'Flavius Basiliscus'
[1] (d. 476/477) was an
Eastern Roman Emperor of the
House of Leo, who ruled briefly (
9 January 475–August 476), when Emperor
Zeno had been forced out of
Constantinople by a revolt.
Basiliscus was the brother of Empress
Aelia Verina, the wife of Emperor
Leo I (457–474). His relationship with the emperor allowed him to pursue a military career that, after minor initial successes, ended in 468, when he led the disastrous Byzantine invasion of
Vandal Africa, in one of the largest military operations of
Late Antiquity.
Basiliscus succeeded in seizing power in 475, exploiting the unpopularity of Emperor Zeno, the "barbarian" successor to Leo, and a plot organised by Verina that had caused Zeno to flee Constantinople. However, during his short rule, Basiliscus alienated the fundamental support of the
Church and the people of Constantinople, promoting the
Monophysite christological position in opposition to the widely accepted
Chalcedonian faith. Also, his policy of securing his power through the appointment of loyal men to key roles antagonised many important figures in the imperial court, including his sister Verina. So, when Zeno tried to regain his empire, he found virtually no opposition, triumphally entering Constantinople, and capturing and killing Basiliscus and his family.
The struggle between Basiliscus and Zeno impeded the intervention of the Eastern Empire in the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, which happened in early September 476. When the chieftain of the
Heruli,
Odoacer, deposed Western Emperor
Romulus Augustus, sending the imperial
regalia to Constantinople, Zeno had just regained his throne, and he could only appoint Odoacer ''
dux'' of Italy, thereby ending the Western Roman Empire.
Origins and early career
Tremissis issued in the name of
Aelia Verina, wife and later widow of Emperor
Leo I. As sister of Basiliscus, Verina helped him in both his military and political career — even if unwillingly supporting his bid for the purple.
Likely of
Balkan origin,
[2] Basiliscus was the brother of
Aelia Verina, wife of
Leo I. It has been argued that Basiliscus was uncle to the chieftain of the Heruli, Odoacer. This link is based on the interpretation of a fragment by
John of Antioch (209.1), which states that Odoacer and
Armatus, Basiliscus' nephew, were brothers.
[3] However, not all scholars accept this interpretation, since sources do not say anything about the foreign origin of Basiliscus.
[4] It is known that Basiliscus had a wife, Zenonis, and at least one son, Marcus.
Basiliscus' military career started under Leo I. The emperor conferred upon his brother-in-law the dignities of ''dux'', or commander-in-chief, in
Thrace.
[5] In this country Basiliscus led a successful military campaign against the
Bulgars in 463. He succeeded Rusticius as ''
Magister militum per Thracias'' (464), and had several successes against the
Goths and
Huns (466 or 467).
[6]
Basiliscus's value rose in Leo's consideration. Verina's intercession in favour of her brother helped Basiliscus' military and political career, with the conferral of the
consulship in 465 and possibly of the rank of ''
patricius''.
[7] However, his rise was soon to meet a serious reversal.
2
Disastrous expedition against the Vandals
Cap Bon, in modern
Tunisia is the place where the Byzantine fleet led by Basiliscus landed to launch an attack upon the
Vandal capital of
Carthage.
In 468, Leo chose Basiliscus as leader of the famous military expedition against
Carthage. The invasion of the kingdom of the
Vandals was one of the greatest military undertakings recorded in the anÂnals of history, a combined amphibious operation with over ten thousand ships and one hundred thousand soldiers. The purpose of the operation was to punish the Vandal king
Geiseric for the
sacking of Rome in 455, in which the former capital of the
Western Roman Empire had been overwhelmed, and the Empress
Licinia Eudoxia (widow of Emperor
Valentinian III) and her daughters had been taken as hostages.
25
The plan was concerted between Eastern Emperor Leo, Western Emperor
Anthemius, and General
Marcellinus, who enjoyed independence in
Illyricum. Basiliscus was ordered to sail directly to Carthage, while Marcellinus attacked and took
Sardinia, and a third army, commanded by
Heraclius of Edessa, landed on the
Libyan coast east of Carthage, making rapid progress. It appears that the combined forces met in
Sicily, whence the three fleets moved at different periods.
5
Ancient and modern historians provided different estimations for the number of ships and troops under the command of Basiliscus, as well as for the expenses of the expedition. Both were enorÂmous;
Nicephorus Gregoras speaks of one hundred thousand ships, the more reliable
Cedrenus says that the fleet that attacked Carthage consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, having each one hunÂdred men on board.
[8] The most conservative estimation for expedition expenses is of 64,000 pounds of gold, a sum that exceeded a whole year's revenue.
[9]
Sardinia and Libya were already conquered by Marcellinus and Heraclius, when Basiliscus cast anchor off the ''Promontorium Mercurii'', now
Cap Bon, opposite Sicily, about forty miles from Carthage. Geiseric requested Basiliscus to allow him five days in order to draw up the conditions of a peace.
[10] During the negotiations, Geiseric gathered his ships and suddenly attacked the Roman fleet. The Vandals had filled many vessels with combustible materials. During the night, these
fire ships were propelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting Roman fleet. The Byzantine commanders tried to rescue some ships from destruction, but these manoeuvres were blocked by the attack of other Vandal vessels.
5
Hagia Sophia (here shown in the form presented after the reconstruction ordered by Emperor
Justinian I in 537) protected Basiliscus from the emperor's wrath, after the disastrous campaign against the
Vandals. Basiliscus chose a church as hideout twice in his life, but this saved his life only once.
Basiliscus fled in the heat of the battle.
[11] One half of the Roman fleet was burned, sunk, or captured, and the other half followed the fugitive BasilisÂcus. The whole expedition had failed. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert into
Tripolitania, holding the position for two years until recalled; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was reached by Basiliscus;
the general was, however, assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of
Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves would remove from the world his most formidable antagonists.
5
After returning to Constantinople, Basiliscus hid in the church of
Hagia Sophia to escape the wrath of the people and the revenge of the emperor. By the mediation of Verina, Basiliscus obtained the imperial pardon, and was punished merely with banishment to
Heraclea Sintica, in Thrace.
[12]
Rise to power
In 471 and 472, Basiliscus helped Leo I to get rid of the Germanic influence in his court, helping in the murder of the
Alan ''Magister militum''
Aspar. The death of Aspar caused a revolt in
Thrace, led by the Thracian
Ostrogoth Theodoric Strabo, and Basiliscus was dispatched to suppress the revolt, something he successfully did with the aid of his nephew
Armatus. In 474 he received the rank of ''caput senatus'', "first among the senators".
At the death of Leo, Zeno, who was a "barbarian" of
Isaurian stock, but at the same time son-in-law of Leo, ascended to emperor, after a short reign of his own son
Leo II (474). The "barbarian" origins of the emperor caused antipathy towards Zeno among the people of
Constantinople. Furthermore, the strong Germanic portion of the military, led by Theodoric Strabo, disliked the Isaurian officers that Leo I brought to reduce his dependency on the Ostrogoths. Finally, Zeno alienated his fellow Isaurian general
Illus, who was bribed by Basiliscus. In the middle of the conspiracy was Verina, who fomented a popular revolt against the emperor. The uprising, supported by Theodoric Strabo, Illus and Armatus, was successful, and Verina convinced the emperor to leave the city. Zeno fled to his native lands, bringing with him some of the Isaurians living in Constantinople, and the imperial treasury. Basiliscus was then acclaimed as ''Augustus'' on
9 January 475[13] at the
Hebdomon palace, by the palace ministers and the Senate.
[14] The mob of Constantinople got its revenge against Zeno, killing almost all of the Isaurians left in the city.
12[15]
In the beginning, everything seemed to go well for the new emperor, who even tried to set up a new dynasty by conferring the title of
''Augusta'' upon his wife Aelia Zenonis and creating his son Marcus,
''Caesar'', and later
''Augustus'';
[16] however, due to his mismanagement as emperor, Basiliscus quickly lost most of his supporters.
Rule
Corruption and the fire of Constantinople
The most urgent problem facing the new emperor was the scarcity of resources left in the imperial treasury. Basiliscus was forced to raise heavy taxes, and to revert to the practice of auctioning the offices, obviously causing a diffuse discontent in the population. He also extorted money from the church, with the help of the Prefect Epinicus, Verina's long-time favourite.
15
Early in his reign, Constantinople suffered a massive fire, which destroyed houses, churches, and completely incinerated the huge library built by Emperor
Julian.
[17] The fire was seen as a bad omen for the rule of Basiliscus.
12
Tensions with his collaborators
Basiliscus had relied on the support of some major figures of the court in his bid for power. However, he quickly lost most of them. First, Basiliscus alienated his own sister Verina's support, executing the ''
Magister Officiorum'' Patricius. Patricius was the lover of Verina, and the empress had planned to raise him to the imperial rank and to marry him: the very revolt against Zeno had been organised to make Patricius emperor. Basiliscus, however, had out-witted his sister, and, after the flight of Zeno, had the ministers and the Senate choose him, and not Patricius, as Byzantine ruler. Basiliscus ordered the death of Patricius, as the officer was a natural candidate to overthrow the new emperor; as a consequence, Verina later intrigued against Basiliscus, because of her lover's execution.
[18]
Also, Theodoric Strabo, whose hatred of the Isaurian Zeno had compelled him to support Basiliscus' revolt, left the new emperor's side. Basiliscus had in fact raised his own nephew Armatus, who was rumoured to be also the lover of Basiliscus' wife, to the rank of ''magister militum'', the same that Strabo held. Finally, the support of Illus was most likely wavering, given the massacre of the Isaurians allowed by Basiliscus.
515
Religious controversies
In that time, the Christian faith was shaken by the contrast between
Monophysites and
Chalcedonians. These were two opposing
christological positions; the Monophysites claimed
Christ had only the divine nature, the Chalcedonians maintained that he had both human and divine natures. The
Council of Chalcedon, convoked by Emperor
Marcian in 451, had ruled out Monophysitism, with the support of the pope in the West and many bishops in the East. However, the Monophysite position was still strong: the two Monophysite Patriarchs
Timothy Aelurus of Alexandria and Peter Fullo of
Antioch were deposed.
[19]
From the beginning of his rule, Basiliscus showed his support for the Monophysites.
Zacharias Scholasticus reports how a group of Egyptian Monophysite monks, having heard of Emperor Leo's death, had moved from Alexandria to Constantinople to petition Zeno in favour of Timothy, but at their arrival in the capital, they found the newly elected Basiliscus instead. The ''Magister Officiorum'' Theoctistus, the former physician of Basiliscus, was the brother of one of the monks, so the delegation obtained an audience with Basiliscus, and, with the support of Theoctistus and of the empress, they convinced Basiliscus to recall from exile the banished Monophysite Patriarchs.
[20]
Basiliscus re-instated Timothy Aelurus and
Peter Fullo to their sees,
[21] and by persuasion of the former issued (
9 April 475) a circular letter (''Enkyklikon'') to the bishops calling them to accept as valid only the first three ecumenical synods, and reject the Council of Chalcedon.
19 All bishops were to sign the edict. While most of the Eastern bishops accepted the letter,
Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople refused, with the support of the population of the city, clearly showing his disdain towards Basiliscus by draping the
icons in Hagia Sophia in black.
[22]
Fall and death
Tremissis issued by Emperor
Zeno. Zeno, whose original name was Tarasicodissa, was of
Isaurian origin, and thus considered a "barbarian" and not loved by the people of
Constantinople. Basiliscus successfully exploited his unpopularity to get the purple for himself, only to become unpopular in his turn, mainly for his religious belief.
Soon after his elevation, Basiliscus had despatched Illus and his brother Trocundus against Zeno, who, now in his native fortresses, had resumed the life of an Isaurian chieftain. Basiliscus, however, failed to fulfil the promises he made to the two generals; furthermore, they received letters from some of the leading ministers at the court, urging them to secure the return of Zeno, for the city now preferred a restored Isaurian to a Monophysite whose unpopularity increased with the fiscal rapacity of his ministers.
12
During his operations in Isauria, Illus took Zeno's brother, Longinus, prisoner and kept him in an Isaurian fortress. Because he thought he would have great influence over a restored Zeno, he changed sides and marched with Zeno towards Constantinople in the summer of 476. When Basiliscus received news of this danger, he hastened to recall his ecclesiastical edicts and to conciliate the Patriarch and the people, but it was too late.
12
Armatus, as ''magister militum'', was sent with all available forces in Asia Minor, to oppose the advancing army of the Isaurians, but secret messages from Zeno, who promised to give him the title of ''magister militum'' for life and to confer the rank of ''Caesar'' on his son, induced him to betray his master.
[23] Armatus avoided the road by which Zeno was advancing and marched into Isauria by another way. This betrayal decided the fate of Basiliscus.
12
In August 476, Zeno besieged Constantinople.
[24] The Senate opened the gates of the city to the Isaurian, allowing the deposed emperor to resume the throne. Basiliscus fled to sanctuary in a church, but he was betrayed by Acacius and surrendered himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood. Basiliscus, his wife Aelia Zenonis and his son Marcus were sent to a fortress in
Cappadocia,
[25] where Zeno had them enclosed in a dry cistern, to die from exposure.
2[26]
Basiliscus had ruled for twenty months. He is described by sources as a successful general, but slow of understanding and easy to deceive.
6
Notes
1. His full name is known only through the ''Fasti consulares''; elsewhere, he is known simply as Basiliscus (Martindale).
2. Elton.
3. Krautschick.
4. Macgeorge.
5. Smith.
6. Martindale.
7. Martindale. It is also possible that he attained the rank of ''patricius'' in 471/472, for helping Leo to get rid of the Germanic influence in his court, but there is a reference to Basiliscus as ''patricius'' earlier, in 468.
8. Georgius Cedrenus, through Smith.
9. Boardman.
10. Procopius suggests that Geiseric supported his request for a truce with a bribe.
11. Basiliscus' lieutenant, Joannes, when overpowÂered by the Vandals, refused the pardon that was promised him by Genso, the son of Gaiseric, and leaped overboard in heavy armor and drowned himself in the sea. His last words were that he could not bear to surrender to those "impious dogs" of the Vandals — the Vandals, in fact, were Arians (Procopius).
12. Bury.
13. There exists a horoscope made on the day of Basiliscus' coronation —12 January 475, at 9 am—, probably by a supporter of Zeno. The horoscope, preserved with the horoscopes of other two usurpers of Zeno through Arab sources, correctly predicts the end of Basiliscus' rule in two years. See Power and knowledge: Astrology, physiognomics, and medicine under the Roman Empire, , Tamsyn, Barton, University of Michigan Press, 2002, ISBN 0-472-08852-1
14. Tradition allowed the Senate to recognise an usurper, thus Basiliscus was the new lawful ruler. However it was the first military-based succession in the last one hundred years (Friell).
15. Friell.
16. Basiliscus also issued coins celebrating the joint rule with his son Marcus;[1] Also, gold and bronze coins were minted in honour of Aelia Zenonis, ''Augusta''[2] The coins bear the legend AVGGG, with the three 'G' referring to the three ''Augusti''. See A Descriptive Catalogue of Rare and Unedited Roman Coins, , John, Yonge Akerman, Adamant Media Corporation, 2002, ISBN 1-4021-9224-X
17. This library, which was housed within a basilica next to the underground cisterna built by Justinian I, contained 120,000 volumes, including the famous parchment, 35 m long, upon which were inscribed Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in golden letters.
18. Bury. According to Candidus, after the death of Patricius, Verina intrigued in favour of Zeno, but her plan was discovered by Basiliscus, and only the intercession of Armatus spared her life.
19. "Pope St. Simplicius", ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.
20. Zacharias Scholasticus.
21. Samuel.
22. Evagrius Scholasticus.
23. According to Procopius, Armatus surrendered his army to Zeno, on the condition that Zeno would appoint Armatus' son Basiliscus as ''Caesar'', and recognise him as successor to the throne upon his death. After Zeno had regained the empire, he carried out his pledge to Armatus by appointing his son, named Basiliscus, ''Caesar'', but not long afterwards he both stripped him of the office and put Armatus to death.
24. The leader of the Pannonian Goths, Theodoric the Amal (later known as Theodoric the Great) had allied to Zeno. Theodoric would have attacked Basiliscus and his Thracian Goth ''foederati'' led by Theodoric Strabo, receiving, in exchange, the title of ''magister militum'' held by Strabo and the payments previously given to the Thracian Goths. It has been suggested that Constantinople was defenseless during Zeno's siege because the ''Magister Militum'' Strabo had moved north to counter this menace. See Goths, , Peter, Heather, Blackwell Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-631-20932-8
25. Elton refers that the name of the stronghold was Limnae, while Smith has Cucusus, and Evagrius Scholasticus reports Acusus.
26. Procopius.
References
Primary sources
★
Evagrius Scholasticus, ''Historia Ecclesiae'' iii. 4–8
★
ComÂpendium Historiarum ab Orbe Condita ad Isaacum Comnenum (1057), , , Georgius Cedrenus, , 1647,
★
Procopius,
★
Zacharias Scholasticus, ''Syriac Chronicle'', v.1
[3].
Secondary sources
★
The Cambridge Ancient History, , John, Boardman, Cambridge University Press, 1982, ISBN 0-521-32591-9
★
History of the Later Roman Empire, , John Bagnall, Bury, Dover Books, 1958,
★
Flavius Basiliscus (AD 475–476)
★
The Rome That Did Not Fall, , Gerard, Friell, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-415-15403-0
★
Zwei Aspekte des Jahres 476, , Stephen, Krautschick, Historia, 1986
★
Late Roman Warlords, , Penny, Macgeorge, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-925244-0
★
The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, , J.R., Martindale, Cambridge University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4
★
Pope St. Simplicius Catholic Encyclopedia
★
The Council of Chalcedon Re-Examined, , Vilakuvel Cherian, Samuel, Xlibris Corporation, 2001, ISBN 1-4010-1644-8
★
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, , William, Smith, C. Little and J. Brown, ,
External links
★ Coinage of Basiliscus:
★
★
at wildwinds.com
★
★
at dirtyoldcoins.com
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