anthemius

Updated: June 28, 2025

After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death; but while he expected, in the Island of Æsculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors, his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and the præfect of Gaul obtained the milder punishment of exile and confiscation.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

The solemn inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of his daughter and the patrician Ricimer; a fortunate event, which was considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of the state. The wealth of two empires was ostentatiously displayed; and many senators completed their ruin, by an expensive effort to disguise their poverty.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

The great officers of the state and army, who had been appointed before the death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the præfect Anthemius, who obtained, by his superior abilities, a lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

The safety of the young emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an infant reign.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

The deposed Nepos also sent a petition to Zeno to restore him. Zeno replied to the senate that of the two emperors whom he had sent to them, they had deposed Nepos and killed Anthemius. But he received the diadem and the imperial jewels of the western empire, and kept them in his palace.

T. W. (Thomas William) Allies - The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I

Anthemius, Olybrius, Orestes, and the other half-caste Romans with Greek names who become quasi-emperors and get murdered; Ricimer the Sueve, the king-maker and king-murderer; even good Majorian, who as puppet Emperor set up by Ricimer, tries to pass a few respectable laws, and is only murdered all the sooner. None of these need detain us.

Charles Kingsley - The Roman and the Teuton : A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge

The genius of Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited and employed by a prince, whose taste for architecture had degenerated into a mischievous and costly passion.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4

His father, Procopius, obtained, after his Persian embassy, the rank of general and patrician; and the name of Anthemius was derived from his maternal grandfather, the celebrated præfect, who protected, with so much ability and success, the infant reign of Theodosius.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

But the measures of the Byzantine court were so languid and irresolute, that many months elapsed after the death of Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor could show himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3