Procopius Anthemius

Flavius Procopius Anthemius (fl. 469–515 AD) was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, son of Western Roman Emperor Anthemius.

Biography

Procopius was the son of Anthemius and of Marcia Euphemia, daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor. His brothers were Anthemiolus, Marcian and Romulus; he also had a sister, Alypia.

He lived at Constantinople, at Eastern Emperor Leo I's court, while his father shortly ruled on the Western Roman Empire (467-472), unsuccessfully trying to restore the Roman power in the Western provinces beyond Italy and Gaul. During this time, his brother Anthemiolus died while leading an attack against the Visigoths (in 471) and his sister Alypia married the powerful magister militum of barbarian origin Ricimer.

In 474, Leo died. He had left no sons and two daughters, the elder Ariadne, born before Leo was raised to the throne and married to the Isaurian general Zeno, and the younger Leontia, born when Leo was already emperor and married to Procopius' brother, Marcian.

The people of Constantinople despised the Isaurians, whom they considered barbarians; furthermore, Leontia's status as "porphyrogenita" gave her some sort of precedence to the throne, according to the faction that opposed Zeno. For this reason Marcian tried to overthrow Zeno. With the help of Procopius and Romulus, he gathered in Constantinople troops composed by both citizens and foreigners in the house of a Caesarius, south of the Forum of Theodosius, and from there they marched at the same time on the imperial palace and on the house of Illus an Isaurian general supporter of Zeno. The emperor almost fell in the hands of the rebels, who, during the day, overwhelmed the imperial troops, who were hit also by the citizens from the roofs of their houses. During the night, however, Illus succeeded in moving inside Constantinople an Isaurian unit whose quarters were in the nearby Chalcedonia and in corrupting Marcian's soldiers, who allowed Zeno to flee. On the following morning Marcian, understanding that his situation was desperate and that the reinforcements of the Gothic general Theodoric Strabo would have not arrive in time, took refuge in the church of the Holy Apostles, but was arrested with his brothers.

They were sent to Caesarea in Cappadocia. With the help of some monks, they tried to escape, but Marcian failed, while Procopius fled in Thrace to Theodoric Strabo^[1][2] (who refused to handle him to Zeno)^[3] and then at Rome.^[1]

Later Procopius returned to Constantinople, under Emperor Anastasius I (491-518). Empress Ariadne asked to Anastasius, whom she had married after Zeno's death, to appoint Procopius praetorian prefect; Anastasius refused, saying that the office required more learning that Procopius had.^[4] Nonetheless in 515 he held the consulship.^[5]

Procopius might be the Anthemius, husband of Herais and father of a Zeno betrothed to a nephew of Emperor Zeno; this Anthemius was probably a patricius.^[6]

Notes

1. Theodorus Lector, Epitome 420.
2. John of Antioch, fragment 211.3.
3. Malchus, fragment 19.
4. John Lydus, De mag. III.50.
5. CIL XII, 1792; CIL XII, 2067; CIL XII, 2421; CIL XIII, 10032; John of Antioch, fragment 214e.15. A leaf of his consular diptych was found in Limoges around 1708 and lost in the 19th century (Ralph W. Mathisen, Ruricius of Limoges and friends, Liverpool University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-85323-703-4, p. 21).
6. Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Anthemius 5", Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4, p. 98.

Bibliography

• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Procopius Anthemius 9", Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4, p. 99.
• Mathisen, Ralph W., "Anthemius (12 April 467 - 11 July 472 A.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis