General Notes

Early Life and Accession

Relatively little is known about Marcian before his accession tothethrone. He was most proba bly an Illyrian by birth, although onesourceclaims that he was a Thracian. Born in 392, he , like many otherpublicmen from that region, made his career in the military. His fatherhad been a soldier and Marcian first served in the city of PhilippopolisinThrace. From there, Ma rcian as a tribune went with his unit to fightthePersians in 421-2, but he apparently becam e ill in Lycia and neversawaction in the campaign.

From this relatively inauspicious beginning, he served aspersonalassistant (domesticus) to t he emperor's commander-in-chief(magisterutriusque militiae), Aspar. This placed Marcian in t he highestmilitarycircles, but certainly did not provide him with any singulardistinction.I n the early 430's, he served with Aspar in Africa and wasapparentlycaptured by the Vandals . In one fanciful story, no doubt acreation oflater writers, Marcian supposedly met the Vand al king,Gaiseric, whopredicted that he would one day be emperor. After hiscapture, we kno w nomore of his career before his accession to the thronein 450.

With the death of Theodosius II under somewhat mysteriouscircumstances,the imperial successi on was thrown open to question forthe first time inover 60 years. Theodosius had left no ava ilable heir:his one survivingchild, Licinia Eudoxia, had married Valentinian III.Accordin g to aseventh century source, the emperor on his deathbed willedMarcian to behis heir, but t his story was almost assuredly a product ofpropagandaafter the event. Whatever the case, Asp ar engineered hiscandidacy withthe agreement of Theodosius' sister, Pulcheria Augusta, whom arried theformer tribune. With the support of the last representativeof theTheodosian hous e in the east and the head general, Marcianreceived thesupport of the Senate and the armies . On August 25, 450,Pulcheriaherself gave him the imperial diadem, an unique event implyin gthat anAugusta shared in the imperial power. In return, Marcian swore torespecther virgini ty and be a staunch champion of religious orthodoxy.ThatPulcheria's virginity remained intac t indicates the political natureofthis marriage. Quickly thereafter, he had his only daughte r, AeliaMarciaEuphemia, marry the future western emperor, Anthemius.

Religious Policies

Shortly after his accession, Marcian called the Fourth EcumenicalCouncilat Chalcedon, held i n late 451. Bishops and theirrepresentativeswrestled with the religious controversies surrou nding thebeliefs ofNestorius, Eutyches and other monophysite thinkers whoquestioned thenatu re of Christ. the assembled orthodox clerics condemnedmonophysitismoutright, holding to th e belief that Christ had one nature,both humanand divine. Marcian had pushed to the fore th e views of PopeLeo (fromthe so-called Tome of Leo), no doubt hoping that the bishop ofRom e wouldin turn support his reign with Valentinian III (Valentiniangave onlylukewarm recognit ion to his imperial colleague). Whatever therationalebehind his support, the western--that i s, papal--position wasforwardedand declared orthodox by the council.

Nor was the emperor afraid to back up the council's decision.WhenPalestinian monks rose in r evolt in 453, Marcian sent troops on aregularcampaign to quell the insurrection. He also ins ured theinstallation ofthe new archbishop, Proterius, in Alexandria after similarviolence i nthat city.

the council at Chalcedon was also important because it moreclearlyoutlined the increasing sp lit between east and west. Pope Leo'slegateshad been the only western representatives at a s upposedlyecumenicalcouncil, signifying the degree to which the west was distractedby itsow n religious and political concerns. the council had also passeda canonover the objections o f Leo which gave the archbishop atConstantinopleofficial oversight over the whole east. Thi s would prove akey stickingpoint in later years and helped to separate the two halvesofChri stendom.

In addition to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, Marcian also supportedhiswife's extensive buil ding projects until her death in July of453.Unsurprisingly, they were all churches and Pulch eria did much tofurtherthe mother of God (theotokos) cult.

Political and Military Policies

Marcian's reign began with an immediate change in policy toward Attilaandthe Huns. In the la st years of Theodosius II, the chamberlainandguardian (spatharius), Chrysaphius, had largel y been the architectofappeasement in regards to the Hunnic confederation, paying out hugeindemnities as safeguards against potential attack. Shortly afterMarcian'scoronation, Chrysaphi us was either murdered or executed, andthe newemperor refused to pay any more subsidies.

Marcian's decision had been ill-conceived, but as it turned out, itwasenormously successful . the senatorial aristocracy, which hadbeenstrongly opposed to treating with barbarians, hea rtily supportedthisaction. More importantly, Attila became too absorbed in westernimperialp olitics to deal with the recalcitrant Marcian, although theHuns mayhave also thought that th e western court was an easier target tobullyand extort money from. And before Attila could r efocus hisattention onthe east, he died and his empire disintegrated. the emperorquicklyfor med alliances with those peoples previously under Hunnicdomination,especially the Ostrogoths , to thwart their re-emergence.Indeed, theemperor even permitted these peoples to settle a s federatesin Pannonia,Thrace and Illyricum. Marcian's policy also resulted insaving theimp erial treasury enormous sums: at the end of his reign,Marcian lefthis successor 100,000 poun ds of gold.

Little other military action happened during his tenure, althoughtherewere some campaigns ag ainst Saracens in Syria and against theBlemmyes inEgypt. the lack of any long-term, large-sc ale wars with thePersians,Huns or others also meant that the emperor was able to amass more fundsthan might otherwise have occurred. But it seems, too, that theemperortried to avoi d confrontation: the assassination of ValentinianIII andthe subsequent Vandal sack of Rome i n 455 was met with mutedsilence fromthe east. the emperor contented himself with sending a nembassy toGaiseric requesting the return of the empress, Eudoxia, andherdaughters.

Marcian did remain largely beholden to Aspar, however. Perhaps becauseofhis support, Marcia n made the general a patrician. the emperoralsoappointed his son, Ardabur, the commander-in- chief for the East(magisterutriusque militiae per Orientem) and perhaps made him a patrician aswell. It is difficult to tell whether they dictated policy, but itseemsthat if they did , Aspar and his son were for the most part carefulnot tostep on the political toes of Consta ntinople's ruling class.Despite thegeneral's power, there was still a strong anti-Germanic sentiment amongthe aristocracy.

Towards the end of his reign in 456, Marcian heavily censured theGreensthroughout the Easter n Roman Empire, one of the two circusfactionscontinually at war with one another. When the y showed theirdispleasureat the emperor's patronage of the Blues, he forbade the Greensfrom holding any administrative or public posts for three years.SinceChrysaphius had favored th e Greens, these actions may have had adynasticaspect to them.

Financial and Legal Reforms

Most of Marcian's financial policies were designed to placatethesenatorial aristocracy and i n those policies, he was alsoverysuccessful. the one tax upon senatorial wealth, the collati oglebalis,was abolished, more easily accomplished since the emperor nolongersubsidized th e Huns. of equal importance to the senatorial elite,Marcianended many of the financial oblig ations owed by holders of theoldrepublican offices. Praetors and consuls normally had to pu t onlargepublic games, the latter also having to distribute wealth to thegeneralpublic of C onstantinople. Now only the highest-ranking senators,theillustres, were eligible to serve i n these offices and they werenotrequired to spend the huge sums of money that had been traditionallyassociated with holding them. the financial windfall for thearistocracywas great an d since it had previously gone to publicentertainmentsinstead of imperial coffers, the emper or could easilyafford suchmunificence.

Marcian did try to address other financial issues, too. Uponhisaccession, he proclaimed a re mission of all old monies owed to thestate.Again, this probably benefited the wealthier clas ses, but itcertainlyspread to a much broader spectrum of imperial society. ofequalimportanc e was a campaign against the sale of governmental offices.Thefact that the emperor Anastasiu s and others also tried to haltthispractice demonstrates the endemic nature of the problem .Nevertheless,his attempt was a recognition of a corrupt custom that ledto othercorruptions .

His legal record is much less clear, although a few of hisenactmentssurvive. Perhaps his mos t significant was a law rescinding aprevious lawof the emperor Constantine, which had in tur n been anextension of anAugustan law. Whereas it had been previously illegal for amember o f thesenatorial class to marry a freeborn poor woman (humilis),Marcian nowpermitted such a m atch assuming that the lady in question wasof goodmoral character. It was significant law no t only in itself, butalso to afuture law of the emperor Justin in the 520's, which allowed senators andother lowborn women (infames) to marry: that law permittedJustinian andTheodora t o wed. Whether Marcian's decree was in reactionto a specificcase, however, is unknown.

Death and Assessment

In January of 457, Marcian died at the age of 65, supposedly ofgangrenein the feet. Legend h as it that he was also on a longreligiousprocession on the eve of his death. the emperor wa s buried inthe Churchof the Apostles next to his wife, Pulcheria. Despite the factthat he h admarried his daughter to Anthemius, she had no Theodosianconnection andhence lacked even th e legitimacy that Marcian had gainedthroughmarriage. Anthemius did not succeed his father-in -law.

Later Byzantine writers looked back at Marcian's reign as something ofagolden age. He had se cured the political and financial security oftheeast, had established the orthodox line tha t future emperorswouldsupport, and had achieved a fair amount of political harmonyandstabil ity within the capital city. These things were all real, butmuchof his success must also b e accorded to luck. the Persians and Hunswereabsorbed with other matters, no great natural d isasters had crippledtheresources of the government, and he was fortunate that there was arepresentative of the house of Theodosius to validate his position. Itisalso clear that he ste adfastly remained out of entanglements withthewest. In that sense, Marcian's rule was the co nceptual end ofauniversal--and unified--Roman Empire.

Sources and Bibliography

No true comprehensive descriptions of Marcian's life or reign survive.theEcclesiastical Hist ory (Historia Ecclesiastica) of Evagrius offerssomeimportant details of his early life, as d oes the ChronographiaofTheophanes. the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon can be found i ntheofficial Acta (E. Schwartz et al. eds., Acta Conciliorum OecumenicorumV.2 [1932-8]). Fo r the rest of his reign, the Chronicon Paschale,thechronicles of Marcellinus comes, the Lexi con of Suidas, theChronographiaof John Malalas, and the fragmented history of Priscus areal l valuablesources. John Lydus' Magistracies of the Roman People (demagistratibuspopuli Roman i) also offers important information about thestate'sfinances. Several laws survive: CJ i:39 :2, xii:2:2, xii:3:2, andseveralnovellae.

Bury, J.B. (1923) History of the Later Roman Empire from the deathofTheodosius I to the deat h of Justinian (New York).

Croke, B., (1978) "the Date and Circumstances of Marcian's Decease,A.D.457," Byzantion 48, 5 -9.

Devos, P., (1976) "Saint Jean de Lycopolis et l'empereurMarcien,"Analecta Bollandiana 94, 30 3-16.

Holum, Kenneth (1982), Theodosian Empresses (Berkeley).

Jones, A.H.M. et al. (1970), the Prosopography of the Later RomanEmpire,vol. 1 (Cambridge).

Kohlfelder, R.L., (1984) "Marcian's Gamble: A Reassessment ofEasternImperial Policy toward A ttila AD 450-453," American Journal ofAncientHistory 9, 54-69.

Martindale, J.R. (1980), the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire,vol.2 (Cambridge).

Thompson, E.A., (1950) "the Foreign Policies of Theodosius IIandMarcian," Hermathena 76, 58- 75.


Copyright (C) 1998, Geoffrey S. Nathan. This file may be copied onthecondition that the enti re contents, including the header andthiscopyright notice, remain intact.



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