Ariadne (Empress)

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Ariadne (?) On a diptych in the Bargello , Florence .

Aelia Ariadne ( Middle Greek Αἰλία Ἀριάδνη ; * around 450; † 515 in Constantinople ) was the wife of the Eastern Roman emperor Zenon (474–491) and his successor Anastasios I (491–518).

Life

Ariadne was the elder daughter of the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I and Verina . At the turn of the year 466/467 she was married to the Isaurian guard commander Tarasicodissa, who advanced to the throne under the name Zenon. Her younger sister Leontia was engaged to Patricius , a son of the powerful army master Aspar , and after his overthrow (471) married the younger Marcianus , son of the Western Roman emperor Anthemius .

In 467 Ariadne gave birth to a boy who was briefly emperor in 474 under the name Leo II . When Zenon was made co-emperor by his little son on January 29, 474, Ariadne rose to the rank of Augusta . Ariadne accompanied Zeno into exile in Cilicia after the usurpation of her uncle Basiliscus in January 475 and returned with him to Constantinople 20 months later.

In 479, Ariadne came into conflict with the emperor over the fate of her scheming mother. Verina had arranged an assassination attempt on the army master Illus and had fallen into his hands; during her imprisonment she supported the rebellion of Marcianus against Zenon. Ariadne tried in vain to get her mother released, who died in 484 while being held hostage.

When Zenon died on April 9, 491 without heir to the throne, his brother Longinus, and with him the Isaurian court party, hoped for a successor. However, under the pressure of public opinion, which demanded a "Roman emperor", Ariadne decided in favor of the silentiarius Anastasios, whom she married on May 20 and thus dynastically legitimized as the new ruler. The marriage remained childless.

Ariadne died in Constantinople in 515 and was buried in the Apostle Church.

literature

  • Patricia Coyne: Priscian of Caesarea's De laude Anastasii Imperatoris. E. Mellen Press, Lewiston (ME) 1991 ( Studies in Classics , Vol. 1).
  • Anne L. McClanan: Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Image and Empire. Palgrave, New York 2002, pp. 65-92, ISBN 0-312-29492-1 .
  • Silke Köhn: Ariadne on Naxos. Reception and history of motifs from antiquity to 1600 . Utz Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89675-660-5 (there p. 100ff.).

Web links

Commons : Ariadne  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ariadne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aelia Ariadne; Αίλια Αριάδνη (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Eastern Roman empress, wife of Zenon and Anastasios I.
DATE OF BIRTH around 450
DATE OF DEATH 515
Place of death Constantinople