Zeno (emperor)

Zeno (c. 425-Constantinople, April 9, 491) was Eastern Roman Emperor from January 29, 474 until his death. Internal revolts and religious struggles spread throughout his reign, in which he, despite everything, achieved certain successes in foreign relations. He was emperor in the East, to whose stability he greatly contributed, when the official fall of the Western Roman Empire took place, thus, theoretically at least, the Roman Empire was reunited in his person.

Early Years

Born Tarasis, the future Zeno was an Isaurian warrior from the region that is present-day Antalya. His fame as a warrior would not go unnoticed by Emperor Leo I the Thracian in the mid-460s, when Leo was looking for alternatives to the increasing use of unreliable mercenaries from various Germanic peoples in his army. From a cultural point of view, the Isaurians were undoubtedly in a much lower echelon than the Goths, who had previously had access to Greco-Roman culture. But, in contrast to the Germans, they were subjects of the Empire and therefore did not count as barbarians in the Greco-Roman sense. Despite this, the Byzantine population considered them foreigners, and the Isaurian army provoked no less opposition than the Germanic dominance.

In 466 Tarasis exposed the betrayal of Ardabur, the son of Aspar, the Alan magister militum of the East, and thus made himself even more indispensable. By 468, when the incompetent (and perhaps treacherous) Basilisk led the Byzantine fleet to disaster in the campaign against the Vandals, Tarasis came to be regarded as Emperor Leo I's best general. During a campaign in Thrace, he narrowly escaped a murder instigated by Aspar. When Tarasis returned to the capital, Aspar was executed by order of Leon, and Tarasis obtained the position of magister militum in his own right.

In order to be more easily accepted by the Roman hierarchy and the Greek population of Constantinople, Tarasis adopted the Greek name of Zeno, which he would use for the rest of his life, after his marriage to Ariadne, the daughter of Leo, in 468. Although this marriage was intended for Leo to secure Isaurian support against the ambitious minister Aspar, the political agreement would result in Zeno and Ariadne's son becoming emperor, as Leo II after the death of his grandfather in 474.

Meanwhile, his father continued to lead the eastern armies and achieve great successes, notably the expulsion of the Vandals from Epirus, which they had invaded in 469 as part of King Gaiseric's revenge for their attack the previous year. He also led troops against the Hunnic and Gepid raids south of the Danube. As Leo II was too young to rule on his own, Ariadne and his mother, Verina, convinced him to crown himself co-emperor on January 29, 474. When Leo fell ill and died on the following November 17, Zeno became the sole emperor.

Reign

Zeno remained unpopular with the people and the Senate because of his "foreign" origin. Under his rule the old Germanic influence at court was replaced by another barbarian influence, that of the Isaurics. A revolt instigated by Verina on behalf of his brother Basiliscus, the leader of the dishonorable Vandal war, in January 475, and the loathing in Constantinople of his Isaurian soldiers and officials, forced the emperor to flee the capital and settle in Antioch. Forced to shut himself in a fortress, Zeno spent the next 20 months raising an army, largely made up of fellow Isaurians, until he marched on Constantinople in August 476.

Increasing chaos and Basilisk's unpopularity made it easy for him to enter the capital unopposed in 476, after an army led by General Illos went over to Zeno's side. His rival was deported to Phrygia, where he died soon after. Restored to the throne, Zeno was forced to make a momentous decision two months later, when Odoacer deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople, expressly acknowledging the Emperor of Constantinople's suzerainty over the West. The imperial government had no choice but to face the facts, and thus the new master of Italy was appointed magister militum per Italiam and received the administration of the country as viceroy of the Emperor, thus becoming became the theoretical ruler of a reunited Roman Empire.

Appearances were kept up, but in fact, Italy was lost to the Empire finding itself, like all of the Western Empire (with the exception of Dalmatia), under Germanic rule. At the same time, Zeno sent a mission to Carthage with the intention of reaching a permanent peace agreement with Genseric, who continued to direct constant attacks against the cities of the East and maritime commerce. By recognizing Genseric as an independent king and accepting the full extent of his conquests, Zeno was able to impose a peace that would last more than 50 years, ending Vandal attacks on the East, as well as winning religious freedom for Catholics.

The Balkan Peninsula was still occupied by strong Ostrogothic contingents: in Thrace under Theodoric Strabo and in Moesia under Theodomir. Since 472, the attacks of the two Gothic chiefs had become a constant source of danger. Now they entered the imperial service investing the highest dignities of the Empire, now they rebelled against the government of Constantinople and let their troops devastate the Roman territory. They took part in all the civil wars and party fights in the Empire, and many times the decision was in their hands, although on some occasions Zeno was able to neutralize them, pitting one against the other.

Zeno survived another rebellion in 478, when his mother-in-law Verina tried to kill Illos for his defection against his brother Basiliscus. The revolt was led by Marciano (Verina's son-in-law) and the Ostrogoth Theodoric Strabo, but again Illos demonstrated his fidelity to Zeno, suppressing the revolt.

Death freed the Empire of Theodoric Strabo in 481; As for the Ostrogoths, in 487 the imperial government induced Theodoric, son of Theodomir, to invade Italy and eliminate Odoacer, who had fallen out with the imperial government, taking over the government of Italy in his place. The hard struggle between the two Germanic kings ended with the victory of Theodoric, who killed his rival with his own hand and rose as lord of Italy in 493. The Empire had not needed to confront Odoacer on its own and, moreover, he had rid himself of the restless Ostrogoths. Like the crisis in the time of Alaric, this last Germanic crisis ended for Byzantium with the march of the Goths towards the West, so that, while the West fell completely into the hands of the Germans, the East was definitely free of them.

However, getting rid of the Germans did not mean a solution to the ethnic problem while Isaurian rule weighed on the Empire. The Empire became the scene of bloody showdowns between Isaurian chieftains, one of whom wore the imperial crown that the other aspired to obtain. Around 484, a great revolt broke out in the East, and for several years Zeno waged a bitter war against his former general Illos, from whom he had distanced himself, and his compatriot Leontius, who had set himself up as anti-emperor. Besieged in the fortress of Papirio, in Isauria, they died when it was taken in 488.

The religious problem

The monophysitism condemned in Chalcedon gained more and more influence in the East, and consequently the discrepancy between the central and eastern provinces of the Empire widened. Without much hesitation, Basilisk had embraced Monophysitism and, convinced of its infallible power, he condemned, by means of an imperial circular, the decisions of Chalcedon and the Tomus Leonis . But this measure, which provoked the greatest indignation among the Orthodox, precipitated his downfall and the return of Zeno, who tried to achieve a compromise between the Eastern Monophysites and the Orthodox Byzantine population. In 482 he published, in agreement with the patriarch of Constantinople Acacius, the so-called Henotikon, an Edict of Union in the form of a letter, addressed to the churches of Alexandria, Egypt, Libya and the Pentapolis, the most remote of Catholic orthodoxy. The Henotikón recognized and imposed the Nicene symbol as a norm of faith and complied with the decisions of the first 3 ecumenical councils, avoiding, however, ruling on the true point in dispute by omitting any reference to the double or unique nature of Jesus Christ.

But the impossibility of a religious compromise soon became apparent, since the Henotikon evidently could not satisfy either the followers of Chalcedon or the Monophysites. Instead of two, there were now three opposing parties: the declared Monophysites, the declared Orthodox and, in addition, the lukewarm from both camps who accepted the imperial formula of faith. The Pope also categorically rejected the Henotikon and cast an anathema against the Patriarch of Constantinople. This prompted him to cross out the Pope's name from the diptychs, starting a schism between Rome and Constantinople that was to last more than 30 years.

Zeno died of a fit of epilepsy or dysentery on April 9, 491, after reigning for 17 years and 2 months. Since he and Ariadne had had no other descendants, his widow chose a leading member of the imperial court, Anastasius, to succeed him. Although Zeno is described by sources as an indolent ruler, he was able to manage the Empire's resources in a way that left it considerably stronger after his death.