ZENO, zi'no, THE ISAURIAN: Byzantine emperor 474-475 and 476--491. An Isaurian force was long a part of the garrison of Constantinople, and there Zeno rose to power. Aspar, an Ossetian, had under Leo I. reached a high degree of power, and his son Patricius had been betrothed to a daughter of the emperor and been named Caesar. But Leo became estranged from Aapar and his Germans and in his opposition to them leaned upon the Isaurians and Zeno. Zeno married Ariadne, a daughter of Leo, and the. betrothal and appointment of Patricius were recalled, while Zeno became consul. Zeno, however, seemed unsuited for the succession because of doubts concerning his orthodoxy, so his son and Ariadne's, Leo's grandson, was named successor and became emperor under Zeno's regency on the death of Leo in 474; but he died in the same year, and under the influence of the dowager empress Verina and of his wife Zeno was named emperor; a disagreement with the dowager empress, however, in connection with an uprising of the Thracian Goths and of the capital, compelled Zeno to flee in Jan., 475, and Basiliscus, brother of Verina, assumed the crown. 'The new emperor favored the Monophysites (q.v.) and issued an encyclical to that effect, while Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, upheld the orthodoxy of Chalcedon. The encyclical called forth two letters from Pope Simplicius to Acaeius and Basiliacus. Zeno with his Isaurians was enabled to return to Constantinople, captured Basiliscus, and in 476 resumed the reins of empire. The pope hailed the return of Zeno as a triumph of orthodoxy. The power of the Monophysites compelled Zeno, however, to adopt a mediating course, and he issued his Henoticon (q.v.), which attempted a compromise, in which Acacius and Petrus Mongus (qq.v.) had part.. The attempt was a failure, and instead of producing peace caused new struggles, and one result was a breach with Rome, begun with the excommunication of Acacius and continuing thirty-five years. Zeno started the East Goths on their way to Italy, while Theodoric as a German king and an imperial officer held Italy as a part of the empire. Justinian's policy was to restore the direct imperial control in

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Italy, and so leaned toward a settlement of the schism, which in 519 came to an end.

(K. J. Neumann.)

Bibliography: The sources are discussed by Bury in his ad. of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, cf. the historical account in Gibbon's chap. xxxix. Consult: the monograph on Zeno in w. Barth's dissertation, Basel, 1894; the notes in K. Ahrens and G. Krüger's ed. of the "Church History" of Zacharias Rhetor, Leipsic, 1899; Schaff, Christian Church, iii. 765; and the literature under the articles named in the text, especially under Monophysites.