Ariadne
450 – 515 · Generation IX · Empress · Leonid
Ariadne (AD 450 – 515). Empress. Married Zeno around AD 467. Married Anastasius around AD 491. Eldest daughter of Leo I; wife successively of Zeno and Anastasius I. Her mother was Verina, sister of Basiliscus. Her marriage in 467 to the Isaurian officer Tarasicodissa — who took the name Zeno — sealed his alliance with her father, who was turning from Aspar, and within a year she bore a son, Leo II. When her father died in 474, she and Verina persuaded the boy emperor to crown Zeno as his colleague, and on Leo II’s death that November she became empress. She was still empress when Zeno recovered his capital from the usurper Basiliscus in 476. In 479 she quarrelled with Zeno over her imprisoned mother, and the assassin she sent against the general Illus only cut off his ear. Widowed in 491, she chose the palace official Anastasius as both emperor and husband, preferring him to Zeno’s brother Longinus. She was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles and is venerated as an Orthodox saint.
One of 9 people of Leonid (401–518) in this archive. Leo I’s house — the first emperors crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Parents
Siblings
- Leontia (457 – ?)
Partners
- Married Zeno (425 – 491) in 467 — one child together
- Married Anastasius I (430 – 518) in 491
Children
- Leo II (467 – 474)
Life
- 450 — Born
- 467 — Married Zeno
- 491 — Married Anastasius
- 515 — Died