The Revival of the East and the Fall of the West

On 28 July 450 Theodosius II died, leaving no son and having nominated no successor. Four weeks later, on 25 August, the senate elected Marcian, an obscure retired tribune, who had once been aide-de-camp (domesticus) of Aspar, the magister militum praesentalis. The virgin Pulcheria consented to go through a form of marriage with him, thus endowing him with the hereditary prestige of the Theodosian house.