Marcian

Marcian became eastern Roman emperor at fifty-eight by marrying the emperor's sister, and stopped paying Attila. He was a soldier from Thrace or Illyria, the son of a soldier, who spent his career as a domesticus — a staff officer — to the generals Ardaburius and Aspar, and had been captured by the Vandals in Africa and released. Theodosius II died in July 450 after falling from a horse, without a son. His sister Pulcheria, who had governed for much of his reign and had taken a vow of virginity, chose Marcian and married him on condition the marriage remain unconsummated. Aspar, the Alan general who effectively controlled the army, was the other author of the arrangement. His first act was to refuse the annual tribute of 2,100 pounds of gold that Theodosius had been paying the Huns, telling Attila's envoys that he had iron for his enemies and gold for his friends. Attila turned west and invaded Gaul instead, which is the practical consequence, and died in 453. Marcian called the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the largest of the ecumenical councils, which defined Christ as one person in two natures — the formula most of Christianity still holds — and which permanently divided the Church, since the Egyptian, Syrian and Armenian churches rejected it and have been separate since. He also restored the treasury by cutting expenditure and remitted arrears of taxation. He died in 457, having kept the east out of the wars that were destroying the west. The Oriental Orthodox churches date their separation from his council, and it has never been healed.

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