Anastasius I Dicorus (Ancient Greek: Ἀναστάσιος, romanized: Anastásios, Latin: Anastasius; c. 430 – 9 July 518) was Eastern Roman emperor from 491 to 518. A career civil servant, he came to the throne at the age of 61 after being chosen by Ariadne, the wife of his predecessor, Zeno. His reign was characterized by reforms and improvements in the empire's government, finances, economy and bureaucracy. The resulting stable government, reinvigorated monetary economy and sizeable budget surplus allowed the empire to pursue more ambitious policies under his successors, most notably Justinian I. Since many of Anastasius' reforms proved long-lasting, his influence over the empire endured for centuries.
Anastasius was a Monophysite Christian and his personal religious tendencies caused tensions throughout his reign in the empire that was becoming increasingly divided along religious lines. He was the last non-Chalcedonian to rule the Byzantine Empire (although Heraclius similarly tried to push a middle ground belief, namely Monothelitism, to unite the Monophysites, Miaphysites and Diophysites of the empire, but was also ultimately unsuccessful and condemned by the Orthodox Church).
Anastasius was born at Dyrrachium; the date is unknown, but is thought to have been no later than 431. He was born into an Illyro-Roman family. Anastasius had one black eye and one blue eye (heterochromia), and for that reason he was nicknamed Dicorus (Ancient Greek: Δίκορος, romanized: Díkoros, "two-pupiled"). Before becoming emperor, Anastasius was a silentiary.
Anastasius is known to have had a brother named Paulus, who served as consul in 496. With a woman known as Magna, Paulus was father to Irene, who married Olybrius. This Olybrius was the son of Anicia Juliana and Areobindus Dagalaifus Areobindus. The daughter of Olybrius and Irene was named Proba. She married Probus and was mother to a younger Juliana. This younger Juliana married her possible relative another Anastasius, son of Anastasius and maternal grandson of Theodora, and was mother of Areobindus, Placidia, and a younger Proba, who married (Flavius) Anastasius, born in 530, and mothered Areobindus, born in 550, and Placidia, born in 552 and wife of John Mystacon. Another nephew of Anastasius was Probus, consul in 502. Anastasius' sister, Caesaria, married Secundinus, and gave birth to Hypatius and Pompeius. Anastasius, consul in 518, was a great-nephew of Anastasius. His daughter Juliana later married Marcellus, a brother of Justin II. The extensive family may well have included several viable candidates for the throne.
Historian Anthony Kaldellis notes that Anastasius, while he had no apparent need to emphasize his origin, proclaimed after his coronation, in an attempt to prove his Romanness, that his family had a noble Roman lineage, tracing their descent back to the Roman general Pompey the Great.
In the weeks following the death of Zeno (491), crowds gathered in the Hippodrome of Constantinople and demanded a Chalcedonian and properly Roman successor, chanting "Give the Empire an Orthodox emperor! Give the Empire a Roman Emperor!" Under such pressure, Ariadne, Zeno's widow, turned to Anastasius. Anastasius was in his sixties at the time of his ascension to the throne. Ariadne chose Anastasius over Zeno's brother Longinus, which upset the Isaurians. Once he took office, Anastasius exiled Longinus and purged a number of Isaurian officials from government. Religiously, Anastasius' sympathies were with the Monophysites. Consequently, as a condition of his accession, the patriarch of Constantinople required that he pledge not to repudiate the Council of Chalcedon.
Ariadne married Anastasius on 20 May 491, shortly after his accession on 11 April. He gained popular favour by a judicious remission of taxation, in particular by abolishing the hated tax on receipts, which was mostly paid by the poor. He displayed great vigour and energy in administering the affairs of the empire. His reforms improved the empire's tax base and pulled it from financial depression and bleak morale. By the end of his reign, it is claimed that the treasury had 320,000 lb gold reserve.
Not long after his accession, the circus factions caused riots and set fires around the Hippodrome. Though its exact cause is unclear, the riot was pacified when Anastasius replaced the city prefect Julian with his brother-in-law Secundinus.
Under Anastasius, the empire engaged in the Isaurian War against Longinus and the Anastasian War against Sassanid Persia.
The Isaurian War (492–497) was instigated by the Isaurian supporters of Longinus, the brother of Zeno, who was passed over for the throne in favour of Anastasius, and local discontents. The banished Isaurian officials, led by the ex-bishop Conon and former governor Lilingis, gathered in Isauria and mounted a revolt. Their defeat by John the Scythian and John the Hunchback in the Battle of Cotyaeum in 492 broke the back of the revolt, but guerrilla warfare continued in the Isaurian Mountains for several years. The resistance hinged upon the Isaurians' retention of the mountain strongholds. Anastasius passed economic legislations in the mid-490s, which suggests that the war did not absorb all of the energy and resources of the government. After five years, the Isaurian resistance was broken. Large numbers of Isaurians were forcibly relocated to Thrace to ensure that they would not revolt again.
During the Anastasian War of 502–505 against the Sassanid Persians, the Sassanids captured the cities of Theodosiopolis and Amida, although the Romans later received Amida in exchange for gold. The Persian provinces also suffered severely, and a peace was concluded in 506. Anastasius afterward built the strong fortress of Daras, which was named Anastasiopolis, to hold the Persians at Nisibis in check. The Balkan provinces were denuded of troops, however, and were devastated by invasions of Bulgars. To protect Constantinople and its vicinity against them, Anastasius built the Anastasian Wall, extending from the Propontis to the Black Sea. He converted his birthplace, Dyrrachium, into one of the most fortified cities on the Adriatic with the construction of Durrës Castle.
Once the relationship between the Romans and the Ostrogoths was restored, Italy was independently governed by the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric, but under the conditions agreed upon with Anastasius, Theodoric could not make laws, mint his own coins nor appoint Goths to the consulship and civil offices. However, he had the right to promulgate edicts, and appoint Romans to the consulship and civil offices and Goths to the military offices. Theodoric forged a relationship with the Visigothic king Alaric II in Gaul. Anastasius became wary of Theodoric's imperial ambition in the West. In the Frankish rex Clovis, the emperor found an ally. Partly thanks to the former magister militum Gundobad, he teamed up with Clovis to overthrow the Gothic hegemony in the West. In the Franco–Gothic War (507–511), Clovis defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé. The threat of an invasion by the Roman army had prevented Theodoric from intervening in the battle on time to support the Visigoths in 507. In early 508, a Roman attack actually took place in the Italian boot. Anastasius had sent an expedition force of 8,000 soldiers for this attack, but the Roman intervention was not aimed at conquest, since it did not seek a confrontation with Theodoric's army and limited itself only to the looting of some cities in the south. The Franks were thus more successful in the war.
Domestic and ecclesiastical policies
Anastasius was a convinced Monophysite, but his ecclesiastical policy was moderate. He endeavoured to maintain the principle of the Henotikon of Zeno and the peace of the church. Yet, in 512, perhaps emboldened after his military success against the Persians, Anastasius deposed the Metropolitan of Chalcedon and replaced him with a Monophysite. That violated his agreement with the Patriarch of Constantinople and precipitated riots in Chalcedon. The following year, the general Vitalian started a rebellion, quickly defeated an imperial army and marched on Constantinople. With the army closing in, Anastasius gave Vitalian the title of Commander of the Army of Thrace and began communicating with the Pope on a potential end to the Acacian schism. Two years later, General Marinus attacked Vitalian and forced him and his troops to the northern part of Thrace. After the conclusion of the conflict, Anastasius had undisputed control of the empire until his death in 518.