| Anthemius | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Roman emperor in theWest | |||||
| Reign | 12 April 467 – 11 July 472 | ||||
| Predecessor | Libius Severus | ||||
| Successor | Olybrius | ||||
| Eastern emperor | Leo I | ||||
| Born | Before 453 Constantinople[1] | ||||
| Died | 11 July 472 Rome | ||||
| Spouse | Marcia Euphemia | ||||
| Issue | Alypia Anthemius Anthemiolus Marcian Romulus | ||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | Theodosian[a] | ||||
| Religion | Chalcedonian Christianity[b] | ||||
Procopius Anthemius[2] (Ancient Greek:Προκόπιος Ανθέμιος,romanized: Prokópios Anthémios; died 11 July 472) was theWestern Roman emperor from 467 to 472. Born in theEastern Roman Empire, Anthemius quickly worked his way up the ranks. He married into theTheodosian dynasty throughMarcia Euphemia, daughter of Eastern emperorMarcian. 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 emperorAvitus, left the imperial succession in the hands ofAspar. He instead appointedLeo, a low-ranking officer, to the Eastern throne, probably out of fear that Anthemius would be too independent. Eventually, this same Leo designated Anthemius as Western emperor in 467, following a two-year interregnum that started in November 465.
Anthemius attempted to solve the two primary military challenges facing the remains of theWestern Roman Empire: the resurgentVisigoths, underEuric, whose domain straddled thePyrenees; and the unvanquishedVandals, underGeiseric, in undisputed control of North Africa. Anthemius's insistence on ruling independently placed him into direct conflict with the Gothic generalRicimer. Previously the real power behind the throne, Ricimer found that Anthemius's reign threatened his own interests. This eventually escalated into open warfare between the two, with the result that Anthemius lost not only his throne, but also his head, in 472.
Anthemius belonged to a noble family, theProcopii, which gave several high officers, both civil and military, to theEastern Roman Empire. His maternal grandfather wasAnthemius,praetorian prefect of the East (404–415) andRoman consul in 405. His father wasProcopius,magister militumper Orientem from 422 to 424, who descended fromProcopius, a cousin of EmperorJulian and a usurper against the Eastern emperorValens (r. 365–366).[3]
Born inConstantinople, he went toAlexandria to study in the school of the Neoplatonic philosopherProclus; among his fellow students, there wereMarcellinus (magister militum and governor of Illyricum),Flavius Illustrius Pusaeus (Praetorian prefect of the East and Consul in 467),Messius Phoebus Severus (Consul in 470 andpraefectus urbi), andPamprepius (pagan poet).[4]
In 453, he marriedMarcia Euphemia, daughter of the Eastern emperorMarcian (450–457); after the marriage, he was elevated to the rank ofcomes and sent to theDanubian frontier with the task of rebuilding the border defences, neglected after Attila's death in 453. In 454, he was recalled toConstantinople, where he received the title ofpatricius in 454 or 455 and became one of the twomagistri militum ormagister utriusque militiae of the East. In 455, he received the honour of holding theconsulate with the Western emperorValentinian 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 ofpatricius 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 historianJohn Malalas to state that Marcian had designated Anthemius as Western Emperor afterAvitus.[5]
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 andMajorian, and the EasternMagister militum, theAlanAspar. 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; in the West, as his barbarian origin barred Ricimer from the throne, it was Majorian who received the purple.[6]
Anthemius stayed in service under the new emperor; asmagister militum, his task was to defend the Empire from the barbarian populations pressing on its border. Around 460, he defeated theOstrogoths ofValamir inIllyricum. During the winter of 466/467, he defeated a group ofHuns, led byHormidac, who had crossed the frozen Danube and pillagedDacia. The raiders had conqueredSerdica, 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.[7]
The newly elected Eastern Roman emperor,Leo I the Thracian, had a major foreign affairs problem: theVandals of KingGeiseric and their raids on the Italian coasts. After the death ofLibius Severus in 465, the Western Empire had no Emperor. Gaiseric had his own candidate,Olybrius, who was related to Gaiseric because both Olybrius and a son of Gaiseric's had married the two daughters of emperorValentinian III.
With Olybrius on the throne, Gaiseric would become the real power behind the throne of the Western Empire. Leo, on the other hand, wanted to keep Gaiseric as far as possible from the imperial court at Ravenna, and took time to choose a successor to Severus. To put Leo under pressure, Gaiseric extended his attacks on Sicily and Italy to the territories of the Eastern Empire, sacking and enslaving people living inIllyricum, thePeloponnese and other parts ofGreece, so Leo was obliged to take action.
In 467, Leo I designated Anthemius as Western emperor and sent him to Italy with an army led by theMagister militum per IllyricumMarcellinus. On 12 April, Anthemius was proclaimed Emperor (augustus) at the third or twelfth mile fromRome.[8] Anthemius' election was celebrated inConstantinople with a panegyric by Dioscorus.[9]
By choosing Anthemius, Leo obtained three results: he sent a possible candidate to the Eastern throne far away; he repulsed Gaiseric's attempt to put a puppet of his own on the Western throne; and he put a capable and proven general with a trained army in Italy, ready to fight the Vandals.
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The reign of Anthemius was characterised by a good diplomatic relationship with the Eastern Empire; for example, Anthemius is the last Western Emperor to be recorded in an Eastern law.[10] Both courts collaborated in the choice of the yearly consuls, as each court chose a consul and accepted the other's choice. Anthemius had the honour of holding the consulatesine collega (without a colleague) in 468, the first year he started as Emperor, following a similar honour given to Leo in 466. The following year the two consuls were Anthemius' son,Marcian, and Leo's son-in-law,Flavius Zeno (later successor of Leo on the Eastern throne).
In 470 the consuls wereMessius Phoebus Severus, Anthemius' old friend and fellow student atProclus' school, and theMagister militum per OrientemFlavius Iordanes. In 471, the year in which Leo held his fourth consulate with thePraetorian prefect of ItalyCaelius Aconius Probianus as colleague, the two emperors strengthened their bonds with a marriage between Anthemius' son, Marcian, and Leo's daughter,Leontia; Marcian was honoured with his second consulate the following year, this time chosen by the Eastern court.
Anthemius' matrimonial policy also included the marriage of his only daughter,Alypia, and the powerfulMagister militum Ricimer. The poetSidonius Apollinaris arrived inRome on the occasion of the wedding at the end of 467 and described the celebrations in which all social classes were involved; he also hints that Alypia might have not liked her husband, a barbarian.[11]
The Vandals were the major problem of the Western Empire. In late 467, Anthemius organised a campaign of the western Roman army, probably under the command ofMarcellinus. The campaign to overthrow the Vandals was on a large scale, with more than 100,000 men.[12] However, the war would end in failure: the bad weather obliged theRoman fleet to return to its base before completing the operation.
In 468,Leo the Thracian, Anthemius and Marcellinus organized a major operation against theVandal Kingdom in Africa. The commander-in-chief of the operation was Leo's brother-in-lawBasiliscus (who would become Eastern emperor seven years later). A fleet consisting of upwards of one thousand vessels was collected to transport the combined Eastern-Western-Illyric army, and while most of the expenses were paid for by the Eastern Empire, Anthemius and the Western treasury contributed to the costs. The Roman fleet took a massive defeat at theBattle of Cape Bon due to Basiliscus allowing Gaiseric five days to draw up conditions for a peace, which he used to gather his ships and surprise attack the Roman fleet, destroying at least half of the Roman ships.[12] Basiliscus escaped the battle to Sicily to meet with Marcellinus, although Marcellinus was later killed by an assassin.
Leo decided to sign a separate peace with Gaiseric. Anthemius lost his allies and, with the imperial treasury almost emptied by the failed operation, renounced taking Africa back. Peter Heather considers this expedition to have been the final opportunity to restore the Empire, which from this point would now only control the Italian peninsula and Sicily.[13]
After the disastrous campaign in Africa, Anthemius concentrated on the second problem of his Empire, keeping under his control the Western provinces targeted by Visigothic expansion. He turned to the reconquest ofGaul, occupied byVisigoths under the ambitious KingEuric who had exploited the weak Roman control caused by political instability. Euric's sphere of influence had also separated some imperial provinces from the rest of the Empire. Even thoughArelate andMarseille in Southern Gaul were still governed by the Western court,Avernia was isolated from the rest of the Empire and governed byEcdicius, son of Emperor Avitus, while the territory later included in the so-calledDomain of Soissons was located further north.
In 470, Anthemius recruited Britons living in either Britain or Armorica to fight Euricus.[14] The Britons, under KingRiothamus, were initially successful and occupiedBourges with twelve thousand men. However, when they entered the core of Visigoth territory, trying to conquerDéols, they were outnumbered and defeated by a Visigoth army, and Riothamus was forced to flee to theBurgundians, who were Roman allies.[15]
Anthemius took the matter into his own hands and decided to attack the Visigoths directly. He collected an army under the nominal leadership of his own son,Anthemiolus, but actually commanded by the generals Torisarius, Everdingus, and Hermianus. Anthemiolus moved from Arelate and crossed theRhone river, but he was intercepted by Euric, whodefeated and killed the Roman generals and pillaged the area.[16]
While Africa was lost and the control over Western provinces was shaky, Anthemius' power over Italy was threatened by internal opposition; he was of Greek origin, had been chosen by the Eastern Emperor from among members of the Eastern court, and was suspected of being a pagan.[c]
In order to obtain the support of the senatorial aristocracy, Anthemius conferred the rank ofpatricius on members of the Italian and Gallic governing class. He introduced the practice, common in the East, of appointing even civilians to the patrician rank, and honoured so many members of the aristocracy with this title that it suffered a sort of inflation. Among the newpatricii there were Italian senators, e.g.Romanus andMessius Phoebus Severus, but against common practice he also appointed Gallic senators and even aristocrats without noteworthy careers, such asMagnus Felix and the Gallic poetSidonius Apollinaris.
Sidonius had come to Rome to bring a petition from his people; his contact in the court, the consulCaecina Decius Basilius, suggested that he should compose a panegyric to be performed at the beginning of Anthemius' consulate, on 1 January 468. The Emperor honoured the poet, conferring on him the patrician rank, the high rank ofCaput senatus, and even the office ofPraefectus urbi of Rome, usually reserved to members of the Italian aristocracy.[17] Sidonius was so influential that he convinced the Emperor to commute the death penalty ofArvandus, thePraetorian prefect of Gaul who had allied himself with the Visigoths.
The good relationship between the two Roman Emperors was good news in the recent affairs between the two halves of the Roman Empire, and was used in imperial propaganda. Anthemius had his mints (atMediolanum,Ravenna andRome) issuesolidi depicting the two Emperors joining hands in a show of unity.
Anthemius had restored his court in Rome, and thus this mint became more and more important, overshadowing the other two mints.
Some coins are in the name of his wifeMarcia Euphemia; among these there is asolidus depicting two Empresses on the thrones, probably a reference to Alypia's marriage.
The most important figure at the Western court wasRicimer, the powerfulmagister militum, who had already decided the fate of several emperors.[19] The new emperor, however, had been chosen by the Eastern court, and, despite the bond of the marriage between Ricimer and Anthemius' daughter, Alypia, they were not on good terms. The tipping point of their relationship was the trial ofRomanus, an Italian senator andpatricius supported by Ricimer; Anthemius accused Romanus of treachery and condemned him to death in 470.[20]
Ricimer had gathered 6,000 men for the war against the Vandals, and after the death of Romanus he moved with his men to the north, leaving Anthemius in Rome. Supporters of the two parties fought several brawls, but Ricimer and the emperor signed a one-year truce after the mediation ofEpiphanius, the Bishop of Pavia.[21]
At the beginning of 472, the struggle between them renewed, and Anthemius was obliged to feign an illness and took refuge inSt. Peter's Basilica. The Eastern Roman emperor,Leo, sentOlybrius to mediate between Ricimer and Anthemius but, according to John Malalas, had sent a secret letter to Anthemius, urging him to kill Olybrius. Ricimer intercepted the letter, showed it to Olybrius, and had him proclaimed emperor.[22]
The struggle became an open war. Anthemius, with the aristocracy and the people of the city, faced the Gothicmagister militum and the barbarian units of the army, which includedOdoacer's men. Ricimer blockaded Anthemius in Rome; five months of fighting followed. Ricimer entered the city and succeeded in separating the port on theTiber from thePalatine, starving the supporters of the emperor.[23]
Both sides appealed to the army in Gaul, but theMagister militum per Gallias, the BurgundianGundobad, supported his uncle Ricimer. Anthemius elevated Bilimer to the rank ofRector Galliarum and had him enter Italy with the loyal army. Bilimer arrived in Rome but died trying to prevent Ricimer entering the centre of the city from the other side of the Tiber, through thePons Aelius in front of theMausoleum of Hadrian.[24]
Losing any hope of external help and pressed by the scarcity of food, Anthemius tried to rally, but his men were defeated and killed in great numbers.[23] The emperor fled for the second time to St. Peter's (or, according to other sources, toSanta Maria in Trastevere), where he was captured and beheaded by Gundobad[23][25] or by Ricimer[26] on 11 July 472.[27]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Sources for Anthemius's life are richer than for most fifth century Western Emperors, partly because of his origin in Constantinople, where the tradition of court histories was kept alive, and partly because of the details that can be extracted from a panegyric delivered on 1 January 468 by theGallo-Roman poetSidonius Apollinaris.
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Western Roman emperor 467–472 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Roman consul 455 withPlacidus Valentinianus Augustus VIII | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Roman consul 468 | Succeeded by |
