Editing Anthemius (section)

==Early life==
Anthemius belonged to a noble family, the [[Procopius (Romans)|Procopii]], which gave several high officers, both civil and military, to the [[Eastern Roman Empire]]. His maternal grandfather was [[Anthemius (praetorian prefect)|Anthemius]], [[praetorian prefect of the East]] (404–415) and [[Roman consul]] in 405. His father was [[Procopius (magister militum)|Procopius]], ''[[magister militum]]'' ''per Orientem'' from 422 to 424, who descended from [[Procopius (usurper)|Procopius]], a cousin of Emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] and a usurper against the Eastern emperor [[Valens]] (r. 365–366).{{sfn|PLRE|loc="[https://archive.org/details/plre-ii/page/920/mode/1up?view=theater Procopius 2]", p. 920}}

Born in [[Constantinople]], he went to [[Alexandria]] to study in the school of the Neoplatonic philosopher [[Proclus]]; among his fellow students, there were [[Marcellinus (magister militum)|Marcellinus]] (''magister militum'' and governor of Illyricum), [[Flavius Illustrius Pusaeus]] (Praetorian prefect of the East and Consul in 467), [[Messius Phoebus Severus]] (Consul in 470 and ''[[praefectus urbi]]''), and [[Pamprepius]] (pagan poet).<ref>O'Meara, Dominic, ''Platonopolis: Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity'', Oxford University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-19-925758-2}}, p. 21.</ref>

In 453, he married [[Marcia Euphemia]], daughter of the Eastern emperor [[Marcian]] (450–457); after the marriage, he was elevated to the rank of ''[[comes]]'' and sent to the [[Danube|Danubian]] frontier with the task of rebuilding the border defences, neglected after Attila's death in 453. In 454, he was recalled to [[Constantinople]], where he received the title of [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|''patricius'']] in 454 or 455 and became one of the two ''magistri militum'' or ''magister utriusque militiae'' of the East. In 455, he received the honour of holding the [[Roman Consul|consulate]] with the Western emperor [[Valentinian III]] as a colleague.

This succession of honourable events – the wedding with Marcian's daughter; a promotion to an important military rank, but with administrative rather than military tasks; the prestigious rank of ''patricius'' and the highest military position; the consulate held with an Emperor as a colleague – suggests that Marcian had selected Anthemius as a possible candidate for the Eastern or Western throne. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that Anthemius' prestige misled the 6th-century historian [[John Malalas]] to state that Marcian had designated Anthemius as Western Emperor after [[Avitus]].<ref>John Malalas, ''Chronicon'', 368–369, cited in Mathisen.</ref>

In October 456, the Western emperor Avitus was deposed; Marcian probably considered Anthemius as his successor, but the Eastern emperor died in January 457 before choosing his colleague. Therefore, both empires had no emperor, and the power was in the hands of the Western generals, [[Ricimer]] and [[Majorian]], and the Eastern ''Magister militum'', the [[Alans|Alan]] [[Aspar]]. As Aspar could not sit on the throne because of his barbarian origin, he opposed Anthemius, whose prestige would have made him independent, and chose a low-ranking military officer, [[Leo I (emperor)|Leo]]; in the West, as his barbarian origin barred Ricimer from the throne, it was Majorian who received the purple.{{sfnp|Mathisen|1998}}

Anthemius stayed in service under the new emperor; as ''magister militum'', his task was to defend the Empire from the barbarian populations pressing on its border. Around 460, he defeated the [[Ostrogoths]] of [[Valamir]] in [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]]. During the winter of 466/467, he defeated a group of [[Huns]], led by [[Hormidac]], who had crossed the frozen Danube and pillaged [[Dacia]]. The raiders had conquered [[Serdica]], and Anthemius besieged the city until the starved Huns decided to accept open battle; despite the treachery of his cavalry commander (a Hun), Anthemius led his infantry to victory, and when Hormidac offered surrender Anthemius asked for the deserter to be given to him.<ref>Thompson, Edward Arthur, ''The Huns'', Blackwell Publishing, 1996, {{ISBN|0-631-21443-7}}, p. 170.</ref>