The eastern half of the empire survived the troubles of the fifth century for a variety of reasons: a healthier economy, more diversified pattern of urban and rural relationships and markets, and a more solid tax-base, for Constantinople had Egypt and the rich provinces of Syria at its disposal. In addition, eastern diplomacy encouraged barbarian leaders to look westward, while at the same time the walls of Constantinople—newly-built on a massive scale under Theodosios II (408-50)— rendered any attempt to take that city fruitless. The magistri militum (masters of the soldiers) who commanded the imperial field forces nevertheless remained for the most part of German origin and continued to dominate the court. Only with the appointment of the emperor Leo I (457-74) was this cycle broken, for Leo, although a candidate promoted by the master of soldiers Aspar, the ‘king-maker’, was able to take the initiative (through using Isaurian mercenaries) and during the last years of his reign rid himself of Aspar. Leo I was succeeded by his grandson Leo II, the son of a certain Zeno, who had married Leo Ts daughter and was commander of the excubitores, Leo’s Isaurian guards. When Leo died in 474, Zeno became sole emperor. After defeating a coup d’etat and winning a civil war (which lasted for much of his reign) with the help of Gothic mercenaries, whom he was then able to send to Italy on the pretext of restoring imperial rule there, Zeno died in 491.
His successor was Anastasios (491-518), an able civil official chosen by Zeno’s empress Ariadne with the support of the leading officers and court officials. An Isaurian rebellion was crushed in 498, an invasion of‘Slavs’ eventually repulsed, and a campaign against the Persians finally concluded successfully in 506. Anastasios’ most important act was a reform of the precious-metal coinage of the empire, through which he stabilized the gold coinage and the relationship between it and and the copper coinage.
World History
