter Ariadne was born prior to the death of Marcian reigned 450 457 23 Ariadne had a younger sister Leontia Leontia was first betrothed to Patricius a son of Aspar but their engagement was probably annulled when Aspar and another of his sons Ardabur were assassinated in 471 citation needed Leontia then married Marcian a son of Emperor Anthemius and Marcia Euphemia The couple led a failed revolt against Zeno in 478 479 They were exiled to Isauria following their defeat 24 An unknown son was born in 463 He died five months following his birth The only sources about him are a horoscope by Rhetorius and a hagiography of Daniel the Stylite 24 The Georgian Chronicle a 13th century compilation drawing from earlier sources reports a marriage of Vakhtang I of Iberia to Princess Helena of Byzantium identifying her as a daughter of the predecessor of Zeno 25 This predecessor was probably Leo I the tale attributing a third daughter to Leo Cyril Toumanoff identified two children of this marriage Mithridates of Iberia and Leo of Iberia This younger Leo was father of Guaram I of Iberia The accuracy of the descent is unknown See also Edit Byzantine Empire portalChurch of St Mary of the Spring Istanbul Life giving Spring List of Byzantine emperorsNotes Edit Leo s full name is sometime given as Flavius Valerius Leo 2 3 but this is not corroborated by either the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 1 nor the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 4 Despite the regular use of the nickname Thrax by modern sources 5 this was not used by contemporary writers Ancient sources rather call him the Butcher Latin Macellus Greek Makellhs referencing the murder of Aspar and his son 1 4 Bury 1958 Chapter X the reign of Leo I p 323 note 1 After the coronation of the child the two Leos would be distinguished as Lewn ὁ Megas and Lewn ὁ Mikros and this I believe must be the origin of the designation of Leo as the Great just as reversely Theodosius II was called the Small because in his infancy he had been known as ὁ mikros basileys to distinguish him from Arcadius Leo never did anything which could conceivably earn him the title of Great in the sense in which it was bestowed by posterity on Alexander or Constantine References Edit a b c PLRE 2 p 664 Adkins Lesley Adkins Roy A 1994 Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome New York Infobase Publishing p 37 ISBN 9780816074822 Crawford Peter 2019 Roman Emperor Zeno Pen and Sword History p 45 ISBN 9781473859272 a b c d ODB pp 1206 1207 a b Leo I Encyclopaedia Britannica The Inheritance of Rome Chris Wickham Penguin Books Ltd 2009 ISBN 978 0 670 02098 0 page 90 Great Synaxaristes in Greek Ὁ Ἅgios Lewn Makellhs ὁ Megas Saint Leo Makelles the Great 20 Ianoyarioy MEGAS SYNA3ARISTHS Mother of God of the Life Giving Spring Self Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America Retrieved 27 October 2012 Friell 1998 pp 170 261 Friell 1998 pp 170 a b Bury 1958 p 315 Candidus F H G IV p 135 John Malalas XIV p 369 Bury 1958 Edward Gibbon 1952 1789 The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 1 Chapter XXXVI Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc p 582 Bibl Theophanes p 95 ed Par tom i p 170 ed Bonn Herrin Judith 2007 Byzantium The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire Penguin pp 53 54 ISBN 978 0713999976 Norwich John Julius 1989 Byzantium The Early Centuries pg 167 Wace Henry Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A D with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresie Archived from the original on 22 February 2014 Retrieved 16 February 2014 Bury 1958 p 337 Auctarium Prosperi Havniense 474 Leo maior defunctus est XV k Febr John Malalas Book XIV 46 On the following 3rd February the emperor Leo the Elder was stricken with illness and died of dysentery at the age of 73 Croke Brian 2021 Roman Emperors in Context Routledge pp 150 151 ISBN 9781000388305 The correct date must be 18 January Theophanes says merely January As corroboration for 18 January Cyril of Scythopolis notes that Euthymius died on 20 January 473 and that the emperor Leo I died at the end of the first year after the death of the great Euthymius Hugh Elton Leo I 457 474 A D a b Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire vol 2 Georgian Chronicle Chapters 13 14 Translation by Robert Bedrosian 1991 Sources EditOstrogorsky George 1956 History of the Byzantine State Oxford Basil Blackwell Bury John Bagnell 1958 History of the Later Roman Empire from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Justinian Dover books Vol 1 Dover Publications ISBN 978 0 486 20398 0 Friell Gerard 1998 The Rome That Did Not Fall The Survival of the East in the Fifth Century Ancient history London Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 0 415 15403 1 Meyendorff John 1989 Imperial unity and Christian divisions The Church 450 680 A D The Church in history Vol 2 Crestwood NY St Vladimir s Seminary Press ISBN 978 0 88 141056 3 Thomas F Madden Presenter 2006 Empire of Gold A History of the Byzantine Empire Lecture 2 Justinian and the Reconquest of the West 457 565 Audio book Prince Frederick Recorded Books ISBN 978 1 4281 3267 2 Profile of Leo I in the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire Profile of Leo I in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium Stephen Williams Gerard Friell The Rome that Did Not Fall The Survival of the East in the Fifth Century Routledge Press 1999 ISBN 0 415 15403 0External links Edit Media related to Flavius Valerius Leo at Wikimedia Commons Leo I TimelineLeo I emperor Leonid dynastyBorn 400 401 Died 18 January 474Regnal titlesPreceded byMarcian Eastern Roman emperor457 474 Succeeded byLeo IIPolitical officesPreceded byConstantinusRufus Roman consul458with Majorian Augustus Succeeded byRicimerPatriciusPreceded bySeverinusDagalaifus Roman consul462with Libius Severus Augustus Succeeded byCaecina Decius BasiliusVivianusPreceded byHermenericusBasiliscus Roman consul466with Tatianus Gallia Succeeded byPusaeusIohannesPreceded byMessius Phoebus SeverusIordanes Roman consul471with Caelius Aconius Probianus Succeeded byRufius Postumius FestusMarcianusPreceded byRufius Postumius FestusMarcianus Roman consul473 Succeeded byLeo junior Augustus Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Leo I emperor amp oldid 1134340607, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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