Flavius Ardabur Aspar (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Άσπαρ, fl. 400471) was an
Eastern Roman
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
patrician and ''
magister militum
(Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...
'' ("master of soldiers") of
Alanic-
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
descent.
As the general of a
Germanic army in Roman service,
Aspar exerted great influence on the Eastern Roman Emperors for half a century, from the 420s to his death in 471, through the reigns of
Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his ...
,
Marcian
Marcian (; la, Marcianus, link=no; grc-gre, Μαρκιανός, link=no ; 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little of his life before becoming emperor is known, other than that he was a (personal a ...
and
Leo I
The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.
The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and ...
, who, in the end, had him killed. His death led to the ending of the Germanic domination of Eastern Roman policy.
Biography
Aspar was born the son of the magister
Ardaburius, and was of
Alanic-
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
descent.
The name Aspar (
Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...
''aspari'') in
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are groupe ...
means "Horse-rider". Aspar played a crucial role in his father's expedition in 424 to defeat the Western
usurper
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...
Joannes
Joannes or John ( la, Iohannes; died 425) was western Roman emperor from 423 to 425.
On the death of the Emperor Honorius (15 August 423), Theodosius II, the remaining ruler of the House of Theodosius, hesitated in announcing his uncle's d ...
of
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the c ...
and to install
Galla Placidia
Galla Placidia (388–89/392–93 – 27 November 450), daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life. She was queen consort ...
and her son,
Valentinian III
Valentinian III ( la, Placidus Valentinianus; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying ...
, in his place. He also helped to negotiate a peace treaty with
Geiseric after the
Vandal invasion of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.
Aspar attained the
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
ship in 434 after campaigning in Africa.
However, Aspar could not become
emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...
because of his
Arian
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...
religion. Instead, he played the role of kingmaker with his subordinate
Marcian
Marcian (; la, Marcianus, link=no; grc-gre, Μαρκιανός, link=no ; 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little of his life before becoming emperor is known, other than that he was a (personal a ...
, who became emperor by marrying
Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his ...
's sister
Pulcheria.
On 27 January 457 Marcian died, and the political and military establishment figures of the Eastern court took eleven days to choose a successor. Despite the presence of a strong candidate to the purple, the ''magister militum'' and Marcian's son-in-law
Anthemius
Procopius Anthemius (died 11 July 472) was western Roman emperor from 467 to 472.
Perhaps the last capable Western Roman Emperor, Anthemius attempted to solve the two primary military challenges facing the remains of the Western Roman Empire: ...
, the choice was quite different. Aspar, who in this occasion was probably offered the throne by the senate but refused, could have chosen his own son
Ardabur, but instead selected an obscure tribune of one of his military units,
Leo I
The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.
The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and ...
.
In 470, in an episode of the struggle for power between Aspar and the
Isaurian general
Zeno
Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to:
People
* Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Philosophers
* Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes
* Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...
, Aspar persuaded the emperor to appoint his second son,
Patricius, as ''
caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
'' and give him in marriage his daughter
Leontia
Leontia ( el, Λεοντία, fl. 610) was an empress of the Eastern Roman Empire as the wife of Phocas.
Empress
Maurice reigned in the Byzantine Empire from 582 to 602. He led a series of Balkan campaigns and managed to successfully re-est ...
. However, since the clergy and people of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
did not consider an Arian eligible to become emperor, at the news of the appointment riots broke out in the
city hippodrome, led by the head of the
Sleepless Monks, Marcellus: Aspar and Leo had to promise to the bishops that Patricius would convert to Orthodoxy before becoming emperor, and only after the conversion would he marry Leontia.
In 471 an imperial conspiracy organized by Leo I and the Isaurians caused the death of Aspar and of his elder son Ardabur. It is possible that Patricius died on this occasion, although some sources report that he recovered from his wounds. His death led to the ending of the
Germanic domination of Eastern Roman policy.
Aspar had another son, Ermanaric, with the sister of
Theodoric Strabo
Theodoric (or Theoderic) Strabo ( la, Theodericus; died 481) was a Gothic chieftain who was involved in the politics of the Eastern Roman Empire during the reigns of Emperors Leo I, Zeno and Basiliscus. He was a rival for the leadership of the Ost ...
and daughter of
Triarius.
Herwig Wolfram
Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Sc ...
, p. 32. Aspar's wife was an Ostrogoth, as the Ostrogoth King Theodoric was her nephew.
[Bunson, 38.] A cistern attributed to him still exists today in
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
.
Notes
References
*Bunson, Matthew (1994). ''Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire''. New York: Facts on File Inc.
*Croke, Brian, "Dynasty and Ethnicity: Emperor Leo and the Eclipse of Aspar", ''Chiron'' 35 (2005), 147–203.
*McEvoy, Meaghan
"Becoming Roman?: the not-so-curious case of Aspar and the Ardaburii" ''Journal of Late Antiquity'' 9.2 (2016), 483–511.
*McEvoy, Meaghan, "Celibacy and survival in court politics in the fifth century AD", in S. Tougher (ed.),
The Emperor in the Byzantine World' (London, 2019), 115–134.
*Williams, Stephen, and Gerard Friell, ''The Rome That Did Not Fall'', Routledge, 1999, .
*
Wolfram, Herwig, ''History of the Goths'', trans. Thomas J. Dunlap. University of California Press, 1988, .
External links
Profile of Aspar in the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aspar
400 births
471 deaths
Byzantine generals
Imperial Roman consuls
Gothic warriors
Magistri militum
Alanic people
5th-century Romans of Gothic descent
5th-century Byzantine people
5th-century Arian Christians
5th-century Roman consuls
Year of birth uncertain
Assassinated Byzantine people