ZENO, Emperor of the East. - Born in Isauria around 426, died in Constantinople on 9 April 491. His name was Taracosidissa, and at the court of Byzantium he was the head of the Isaurian troops that the emperor Leo I set against the threatening power of those of Amal, led by Aspar.
His rise coincided with the massacre of the latter; and he grew in the Emperor's esteem, who honored him with the office of head of the imperial guard and of "magister militum per Orientem." Subsequently he married the Emperor's elder daughter, Ariadne, assuming the Greek name of Z. By her he had a son, Leo II, destined to succeed in his place, but who predeceased him. Having assumed the throne of Byzantium in 472, he was forced to leave it because of the intrigues of the widow of Leo I, Verina, in favor of her brother Basiliscus. But because of the usurper's misgovernment, Z. was recalled to power (Sept. 476), which he managed to retain despite other palace conspiracies. During his interregnum, Odoacer, having defeated Orestes, sent back to Constantinople the imperial insignia of the West, but Z. never recognized his imperial authority, though he conferred on him the title of patrician and of "magister militum per Italiam." Wishing to rid himself of Odoacer, Z. first stirred up the Rugi against him, and then, hard pressed by the Gothic troops, turned away from this by entrusting to Theodoric the Amal the reconquest of Italy. The latter, having definitively defeated Odoacer at Ravenna (493), became lord of Italy. In the religious sphere Z., in the Monophysite struggle, attempted to reconcile the opposing tendencies by publishing a letter under the name of Henoticon, inspired by or perhaps even written for him by the patriarch Acacius (v.), which Pope Simplicius and then Felix III condemned; from it arose a schism between East and West that lasted more than 30 years (the Acacian schism).
Bibliography3 works
Lanfranco Fiore