ANASTASIUS I, Emperor of the East. — Born at Dyrrachium in 431 to a Manichaean mother, he himself was a Monophysite. He reigned from 491 to 518. Little or nothing is known of him before his elevation to the throne. After the death of Zeno, the widowed Empress Ariadne married him and had him crowned emperor by Patriarch Euphemius, on the promise to respect the Council of Chalcedon and to do nothing against the true faith. His domestic policy was inspired by lofty humanitarian sentiments; numerous were his financial reforms, and the celebrated abolition of the oppressive tax on labor, known as the *chrysargyron*, enhanced the prestige of the imperial crown. He undertook great defensive works on the Persian frontier and around Constantinople. An excellent diplomat, he succeeded in keeping at bay the rising power of the Ostrogoths by allying himself with the Franks and the Burgundians.
Toward the Church he concealed his Monophysite leanings until an act of impudence by Patriarch Euphemius provoked an open conflict. Euphemius was exiled to Euchaita and was succeeded by Macedonius. All attempts at religious peace proved vain. At the death of Pope Anastasius II (498), the situation worsened, and the emperor contributed powerfully to the triumph of Monophysite doctrine by exiling Flavian after having him appointed Patriarch of Antioch and by securing the condemnation of the Council of Chalcedon at the Synod of Tyre in 513 (v. H. Gelzer, *Jesu Stylites*, in *Byz. Zeitschr.* I [1892], p. 41 sqq).
In 514 Vitalian, leader of the federated barbarians dismissed by A., in league with the Huns and Bulgars, rebelled, proclaiming himself the defender of the Council of Chalcedon. The people followed him with enthusiasm. Negotiations were opened with the Pope, who was to preside over a general council at Heraclea; but when Vitalian’s power waned, A. decided to break definitively with the papal legates.
He died on 10 July 518, leaving behind him the seeds of the empire’s dismemberment.
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