49 Facts About Marcian

Marcian was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457.

Marcian reversed many of the actions of TheodosiusII in the Eastern Roman Empire's relationship with the Huns under Attila and in religious matters.

In 452, while Attila was raiding Roman Italy, then a part of the Western Roman Empire, Marcian launched expeditions across the Danube into the Great Hungarian Plain, defeating the Huns in their own heartland.

Marcian convened the Council of Chalcedon, which declared that Jesus had two "natures": divine and human.

Marcian was born in c 392, in either Thrace or Illyria.

Marcian's father had served in the military and at a young age Marcian enlisted at Philippopolis in Thrace.

Marcian did not see action in the war, having become ill in Lycia.

Marcian agreed to their demand to pay 350 pounds of gold each year.

Marcian was betting the fortified cities along the Danube could delay the Huns long enough for the invasion force to gain a secure foothold in Africa, allowing troops to be withdrawn back to the northern frontier.

Marcian had served Aspar and his father Ardabur loyally for fifteen years.

Marcian took a tougher stance against the Huns and a more direct role in ecclesiastical affairs.

Almost immediately after becoming emperor, Marcian revoked Theodosius' treaties with Attila and proclaimed the end of subsidies.

Marcian stated that he might grant gifts if Attila was friendly, but Attila would be repelled if he attempted to raid the Eastern Roman Empire.

Attila reacted angrily to Marcian's proposal, demanding tribute, but did not alter his invasion plans.

Marcian led his horde from Pannonia in spring 451 into the Western Roman Empire.

Marcian was likely motivated by a desire for revenge, along with a need to raid to stabilize his tribal state, which was dependent upon raiding for loot and resources.

Marcian then raided across northern Italy, taking Mediolanum and other important cities.

For some time before Marcian, the had been replaced by, although the distinction between the two was increasingly breaking down.

Shortly before Marcian became emperor, the Second Council of Ephesus was held in 449.

However, Marcian successfully requested the transfer of the location to Chalcedon.

Marcian was compared to both Paul the Apostle and the Biblical king David, by the legates at the Council of Chalcedon.

Marcian reversed this near bankruptcy, not by levying new taxes, but by cutting expenditure.

Marcian attempted to improve the efficiency of the state in multiple ways.

Marcian laid out legal reforms in his novels, or codes of law, containing 20 laws, many of which were targeted at reducing the corruption and abuses of office that had existed during the reign of Theodosius; five of which are preserved in full.

Marcian mandated that the office of praetorship could only be given to senators who resided in Constantinople, attempted to curb the practice of selling administrative offices, and decreed that consuls should be responsible for the maintenance of Constantinople's aqueducts.

Marcian removed the financial responsibilities of the consuls and praetors, held since the time of the Roman Republic, to fund public sports and games or give wealth to the citizens of Constantinople, respectively.

Marcian further decreed that only a could hold either office.

Marcian partially repealed a marriage law enacted by Constantine I, which decreed that a man of senatorial status could not marry a slave, freedwoman, actress, or woman of no social status, which had been created in an attempt to preserve the purity of the senatorial class.

Marcian adjusted this law by declaring that the law should not exclude a woman of good character, regardless of her social status or wealth.

In 451, Marcian decreed that anyone who performed pagan rites would lose their property and be condemned to death and that no pagan temples, which had previously been closed, could be reopened.

When Marcian became emperor, he was influenced by Flavius Zeno, Pulcheria, and Aspar.

In 453, Marcian had his daughter from a previous marriage, Marcia Euphemia, marry Anthemius, an aristocrat and talented general.

Marcian patronized the Blues, who were one of the two circus teams, the other being the Greens.

Marcian was counseled by the diplomat Anatolius and Florentius not to make war with the Sassanians, as it would engulf a large amount of the Eastern Roman military resources, and thus Marcian did not agree to help them.

In 455, Marcian banned the export to barbarian tribes of weapons and the tools used to manufacture them.

Marcian was elected without any consultation with the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, a clear indication of further separation between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires than before his reign.

When Marcian granted part of Pannonia to the Ostrogoths, and the Tisza region to the Gepids, he was accused of encroaching upon the border of Western Roman land.

Marcian avoided involving himself with the affairs of the Western Roman Empire when possible.

Marcian merely sent an envoy demanding that the Vandals return the Dowager Empress, Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters by Valentinian III, Placidia and Eudocia.

Marcian made several diplomatic attempts to have the prisoners returned, before finally beginning to plan an invasion of the Vandal's territory shortly before his death.

The historian Frank Clover has suggested that this sudden reversal of policy was caused by the marriage of Eudocia to Huneric, the son of Gaiseric, which led to such pressure from Eastern Roman elites that Marcian was forced to begin preparations for war to ensure the return of the hostages.

Around this time, Marcian made peace with Lazica, which would allow him to direct his attention elsewhere.

Marcian did not recognize any Western Emperor after Valentinian, denying Petronius Maximus, now Western Emperor, when he sent an embassy requesting it, and similarly refusing to recognize Avitus, who succeeded Maximus.

Theodorus Lector and Theophanes the Confessor say that Marcian died after a long religious procession from the Grand Palace to the Hebdomon, where he made the journey on foot, despite the fact that he could barely walk because of severe foot inflammation, possibly gout.

Marcian was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Constantinople, next to his wife Pulcheria, in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the.

Marcian left the Eastern Empire with seven million solidi in its treasury, an impressive achievement considering the economic ruin inflicted upon Eastern Rome by the Huns, both through warfare and the massive subsidies they received under Theodosius.

Marcian's reign was seen by many later Byzantine writers, such as Theophanes the Confessor, as a golden age: Marcian secured the Eastern Empire both politically and financially, set an orthodox religious line that future emperors would follow, and stabilized the capital city politically.

Marcian had a statue in the Forum of Arcadius, which contained the statues of several of the successors of Emperor Arcadius.

Marcian is played by the Hollywood star Jeff Chandler in the 1954 period adventure Sign of the Pagan.