Verina

Aelia Verina

Aelia Verina (* 432 , † 484 ) was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo I .

Life

Through her daughter Ariadne , Verina was the mother-in-law of the Emperor Zenon . Nothing is known about their origin.

She supported her son-in-law when the young Emperor Leo II , his son and her grandson, were still alive, but turned against him after his death in 474. Together with her lover Patricius, her brother Basiliskos , the Isaurian general Illus and the general Theoderich Strabo , she conspired against Zenon and forced him to flee from Constantinople in 475 . Basiliscus became emperor for a short time until Verina made peace with Zenon again in 476.

Now Verina turned against Illus, who discovered the conspiracy and, with Zenon's consent, threw them into prison. This in turn led to an uprising by her son-in-law Markian , a grandson of the emperor of the same name , in which he was defeated. The younger Markian then went into exile.

483 requested Zenon Illus to release Verina, whereupon Illus allied himself with Verina (probably due to the sympathy of the emperor for the Monophysites ) and raised a general Leontius to emperor, which Zeno also defeated. Illus and Verina fled to Isauria, where she died in 484.

Web links

• Geoffrey B. Greatrex: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).