Leo I (emperor)

Template:Confused Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Template:Infobox saint Leo I (Template:Langx; Template:Circa 401 – 18 January 474), also known as "the Thracian" (Template:Langx; Template:Langx),Template:Efn 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" (Template:Langx; Template:Langx), probably to distinguish him from his young grandson and co-augustus Leo II (Template:Langx).Template:Efn

During his 17-year rule, he oversaw a number of 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.<ref>Chris Wickham (2009). The Inheritance of Rome. Penguin. Template:ISBN. p. 90.</ref> He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 20 January.<ref>Template:Lang [Saint Leo Makelles the Great] Template:In lang. Template:Lang [Great Synaxaristes].</ref><ref>Mother of God of the "Life-Giving Spring". Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Retrieved 27 October 2012.</ref>

Reign

He was born in Thracia or in Dacia Aureliana province in the year 401 to a Thraco-Roman family.Template:Sfn His Dacian originTemplate:Sfn is mentioned by Candidus Isaurus,Template:Sfn<ref>Candidus, F.H.G. IV, p. 135</ref> while John Malalas believes that he was of Bessian Thracian stock.Template:Sfn<ref>John Malalas, XIV, p. 369</ref> According to the Patria of Constantinople he had one sister, Euphemia, who never married; Leo is said to have visited her in Constantinople on a weekly basis, and she later erected a statue in his honor. The late and not particularly reliable source for Euphemia leaves her existence open to doubt.<ref name="ReferenceA">Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2</ref> Leo served in the Roman army, rising to the rank of comes rei militaris. He 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.<ref name=ODB/>

File:Roman Empire 460 AD.png

The Roman Empire in 460 during the reign of Leo

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Leo's coronation as emperor on 7 February 457,Template:Sfn was the first to add a Christian element to the traditional Roman procedure. Though he was already crowned by the campidoctor in the official coronation ceremony at Hebdomon,<ref>Constantine Porphyrogennetos, Book of Ceremonies I.91</ref> he went to Hagia Sophia and deposited his crown at the altar. As he left the church, Patriarch of Constantinople placed the crown back on his head, a fact which symbolized the transformation of Roman imperial traditions into Medieval Roman and Christian ones. This Christian coronation ritual was later imitated by courts all over Europe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

His coronation adventus gave a key role to Aspar, who rode with Leo in his chariot during the procession in Constantinople and offered him a golden crown when they arrived at the Forum of Constantine.<ref>Croke, Brian, "Dynasty and Ethnicity: Emperor Leo and the Eclipse of Aspar", Chiron 35 (2005), 152.</ref>

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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.<ref name=ODB/> In 469, Aspar attempted to assassinate Zeno<ref>Norwich, John Julius (1989), Byzantium: The Early Centuries. pg 167</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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, none of these attackers had the siege engines necessary to capture Constantinople, whose walls had been rebuilt and reinforced in the reign of Theodosius II.

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File:Vandal Kingdom at its maximum extent in the 470s.png

The Vandal Kingdom at its maximum extent in the 470s

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. 1,113 ships carrying 100,000 men participated in the expedition, which ended in defeat because of bad leadership from Leo's brother-in-law Basiliscus.<ref name=Brit/> 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.Template:Sfn

In 472, Leo issued an edict which stipulated that high-ranking officers who permitted pagan sacrifices on their land were to be demoted and have their possessions confiscated. Lower-ranking offenders were to be tortured and condemned to labour in the mines.<ref name="JustinianCode1.11.8">Codex Justinianus 1.11.8</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Leo died of dysentery at the age of 73 on 18 January 474.<ref>Auctarium Prosperi Havniense 474. "Leo maior defunctus est XV k. Febr."</ref><ref>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."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Marriage and children

Leo and Verina had three children. Their eldest daughter Ariadne was born prior to the death of Marcian (reigned 450 – 457).<ref>Hugh Elton, "Leo I (457–474 A.D.)"</ref> 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.Template: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.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

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.

<ref name="ReferenceA"/> 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.<ref>"Georgian Chronicle", Chapters 13–14. Translation by Robert Bedrosian (1991)</ref> 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. Template:Clear