Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the successors of theodosius 47
reason, excellent fighters. 86 Isaurians were drafted into the army on an
increased scale, and probably also into the new élite bodyguard of the excubitores
which Leo established as a further way of trying to ensure his independence.
87
A necessary part of this strategy was Leo’s advancement to high military
rank of a leading Isaurian chieftain, Tarasicodissa, who changed his barbaric-sounding
name to Zeno, hoping by its Greekness and the reputation
which his fellow countryman of that name had enjoyed in the late 440s and
early 450s to mitigate the prejudice which attached to his Isaurian origins. 88
He discredited Aspar’s son Ardabur on charges of treasonable communication
with Persia (466), secured marriage to Leo’s elder daughter Ariadne
(466/7), 89 and held the consulship (469). Although Aspar was in turn able
to pressure Leo into not only marrying his younger daughter Leontia to
another of his sons, Patricius, but also declaring that son emperordesignate,
Zeno steadily eclipsed Aspar as the leading influence in the state,
to the point where Leo finally had Aspar and Ardabur murdered (471), 90
winning him the epithet ‘the butcher’ and leaving the way clear for Zeno
effectively to succeed him in 474.
There was a significant degree of continuity of policy between the reigns
of Marcian and Leo. Leo was a supporter of Chalcedonian orthodoxy and
also initiated further measures against pagans and heretics, including a
blanket exclusion from the legal profession of anyone not an orthodox
Christian. 91 For the first decade of his reign, he also sought diplomatic
solutions to foreign-policy issues. In one area, however – the lower Danube
– he faced increasing problems arising from the break-up of Attila’s
empire, while in a second area – relations with the Vandals – he eventually
abandoned a cautious approach for a more aggressive one – with disastrous
consequences.
Some of Attila’s sons remained a disruptive presence along the Danube
during the 460s – Dengizich’s abortive invasion of 468 is the bestdocumented
example 92 – but more problematic were the peoples previously
subject to the Huns who gained their independence during the years
86 For the Isaurians’ reputation, see e.g. Philostorg. HE xi.8, Theodoret, Ep. 40 (Azéma), Joshua
Styl. Chron. 12. For the region and its history: Matthews (1989) 355–67; Hopwood (1986), (1989); Shaw
(1990). 87 Leo and the Isaurians: Brooks (1893) 211–15; excubitores: Haldon (1984) 136–8.
88 For the name, see Feissel (1984) 564 n. 105, contra Harrison (1981); for his career to 474, see PLRE
ii, s.v. Fl. Zeno 7.
89 The suggestion of Pingree ((1976) 146–7) that Zeno was engaged to Ariadne as early as 463 is
doubtful; cf. Dagron (1982) 275.
90 For the fates of Patricius and Herminericus, see PLRE ii, s.v. Iulius Patricius 15, Herminericus.
91 CJ i.4.15 (468), i.11.8 (472?). Cf. CJ i.5.9–10. (For Marcian’s anti-pagan legislation, see CJ i.11.7
(451).) Leo’s quaestor Isocasius was accused of being a pagan, stripped of office and forced to undergo
baptism (PLRE ii, s.v. Isocasius), and Leo is also reported as enforcing anti-heretical legislation against
one group of Arians (Malal. p. 372.3–5) – perhaps to spite the Arian Aspar?
92 Thompson (1948) 154–60; Maenchen-Helfen (1973) 152–68.
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