Leo I
401 – 474 · Generation VIII · Emperor (r. 457–474) · Leonid
Leo (AD 401 – 474). Emperor (r. 457–474). Married Verina. Founder of the Leonid dynasty. Raised to the purple by the Alan generalissimo Aspar, who expected a pliable ruler, Leo instead pulled free of his patron, allied with the Isaurians, and had Aspar’s son killed after a plot against him. His coronation was the first to weave a Christian rite into the Roman ceremony – the patriarch setting the crown on his head, a gesture courts across Europe would imitate – and he was the first eastern emperor to legislate in Greek rather than Latin. He installed Anthemius as emperor in the West and launched a colossal expedition against the Vandals in 468, which failed under Basiliscus’s leadership and drained the empire of men and gold. He died of dysentery and is honoured as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
One of 8 people of Leonid (401–518) in this archive. Leo I’s house — the first emperors crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Partners
- Married Verina (440 – 484) — 2 children together