Petronius Maximus (455 A.D.)
Avitus (455 - 456 A.D.)
Leo I (457 - 474 A.D.)
Verina
Leo II (473 - 474 A.D.)
Majorian (457 - 461 A.D.)
Severus III (461 - 465 A.D.)
Anthemius (467 - 472 A.D.)
Olybrius (472 A.D.)
Glycerius (473 - 474 A.D.)
Julius Nepos (474 - 475 A.D.)
Romulus Augustus (475 - 476 A.D.)
Zeno (474 - 491 A.D.)
Ariadne
Basiliscus (475 - 476 A.D.)
Zeno And Leo Caesars
Leontius (484 - 488 A.D.)
Anastasius I (491 - 515 A.D.)
The descriptions below are based mainly on those in "Roman Coins and their values" by David R Sear
Born in 395 A.D., Petronius Maximus was a member of the senatorial family of the Anicii, and later in the reign of Honorius he became one of the most prominent senators at Rome. He held a succession of important offices under Honorius and Valentinian III, and in 455 his ambition drove him to make a bid for the throne itself. He arranged for the assassination of Valentinian III, after which he was proclaimed emperor (March 17th). His position was soon threatened, however, by the Vandal king, Gaiseric, who sailed from Carthage with a large fleet towards Rome. Maximus was panic-stricken and fled from the city, but as he was riding through the streets he was attacked and killed by the mob (May 31st).
Marcus Maecilius Flavius Eparchius Avitus was descended from one of the noble families of Gaul. He was the commander of the troops in his native province at the time of the death of Petronius Maximus. The Visigothic king, Theodoric II, persuaded him to claim the vacant throne of the West, and on July 10th, 455, he was proclaimed emperor at Toulouse by the Goths. Although he was popular in Gaul, the new emperor was unpopular at Rome, and when he stripped the bronze from the roofs of public buildings in order to pay his Gothic allies, the Romans finally revolted and Avitus fled the city. He was later defeated at Placentia by the general Ricimer and then deposed from the throne (October 17th, 456). The bishopric of Placentia was immediately bestowed upon him, but he died soon afterwards.
Leo was a native of Dacia and an experienced military man, though of little education, He was proclaimed emperor soon after the death of Marcian, early in 457 A.D. At this time, the army of the East was composed almost entirely of Germans and other foreigners. By recruiting a large numbers of Isaurians, he was able to destroy the power of the German military faction which was threatening the security of the State. In 473 Leo contracted a serious illness and he thereupon raised his infant grandson, Leo II, to the rank of Augustus in order to settle the question of succession. He died on February 3rd 474, at the age of 63.
Aelia Verina was the wife of Leo I and the mother-in-law of Zeno. After the death of her husband in 474 she continued to play a leading part in political life, and was implicated in two serious revolts against Zeno - that of her brother Basilscus (475-476) and that of Leontius (484-488). She eventually died at the Isaurian fortress of Cherris in the autumn of 484 A.D., after having witnessed the failure of the revolt of Leontius.
Leo II, the son of Zeno and Ariadne, was born about 467 A.D. and was raised to the rank of Augustus by his grandfather, Leo I, in October, 473. Following the death of Leo I, less than four months later, the infant Leo II was left as sole ruler, but he was a sickly child and it was feared that he had not long to live. Accordingly, the empresses Ariadne and Verina instructed him to crown his father co-emperor, and the coronation of Zeno took place in the Hippodrome on February 9th, 474. Leo II died nine months later, leaving Zeno sole occupant of the imperial throne.
Following the deposition of Avitus in October, 456, there was an interval of nearly six months before the next emperor, Julius Valerianus Majorianus, came to the throne. Descended from an old Roman family, Majorian had served with distinction under Aetius, and he soon proved himself to be a much worthier emperor than any of his immediate predecessors. He entered Gaul late in 458 and defeated the Visigoths near Arelate, and then prepared for an attack on the Vandals in Africa. A great fleet was assembled in the Spanish port of Alicante, but the Vandals succeeded in destroying most of the Roman ships before the expedition had even set out (460 A.D.). Majorian returned to Italy the following year, but at Tortona he was arrested, deposed and executed by the order of the general Ricimer.
Of Lucanian origin, Libius Severus was proclaimed emperor at Ravenna on November 19th, 461 A.D., nearly four months after the death of Majorian. He was, however, a mere puppet-emperor and left the administration of the State to the general Ricimer, who had secured his elevation. He died after an insignificant reign of four years.
For about a year and a half following the death of Severus III the Western throne remained vacant, but in 467 A.D., Leo selected the patrician Procopius Anthemius to be his colleague in the government of the Empire. Anthemius, who was the son-in-law of the emperor Marcian, immediately went to Italy and was proclaimed emperor near Rome on April 12th. His daughter Alypia and the general Ricimer were married soon afterwards, but despite this, relations between the emperor and his general became increasingly strained. Finally, in 472, Ricimer set up a rival emperor, Anicius Olybrius, and Anthemius was besieged in Rome. After a long siege the city finally fell, and Anthemius, disguised as a beggar, sought refuge in one of the churches. He was soon recognized however, by Ricimer's nephew, Gundobad, and immediately beheaded (July 11th, 472).
Anicius Olybrius was descended from the great senatorial family of the Anicii. He was a senator at Rome at the time of the sack of the city by the Vandals in 455 A.D. He succeeded in escaping to Constantinople where, in 462, he married Placidia, daughter of Valentine III. Early in 472 he returned to Italy and was proclaimed emperor by the general Ricimer soon after his arrival, but died of dropsy on November 2nd, after a reign of a little more than six months.
The throne of the Western division of the Empire remained vacant for over four months following the death of Olybrius in November, 472. A successor was eventually found in the person of Glycerius, Count of the Domestics, who was proclaimed emperor at Ravenna by Gundobad, the Master of Soldiers. The government of Constantinople, however, refused to recognize his elevation and Julius Nepos, the military governor of Dalmatia and a relative by marriage of the Imperial Family, was sent to Italy to depose the usurper and to ascend the Western throne as the successor of the last legitimate emperor, Anthemius. Glycerius, having been deserted by Gundobad, was unable to stop Julius Nepos, and at Portus, near the mouth of the Tiber, he was dethroned and forcibly consecrated bishop of Salona (June 24th, 474).
Following the dethronement of Glycerius in June, 474, Julius Nepos was proclaimed emperor and once more two Augusti reigned together. In the summer of 475, however, the barbarian troops in Italy were incited to rebellion by Orestes, the Master of Soldiers, and Nepos fled from Rome to Ravenna. On August 28th the he left Italy for Dalmatia where he remained as an emperor in exile until his death five years later.
Romulus Augustus, nicknamed Augustulus, was the infant son of the general Orestes who proclaimed him emperor at the end of October, 475, two months after the flight of Nepos. Orestes administered Italy in the name of his son until late August, 476, when his barbarian mercenaries mutinied and proclaimed Odovacar king. Orestes was captured and beheaded at Placentia, and the helpless Augustulus was deposed at Ravenna and permitted by Odovacar to retire to a Campanian villa.
To the emperor Zeno at Constantinople, Odovacar sent the Imperial insignia which Augustulus had worn, together with a deputation of Roman senators who declared that the West no longer required a separate emperor. Zeno conferred upon Odovacar the title of Patrician and the rank of Master of Soldiers, and the whole Empire was once more united under the rule of one Augustus, though most of the Western provinces had now been conquered by Germanic invaders and had become Teutonic kingdoms.
During the reign of Leo I, the Isaurian chieftain Tarasicodissa came to Constantinople where he changed his name to Zeno and, in 467 A.D., married the emperor's elder daughter, Ariadne. Leo II, the son of Zeno and Ariadne, succeeded Leo I on February 3rd, 474, and six days later the young ruler crowned his father co-emperor. Zeno became sole emperor on the death of Leo II later the same year. He was very unpopular because of his Isaurian origin, and he had to fight off attacks by the Ostrogoths as well as frequent revolts and usurpations. He died following an attack of epilepsy on April 9th, 491.
The elder daughter of Leo land Verina, Aelia Ariadne was married to Zeno in 467 A.D. Following the death of her husband in 491, she was called upon to select a successor to the Imperial throne, and her choice fell upon the elderly Anastasius of Dyrrhachium whom she married a few weeks later. She died in 515.
Basiliscus was the brother of the empress Verina and was appointed commander of the great expedition which was sent against the Vandals in 468 A.D. Following the failure of this foray, which was due entirely to the incompetence of its commander, Basiliscus retired in disgrace to Heraclea, but six years later he formed a conspiracy with his sister against the emperor Zeno. On January 9th, 475, Zeno fled from Constantinople and Basilscus was proclaimed emperor, but the new ruler soon made himself extremely unpopular through his unorthodox religious policy, and in August of the following year Zeno was able to re-enter the city. Basiliscus was deposed and sent, together with his wife, Zenonis, and his son, Marcus, to Cucusus in Cappadocia, where all three were beheaded.
The names of these two princes are not known, their coins being the only evidence of their existence. They may have been the younger sons of Basilicus and brothers to Marcus.
In A.D. 484 the Isaurian general Illus rebelled against Zeno. First of all he set up Marcian, the son of Anthemius, as a rival emperor, but soon afterwards he deposed him and elevated the patrician Leontius in his place. Verina, who had been a prisoner of Illus since 479, performed the ceremony of coronation at Tarsus, but in a battle fought soon afterwards the forces of Zeno were victorious and the rebels fled to the Isaurian fortress of Cherris. The siege of the fortress continued for nearly four years, but it was eventually taken by treachery, and Leontius and Illus were both beheaded (488 A.D.).
Born at Dyrrhachium about 430 A.D., Anastasius was a silentiary (usher at the Imperial Palace) at the time of the death of Zeno in 491. He was selected for the succession by the widowed empress and crowned by the patriarch on April 11th: six weeks later he married Ariadne.
In 498 A.D. Anastasius carried out a monetary reform, and this is, therefore, a convenient point at which to terminate the Roman coinage and to begin the Byzantine. Anastasius therefore is considered the last Roman emperor and the first Byzantine, although at the time, the Roman Empire continued unchanged, based at Constantinople. Anastasius's Byzantine Coinage
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