Aspar- The Byzantine Emperor-Maker

Flavius Ardabur Aspar, one of the most influential military and political leaders that was not an emperor in Eastern Roman history was by blood not a Roman but of Alan and Goth descent. He was born in around 400 and was the son of the general Ardabur who served Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408-450). Aspar first came in to the picture in 424 joining his father in the Eastern Roman expedition to Italy to defeat the Western Roman usurper emperor Joannes and install the empress Galla Placidia and her son Valentinian III in power, which was thus successful. Aspar afterwards as Magister Militum was an influential power behind Theodosius II in his latter reign and when Theodosius II died from a horse riding accident in 450 without an heir, Marcian who was an officer under Aspar after marrying the late emperor's sister Pulcheria was made emperor by Aspar.
*
Aspar was basically the emperor except in name for the consecutive reigns Theodosius II, Marcian (450-457), and Leo I (457-474) as due to his Germanic barbarian blood, he could not be emperor in title, although his sons could possibly be emperor one day. With Marcian's death in 457, the intended successor was Marcian's son-in-law Anthemius but Aspar moved first and proclaimed his chief of staff (Comes) Leo, a Thracian peasant in origin as his new puppet emperor while Leo was the first emperor to be crowned by the patriarch as well.
*
Although Aspar intended Leo to be his puppet emperor and something like a "place-holder emperor" as Leo was old and unambitious and therefore could die soon without any heirs as Leo had no sons, he was proven wrong as Leo really did plan to be an independent emperor forming a dynasty. To balance out the power of Aspar and his Germanic army, Leo recruited the fierce Isaurian warriors of Asia Minor to the army by 466 giving rise to their commander Zeno. Tensions between Aspar and Leo over succession culminated in 471 when the 71-year-old Aspar being invited to lunch was assassinated under Leo's orders, thus ending Germanic influence in the Byzantine army. Not to mention, Aspar was also a teacher of the future Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Amal who was Leo I's hostage in Constantinople.
*
© Art by myself, 2022