ZENO, Emperor of the East. — Born in Isauria in 426 A.D.; died at Constantinople on 9 April 491. His original name was Taracodissa, and at the court of Byzantium he commanded the Isaurian troops which Emperor Leo I set against the threatening power of the Amali, led by Aspar.
His rise coincided with the massacre of the latter; and he grew in the emperor’s esteem, who invested him with the office of commander of the imperial guard and magister militum per Orientem. Later he married the emperor’s eldest daughter, Ariadne, assuming the Greek name of Zeno. By her he had a son, Leo II, destined to succeed him but who predeceased him. Having ascended the throne of Byzantium in 472, he was forced to relinquish it through the intrigues of Leo I’s widow, Verina, in favor of her brother Basiliscus. However,
through the intercession of the Saint. Work by L. Ghiberti (1432-42) — Florence, S. Maria del Fiore.
owing to the usurper’s misrule, Zeno was recalled to power in September 476, and succeeded in retaining it despite further palace conspiracies. During his interregnum, Odoacer, having defeated Orestes, sent back to Constantinople the imperial insignia of the West, but Zeno never recognized his imperial authority, though he conferred on him the title of patrician and “magister militum per Italiam.” Wishing to be rid of Odoacer, Zeno first incited the Rugians against him, and then, when hard-pressed by the Gothic forces, turned to Theodoric the Amal, entrusting him with the task of reconquering Italy. Theodoric, having finally defeated Odoacer at Ravenna in 493, became lord of Italy. In religious matters, during the Monophysite controversy, Zeno attempted to reconcile the opposing factions by publishing a document called the Henoticon, inspired by or perhaps even written for him by Patriarch Acacius (v.), which Pope Simplicius and later Felix III condemned; this gave rise to a schism between East and West that lasted more than thirty years (the Acacian schism).