MARCIAN, BYZANTINE EMPEROR

Reigned 450 to 457; b. Thrace c. 392; d. Constantinople, Jan. 26, 457. Marcian, an aide-de-camp of the emperor-maker Aspar and a retired tribune, was 58 when theodosius ii died leaving no heir. The Empress Pulcheria, elder sister of Theodosius, chose Marcian as her consort; he was proclaimed emperor (Aug. 26, 450) with the aid of the barbarian patrician, Aspar, and immediately informed valentinian iii and Pope leo i of his assumption of office. Having executed the eunuch Chrysaphius, who had exercised effective power since 443, Marcian and Pulcheria proceeded to reverse his politics in domestic, foreign, and religious affairs. The pope had confided in Pulcheria since 443; hence papal legates were well-received by Marcian. The body of the patriarch of Constantinople flavian, who had been maltreated after the Robber Council of ephesus (Aug. 449), was brought to Constantinople, and theodoret of cyr was recalled from exile.

In September 450 Leo had expressed a desire for a council. Unaware that with the change of emperors Leo had decided against holding a new council in the Orient, Marcian convoked an ecumenical council to meet at Nicaea in the fall. Despite misgivings, the pope acquiesced and sent his legates. Having decided to restrain Attila and the Huns by force instead of tribute, Marcian held the council at chalcedon where he could follow its actions at first hand, and in the sixth session (Oct. 25) he proclaimed the definition of the council, whereupon the assembly saluted him as a "new Constantine."

Marcian supported the disciplinary legislation of the council and in particular the so-called 28th canon, which gave the patriarch of Constantinople a primacy after that of the pope, as well as jurisdiction over the metropolitans in the civil dioceses of Thrace, Asia, and Pontus. This action was repudiated by Pope Leo, who delayed giving approbation to the council until Marcian informed him of the use the Eutychians were making of his hesitation (Feb. 15, 453). In a letter addressed to the bishops as if they were still assembled in council (March 21, 453), Leo confirmed its doctrinal decrees but condemned the 28th canon. When this letter was published by Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople, he left out the condemnation (cf. Leo, Epist. 127, Jan. 9, 454).

In Palestine Marcian repressed the rebellion started by the monk Theodosius, who had forced Bp. Juvenal of Jerusalem to flee. He requested Pope Leo to intervene with Eudocia, the estranged widow of Theodosius II, who had been in the Holy Land since 443 and was encouraging the anti-Chalcedonians. In Egypt he supported Proterius of Alexandria as successor of the deposed dioscorus (d. Gangra, Sept. 4, 454). After the death of Pulcheria (July 453). Aspar suggested a tempering of the anti-Chalcedonian measures, since the enemies of Proterius had appealed to the imperial legate in Alexandria; upon the death of Marcian, Proterius was murdered by Monophysites. During the reign of Anastasius I (491–518) Marcian was still looked upon by the people as the ideal type of emperor.

Bibliography: e. stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire tr j. r. palanque (Paris 1949-59) 1:311–315, 351–353. w. ensslin, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 14.2 (1930) 1514–29. f. hofmann, Das Konzil von Chalkedon: Geschichte un Gegenwart 2:15–24. r. haacke, ibid. 95–107. h. bacht, ibid. 235–257. a. h. m. jones, The Later Roman Empire …, 4 v. (Oxford 1964).

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