| Marcia Euphemia | |
|---|---|
 Coin depicting Marcia Euphemia | |
| Roman empress | |
| Tenure | 467 – 472 |
| Born | Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) |
| Spouse | Anthemius |
| Issue | Alypia Anthemiolus Marcianus Procopius Anthemius Romulus |
| Dynasty | Theodosian dynasty |
| Father | Marcian |
| Mother | Pulcheria (adoptive) |
Marcia Euphemia (also known as Aelia Marcia Euphemia) [1] was the wife of Anthemius, Western Roman Emperor.
Marcia Euphemia was the only known daughter of Marcian, Eastern Roman emperor, with an unknown woman. [2] Her stepmother was Pulcheria, second wife of her father, a relationship that was a mere political alliance to establish Marcian as a member of the Theodosian dynasty by marriage. As Pulcheria had taken a religious vow of chastity, the marriage was never consummated and Euphemia never had younger half-siblings. [2] [3]
Evagrius Scholasticus quotes Priscus, stating that Marcian was "by birth a Thracian". [4] Theodorus Lector, however, reports Marcian to be an Illyrian. [5]
In or around the year 453, [5] Euphemia married Anthemius, the son of Procopius, magister utriusque militiae ("Master of Soldiers of both armies", commander of both cavalry and infantry) of the Eastern Roman Empire from 422 to 424. The marriage had political implications; as the daughter of Marcian, Euphemia "added imperial grandeur to the illustrious lineage of Anthemius himself". [6]
Marcian granted his new son-in-law a series of honors and responsibilities, seemingly intended to prepare Anthemius for eventual elevation to the imperial office. Following the marriage Anthemius was appointed a Comes rei militaris and sent to fortify the Danube frontier, still in disarray following the death of Attila the Hun. He returned to Constantinople in 454 and was rewarded by Marcian with the offices of magister militum and Patrician. In 455 he served as co-consul with Valentinian III. John Malalas states that Marcian took the final step and named Anthemius emperor of the Western Roman Empire, but this is considered an anachronism of the chronicler. [7]
In January 457 Marcian succumbed to a disease, allegedly gangrene, and was survived by Euphemia and Anthemius. [2]
With the death of her father, Euphemia was no longer a member of the imperial family. Anthemius continued to serve as magister militum under Marcian's successor, Leo I.
According to Priscus, Geiseric, King of the Vandals, having exhausted Sicily and Italia with a decade of raiding, began to expand his activities into the Eastern empire. Leo had to deal with the new threat and decided to set a new Western Roman Emperor - the Western throne had been vacant since the death of Libius Severus in 465 - to face Geiseric.
Leo chose Anthemius, who journeyed to Rome and was proclaimed emperor on 12 April 467. Euphemia was featured as an Augusta in Roman currency from c. 467 to 472. In acknowledgement of her vital role in linking Anthemius with the Theodosian Dynasty, her coins spell out her name with unusual thoroughness. [6] These coins are the sole evidence for her role as Empress, as the literary accounts cease mentioning her by the point Anthemius moved to Italia. [7] According to the fragmentary chronicle of John of Antioch, a 7th-century monk tentatively identified with John of the Sedre, [8] in 472 Anthemius was slain in a civil war. [7] Whether Euphemia survived her husband is unknown.
Euphemia and Anthemius had five known children, one daughter and four sons:
The 450s decade ran from January 1, 450, to December 31, 459.
Year 453 (CDLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Opilio and Vincomalus. The denomination 453 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Marcian was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little of his life before becoming emperor is known, other than that he was a domesticus who served under the commanders Ardabur and his son Aspar for fifteen years. After the death of Emperor Theodosius II on 28 July 450, Marcian was made a candidate for the throne by Aspar, who held much influence because of his military power. After a month of negotiations Pulcheria, Theodosius' sister, agreed to marry Marcian. Zeno, a military leader whose influence was similar to Aspar's, may have been involved in these negotiations, as he was given the high-ranking court title of patrician upon Marcian's accession. Marcian was elected and inaugurated on 25 August 450.
Anicius Olybrius was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as Augustus in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling Augustus in the eastern Roman Empire, Leo I. He was in reality a puppet ruler raised to power by Ricimer, the magister militum of Germanic descent, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.
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Procopius Anthemius was the Western Roman emperor from 467 to 472. Born in the Eastern Roman Empire, Anthemius quickly worked his way up the ranks. He married into the Theodosian dynasty through Marcia Euphemia, daughter of Eastern emperor Marcian. He soon received a significant number of promotions to various posts, and was presumed to be Marcian's planned successor. However, Marcian's sudden death in 457, together with that of Western emperor Avitus, left the imperial succession in the hands of Aspar, who instead appointed a low-ranking officer known as Leo to the Eastern throne out of fear that Anthemius would be too independent. Eventually, this same Leo would designate Anthemius as Western emperor in 467, following a two-year interregnum that started in 465.
Flavius Ardabur Aspar was an Eastern Roman patrician and magister militum of Alanic-Gothic descent. As the general of a Germanic army in Roman service, Aspar exerted great influence on the Eastern Roman Emperors for half a century, from the 420s to his death in 471, through the reigns of Theodosius II, Marcian and Leo I, who, in the end, had him killed. His death led to the ending of the Germanic domination of Eastern Roman policy.
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The Theodosian dynasty was a Roman imperial family that produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 379 to 457. The dynasty's patriarch was Theodosius the Elder, whose son Theodosius the Great was made Roman emperor in 379. Theodosius's two sons both became emperors, while his daughter married Constantius III, producing a daughter that became an empress and a son also became emperor. The dynasty of Theodosius married into, and reigned concurrently with, the ruling Valentinianic dynasty, and was succeeded by the Leonid dynasty with the accession of Leo the Great.
Procopius Anthemius was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, son of Western Roman Emperor Anthemius. After the death of the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I, Procopius sided with his brother Marcianus's attempt to overthrow Zeno. When Marcianus's rebellion failed, Procopius fled to Thrace and then to Rome, returning to Constatinople after the death of Zeno and accession of Anastasius I. After his return to Constantinople, he was consul in 515.
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Flavius Marcianus was a member of the Leonid dynasty. The son of the Western emperor Anthemius, Marcianus married Leontia, the daughter of the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I. He was consul twice, and in 479 unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the emperor Zeno. After his capture he was forced to become a monk; he escaped and raised an army but was defeated and recaptured by Flavius Appalius Illus Trocundes. In 484, when the Isaurian general Illus revolted against Zeno, Marcianus was freed and Illus proclaimed him emperor, before deposing him in favour of Leontius.
Aelia Ariadne was Eastern Roman empress as the wife of Zeno and Anastasius I. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with her feast day falling on August 22.
Romulus was a son of Western Roman Emperor Anthemius.
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