As soon as the news of Emperor Marcian's death reached Alexandria, the monophysites took steps to reverse Marcian's decree which was forced upon them by military actions. Violence hit the streets and during the riots, the Patriarch Proterius was killed. One could rightly think it was premeditated although we will never know. The religious violence of Alexandria had always been a chaotic and uncontrollable affair. After Proterius' death, the Alexandrians elected a monophysite patriarch named Timotheus Aelurus. In this region, the monophysites were a large majority of the Christian population. To this day they remain so as the Coptic Church. It should be noted that religious violence has never left the streets of Alexandria. In the Spring of 2006, Coptics and Muslims rioted, injured and killed each other in the streets. Monophysite Christians make up almost ten million of Egypt's population and have generally coexisted much better than did the Nicenes and the monophysites of late antiquity.
At this point, Aspar was still powerful in the imperial court and supported the tribune Leo's rise to power. Marcian's son-in-law Anthemius would have normally been the first choice but he did not have enough support from the military. Leo was acclaimed at the Palace of Hebdomon on February 7, 457 in the presence of the senate, officials, the clergy and the army's Scholarian Guard which protected Constantinople. Anthemius did eventually go on to become emperor in the west.
Leo's coronation was the first instance of an emperor being crowned by a leader of the Church. After Leo was crowned by Patriarch Anatolius, the assembly exclaimed,
"Leo Augustus, thou conquerest! God gave thee, God will keep thee. A long reign! God will protect the Christian Empire!"
Emperor Leo the first was born in 401 in the Balkan region of Thracia or Dacia. As a successful military officer he rose to the position of Tribune in Mattiarii regiment by 457. Leo and his wife had two daughters, Ariadne and Leontia, and a son that died in infancy.
Like the Nicene emperors of the past who were allied with the clergy, Leo opposed Christian heretics and pagans with his words and deeds. Leo's first test came from the violence of Alexandria and Pope Leo's letter requesting him to remove the monophysite patriarch. The orthodox Timotheus Salophaciolus was chosen to replace Aelurus. Since it was a time when the vast majority under the Alexandrian See were monophysites it was necessary once again to use the military to force the Nicene point of view on the Alexandrians. Just as Proterius was placed in power by Marcian's military force, so was Timotheus Salophaciolus by Leo's in 460.
JB Bury noted in Volume I, page 358 of his book, The Later Roman Empire:
"Throughout the reign of Leo I the dispute over the incarnation led to scenes of the utmost violence in Alexandria and to occurrences harldy less scandalous in Antioch"
Heretics weren't the only targets. In 467, the imperial court official Isocasius was arrested for being a pagan. Imagine a world where you get arrested for not having the state sponsored religious viewpoint. This is very similar to the intolerant ideological mindset of the 20th century's worst dictatorsips. Isocasius was acquitted because he converted under torture. The article on Emperor Leo in
Henry Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D. puts it this way,
When Isocasius, a philosopher and magistrate of Antioch, was forced by torture to accept baptism at Constantinople, the emperor seems to have personally superintended the deed. ...The same year he passed stern laws against paganism...
This arrest of a pagan lawyer and philosopher apparently led to Leo's decree in 468 banning everyone but Christians from practicing law. Here again, we see the state and church alliance attacking the basic rights of those who have a different religious viewpoint. Jews were persecuted in the same way with combinations of imperial decrees and church canon. Leo, in his desire to outlaw Judasm and force Christianity upon Jewish people, declared in Constitution LV of the Constitutions of Leo.
"Therefore We, desiring to accomplish what Our Father failed to effect, do hereby annul all the old laws enacted with reference to the Hebrews, and We order that they shall not dare to live in any other manner than in accordance with the rules established by the pure and salutary Christian Faith. And if anyone of them should be proved to, have neglected to observe the ceremonies of the Christian religion, and to have returned to his former practices, he shall pay the penalty prescribed by the law for apostates."
(Leo's Constitution is part of the Justinian's Civil Law. To read great historical documents such as the Twelve Tablets, the Roman Jurists Gaius, Ulpianus, Paulus and other parts of the Justinian Code go to the Index page of Civil Law at Constitution.org)
Now Jews had to pretend they were Christians and observe its ceremonies. Penalties for apostacy included losing one's estate or possessions, losing testamentary rights, and exile. Some punishments regarding Jew from the time of Constantine included death. The laws against apostacy were first decreed in order to prevent pagans from returning to their former religion. They were designed to force Christanity upon people. The use of fear, guilt, threats of loss, and diverse punishments is the way religions acquire and keep believers. American Founder Thomas Paine opined that Judaism, Islam and Christianity were all creations designed to enslave mankind.
With Emperor Leo's government being wedded to church canon, in 469 he issued an extremely strict decree regarding the Sabbath. Part or all of the decree can be found in chapter 19 of J.N. Andrews 1873 book The History of the Sabbath. With a violation of this law supported by church and state one could lose all their possessions or estate! This law shows not only deep and feverish fanaticism but a complete lack of any sense of justice:
"It is our will and pleasure, that the holy days dedicated to the most high God, should not be spent in sensual recreations, or otherwise prophaned by suits of law, especially the Lord's day, which we decree to be a venerable day, and therefore free it of all citations, executions, pleadings, and the like avocations. Let not the circus or theater be opened, nor combating with wild beasts be seen on it."
"If any will presume to offend in the premises, if he be a military man, let him lose his commission; or if other, let his estate or goods be confiscated."
"We command therefore all, as well husbandmen as others, to forbear work on this day of our restoration."
The reason why I say all or part of the decree is that the author may have excerpted only parts. And he excerpts it from another secondary source. The article on Emperor Leo in
Henry Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., cing an historian who records the entire edict, claims that,
He forbade judicial proceedings on that day, and even the playing of lyre, harp, or other musical instrument
Not only were all judicial activities outlawed, playing musical instruments on Sunday was now a serious crime. Remember that the same mindset made laws that made religiously incorrect belief an act of treason!. This decree of Leo's oulawed the immensely popular Sunday theaters of the times which religious zealots have always had problems with. Today's diatribes by religious conservative against Hollywood and artists typify the age old religious hatred for freedom of expression in the arts, sciences and humanities. The First Amendment guarantees of liberties of conscience has truly made right wing strategies very difficult if not impossible to enact. In several significant ways, the Constitution is an opponent of religious conservatism as law. Only as laws were deemed impractical, repealed or realized as unconstitutional did Sabbath keeping and Sunday closing laws in the United States disappear. Like the religious tests of the old legal order prior to the ratification of the Constitution, Sunday blue laws were incompatible with the Constitution because they force a religious tradition and belief on people who have different beliefs. Only tradition compelled the founders to institute the Sundays excepted rule because having days of rest for the government makes common sense even in a non-religious set of laws. Having weekends off (or other days in different fields of work) makes sense in a variety of human affairs for simple and practical reasons. But the prohibition against playing of music, dancing, entertainment, theater and open businesses that came out of religious belief has always been unconstitutional since the ratification. They are laws from the old legal order that was overturned by the US Constitution. It was the end of an age of hostility towards diversity, pluralsm, personal dignity and individual freedom. This hostility lasted right into the American Revolution when states still required religious tests. Those were banned by Article 6, Clause 3. Yes, that is right, all the Colonial charters and the majority of State constitutions were full of religious clauses that are now unconstitutional. The "So help me God" in the oaths of colonial charters and laws that some still insist upon using in this new order - was eliminated from the Presidential oath in the United States Constitution. To require it would be to require a religious test which became illegal under Article 6. The activists of the religious right fail to see these facts because there is a feverish psychological make-up within those that seek to use the state to force their religious views upon the population. It has always been so.
During Leo's reign, the Persian front remained quiet. The treaty between Theodosius and Sassanid Persians held during Leo's reign. Though Marcian had formed alliances with some tribes previously under Hun domination, two Gothic groups under Theodoric Strabo and Valamir crossed the Danube into the Balkans. Leo acted militarily and a treaty with Valamar was agreed to in 459. part of the agreement included a small subsidy for the Goths. Other tribes were also on the move into the empire's territories. Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars were moving into the transdanubian area. Leo strengthened the Roman forces guarding the Danube which checked Dengizech's Huns. Although Attila's Empire disintegrated Huns under Dengizech were on the move until 469. Leo chose to send Roman forces beyond the empire's borders in order to control the tribes before they could cross the Danube.
In 466, Aspar's son Arbadurus who was appointed Master of Soldiers by Marcian was convicted of treachery. Evidence of Arbadur's treachery brought to court by another military leader named Zeno. When younger, Zeno's name had been Tarasicodissa. He was an Isaurian from the area we now call Armenia. The divide between Aspar's camp and Zeno's only got worse over time. Zeno the Nicene and Aspar the Arianist. Zeno was favored by Leo because in 466 Leo's daughter Ariadne married Zeno.
Zeno was part of the anti-German factions in the east. Germanic influence was increasing in the east and it already was a major political and military force in the west. To add more religious strife to the empire, the vast majority of the Germans were Arianists which made them a threat to the spread of the Nicene hegemony. The west was being overrun by heretics and barbarians! While the eastern emperors were able to force the Nicene view on the Sees of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem with the military, it was an impossible task against the Germans. Leo sought to address the German problem within the palace by creating the Excubitors, a new palace guard formed of non-Germans. The Excubitors attracted many of Zeno's fellow Isaurians. Leo felt that a guard could be created that had non-German soldiers that were just as good as the German soldiers. The Germans had the reputation as the finest fighters in the empire and Rome's continuing demise made that painfully apparent.
Militarily, there were problems other than those of the Danubian and Balkan regions. By 468, the Vandal Kingdom of Arianist Christans centered in Carthage was becoming a big problem in the Mediterranean. Leo organized a major Roman naval and ground offensive to invade Carthage in which both east and west sent forces. Western troops were under Marcellinus and the eastern troops under Basiliscus, who was Leo's brother-in-law. The offensive was a complete failure and it was very expensive. Over 1000 ships and 100,000 soldiers participated. Basiliscus was an incompetent military leader and some were accused of deliberate failures. As a result, Aspar was accused of treason by somehow aiding the Vandal leader Geiseric. Between accusations of treason and incompetence, blame was spread to many quarters. As result, Zeno was made Master of Soldiers by Zeno in 469. To make it even more complex, Basiliscus favored the monophysite point of view. We could postulate as many have that the Arian Aspar and the monophysite Basiliscus conspired in a way that would insure that the Arian kingdom remained powerful. Neither of these men had any reason to support the spread of the Nicene hegemony.
In 470, Zeno was sent northward to deal with the Hun problem. Aspar then took advantage of his rival being gone and pushed for Leo to fullfill his two promises. Patricus was promised the rank of Ceasar and marriage to Leo's daughter Leontia. As soon as Patricus became Ceasar there was rioting in the streets. Violence spread and people died because Patricus was an Arian Christian and they were heretics by law. Not only was Arianism legally sanctioned, heretics had been declareddemented and insane by the imperial decrees of emperors Theodosius the Great and Gratian in the late fourth century. As was the habit of the times, hoards of Nicene monks contributed much to the violence as the leaders looked the other way. This is much like Bshop Ambrose berating Theodosius for ordering synagogues that were burned down by Christians to be rebuilt. Ambrose was successful in having the synagogues remain smoldering ruins which eventually became the foundations of Christian churches. In that day the rank of Ceasar was considered a stepping stone to the throne so having an Arianist Ceasar brought about the rioting in the streets. An Arian emperor was unthinkable to the clergy and their fanatical followers and monks.
The historian Zosimus commented on these monks in Book 5 Chapter 23,
"They renounce legal marriages and fill their populous institutions in cities and villages with celibate people, useless either for war or for any service to the State; but gradually growing from the time of Arcadius to the present day they have appropriated the greater part of the earth, and on the pretext of sharing all with the poor they have, so to speak, reduced all to poverty."
These are the same kinds of monks that murdered so many Jews and Pagans in Alexandria during Patriarchs Theophilus' and Cyril's leadership. These are the same monks that destroyed thousands of pagan temples, shrines, groves and altars. These are the same people that burned down Jewish synagogues because Jews crucified Christ. These are the same kind of people that drove the Jews from Alexandria and aided Cyril in stealing the Novation churches for Nicene use. Like the monks of the monasteries of Saint Martin of Tours, these monks hated this life, ignored hygiene and lived in a communistic way of despising belongings and property.
In 470 Leo learned that Arbadurus encouraged rebellion by Anagastes, the Master of Soldiers in Thrace. With the anti-German sentiments growing, the Arianism of Patricus Ceasar, and now the accusation of inciting rebellion, Zeno convinced Leo it was time to eliminate Aspar and his sons. In 471 Leo ordered the deaths of Aspar and his sons while in the palace. From this event Leo earned the nickname of Makelles which means the butcher. Aspar and Arbaduras lost their lives in a palace bloodbath. JB Bury claims in his Later Roman Empire that Patricus was wounded but recovered and a third son, Ermanaric escaped. The Catholic Encyclopedia claims that Aspar and Arbadur fled to a church first but Leo assured them of their safety. Leo had previously decreed in 466 that churches were safe places of asylum. By deceiving them into leaving the church, Aspar and his son could be murdered back in the palace.
The Gothic and Arian Christian allies of Aspar were furious and sought revenge. Under Count Ostrys, troops stormed the palace but were beaten back by the Leo's Excubitors. The count and his army were chased out of Constantinople and then fled to Thrace. Leo immediately issued a decree against Arian churches, closing them and forbidding the Arians to assemble.
While Constantinople was mired in court intrigues and religious controversy, Theodoric Strabo, a relative of Aspar, saw his opportunity. Strabo pillaged and plundered the cities of Philippopolis (now Plovdid) and Arcadiopolis (now Luleburgaz) until an agreement was reached in 473. Leo recognized Strabo's kingship, appointed him magister militum praesentalis and paid out an annual subsidy as long as the Goth army would now begin to fight only for the empire.
About this time Leo was getting quite sick so in October of 473 he declared his 7 year old grandchild Leo Ceasar. Leo was then promoted to Augustus around the time of Leo's death. Soon after, young Leo's father Zeno was acclaimed as co-emperor and then the boy died soon afterward. In those days it could have been poor childhood health or it could have been murder for power. The murder of a child for political power would not have been anything new in the imperial courts of many an age and nation.