Leontia (, 457 – after 479) was the daughter of the

Eastern Roman Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are ...

Leo I.

Biography

Leontia was the daughter of Emperor Leo I and his wife

Verina Aelia Verina (Greek: Βερίνα; died 484) was the Eastern Roman empress as the wife of Leo I. She was a sister of Emperor Basiliscus. Her daughter Ariadne also became empress. Verina was the maternal grandmother of Leo II. Family The origi ...

; she was younger sister of

Ariadne In Greek mythology, Ariadne (; ; ) was a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. There are variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur and being abandoned by him on the island of N ...

, but, unlike her, she could claim to be ''

porphyrogenita Traditionally, born in the purple (sometimes "born to the purple") was a category of members of royal families born during the reign of their parent. This notion was later loosely expanded to include all children born of prominent or high-ranking ...

'', "born in the purple", because she was born during the first year of reign of her father (457). Leo, who ascended the throne for military merits and had no family ties with the Roman aristocracy, used the marriage of his daughters to strengthen his position: as Ariadne had been married to the

Isauria Isauria ( or ; ), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya P ...

n general

Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...

, the marriage of Leontia was designed to bind him to the other component of the army, the Germanic one represented by the

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the e ...

Aspar Flavius Ardabur Aspar (Greek: Ἄσπαρ, fl. 400471) was an Eastern Roman patrician and ''magister militum'' ("master of soldiers") of Alanic- Gothic descent. As the general of a Germanic army in Roman service, Aspar exerted great influe ...

. It happened, however, that at the announcement of the marriage between the son of Aspar, Julius Patricius, and Leontia popular riots broke out (470): for the clergy and people of Constantinople it was in fact not acceptable for an

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

as Patricius to have the possibility of becoming emperor. The riots stopped only when Aspar and Leo promised to the bishops that Patricius would convert to Orthodoxy before becoming emperor, and that only after the conversion he would have married Leontia. In 471 Julius Patricius disappears from the chronicles: his father Aspar and his brother

Ardabur Ardabur is the name of: * Ardabur (consul 427), Roman-Alanic general and politician * Aspar (Flavius Ardabur Aspar, c.400–471), his son, general and politician * Ardabur (consul 447) Ardabur (, died 471) was an Eastern Roman ''magister militum ...

were murdered in this year by order of Leo. Leontia was then married to

Marcian Marcian (; ; ; 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the Byzantine Empire, East from 450 to 457. Very little is known of his life before becoming emperor, other than that he was a (personal assistant) who served under the commanders ...

, the son of the Western Emperor

Anthemius Procopius Anthemius (; died 11 July 472) was the Western Roman Empire, Western Roman emperor from 467 to 472. Born in the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, Anthemius quickly worked his way up the ranks. He married into the Theodosian dyna ...

: the marriage linked the two royal houses of the West and the East. However, in 472 Anthemius died and was succeeded by

Olybrius Anicius Olybrius (died 2 November 472) was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as ''Augustus (title), augustus'' in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling ''augustus'' in t ...

, and with Leo's death in 474, Zeno ascended to the throne of the East. Ousted from both thrones, Marcianus and Leontia plotted a revolt against Zeno in 479, which was based on Leontia's right of precedence over her sister as porphyrogenita. However, the revolt was quelled.

Bibliography

* Alemany, Agustí, ''Sources on the Alans: A Critical Compilation'', Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, , p. 114. * Amory, Patrick, ''People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, , p. 284, 288. * Bury, John Bagnall, "X.1 Leo I (A.D. 457‑474)", ''History of the Later Roman Empire'', 1958, Dover Books, pp. 389–395 * Thiele, Andreas, ''Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte Band III Europäische Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser Ergänzungsband'', R.G. Fischer Verlag 1994 Tafel 490 * Williams, Stephen, ''The Rome That Did Not Fall: the survival of the East in the fifth century'', Routledge, 1999, , p. 180. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leontia 457 births Year of death unknown 5th-century Byzantine people 5th-century Byzantine women House of Leo Porphyrogennetoi Daughters of Byzantine emperors