ABSTRACT
Eastern Roman emperor (474-475, 476-491). Zeno was an Isaurian who placed his troops at the disposal of the emperor Leo I at a time when the empire was suffering pressure from the Goths. He married Leo's daughter and, shortly after the death of his father-in-law, became joint ruler with his own son, Leo II, a young child who died within a year. For a time, he was driven from the capital by a revolt instigated by Basiliscus, brother of Leo I's widow, but he returned and resumed power (476). He sent Theodoric and the Goths into Italy (488) to replace Odoacer, thus relieving the eastern empire of any Gothic threat or burden. On the counsel of Acacius, the patriarch of Constantinople, he published the Henoticon (482), a document intended to effect a reconciliation with the Monophysites. It failed its purpose and led to the Acacian schism (482-519). CPG III, 5999.
