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LEO I

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 439 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEO I ., variously surnamed TuRAx, See also:MAGNUS and MAKELLES, See also:emperor of the See also:East, 457-474, was See also:born in See also:Thrace about 400. From his position as military See also:tribune he was raised to the See also:throne by the soldiery and recognized both by See also:senate and See also:clergy; his See also:coronation by the See also:patriarch of See also:Constantinople is said to have been the earliest instance of such a ceremony. Leo owed his See also:elevation mainly to Aspar, the See also:commander of the See also:guards, who was debarred by his Arianism from becoming emperor in his own See also:person, but hoped to exercise a virtual See also:autocracy through his former steward and dependant. But Leo, following the traditions of his predecessor See also:Marcian, set himself to curtail the domination of the See also:great nobles and repeatedly acted in See also:defiance of Aspar. Thus he vigorously suppressed the Eutychian See also:heresy in See also:Egypt, and by exchanging his Germanic bodyguard for Isaurians removed the See also:chief basis of Aspar's See also:power. With the help of his generals See also:Anthemius and Anagastus, he repelled invasions of the See also:Huns into See also:Dacia (466 and 468). In 467 Leo had Anthemius elected emperor of the See also:West, and in See also:concert with him equipped an armament of more than I10o See also:ships and See also:ioo,000 men against the pirate See also:empire of the See also:Vandals in See also:Africa. Through the remissness of Leo's See also:brother-in-See also:law Basiliscus, who commanded the expedition, the See also:fleet was surprised by the Vandal See also:king, Genseric, and See also:half of its vessels sunk or burnt (468). This failure was made a pretext by Leo for killing Aspar as a. traitor (471), and Aspar's See also:murder served the Goths in turn as an excuse for ravaging Thrace up to the walls of the See also:capital. In 473 the emperor associated with himself his See also:infant See also:grandson, LEO II., who, how-ever, survived him by only a few months. His surnames Magnus (Great) and Makelles (See also:butcher) respectively reflect the attitude of the Orthodox and the Arians towards his religious policy. See E.

See also:

Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the See also:Roman Empire (ed. See also:Bury, 1896), iv. 29-37; J. B. Bury, The Later Roman Empire (1889), i. 227-233.

End of Article: LEO I

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