Lost Roman Heroes - Episode 74: Zeno

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a polymath philosopher and scion of one of Rome's most ancient families. Along with his father in law Symmachus, he was one of the Senate's last lions, and one of the last keepers of the flame that was Rome in the West! Seeking higher purpose, he served in Theodoric's court, and would finish his life a prisoner in a lonely tower, in which he wrote a gift to the world, the Consolation of Philosophy.

A Goth prince raised in the Imperial Palace in Constantinople, Theodoric the Amal consolidated control of the Ostrogoths, and then journeyed west at the behest of the Emperor Zeno to punish Odoacer, and to rule Italy in the Emperor's name. Ruling from the palace in Ravenna, he would rule well, and audaciously, attempting to resurrect the Empire of the West.

A LOST ROMAN CITIES special episode on Roman Thessalonica. Founded by Cassander, named after the younger sister of Alexander the Great, this city would go on to become the second city of the Roman Empire, and just perhaps, after the city of Rome herself, the longest held of Rome's possessions. What we can say for certain, is that without Roman Thessalonica (Greek Thessaloniki), Rome's history would look very different indeed.

Anastasius Dicorus - a finance dude - saw a wildly complex world very clearly through one blue eye and one black, steering the empire through perilous years after the Fall of the West. When the finance dude died an ancient man he had earned Rome's thanks, leaving behind a stable government and full coffers.

Called down from the mountainous badlands of Isauria to Constantinople by the Emperor Leo, Tarasis son of Kodissa, later known as Zeno, would have to preserve the independence of the emperors of the East. Later he would serve as one of those emperors, and as the West fell, he would be challenged to chart a path for the East, so it would not share the same fate.

Emperor Honorius told Britannia to see to its own defenses and the darkness fell on the island. With the Picts and Saxons overrunning Rome's forgotten province, one man, whose name would become inextricably linked with Arthurian lore, stood against the barbarian tide to protect what was left of Roman Britannia: Ambrosius Aurelianus.

Born of humble stock, elevated to the purple to be a puppet of Aspar, the barbarian power behind the Eastern Empire's throne, Leo had other thoughts in mind. He had watched as other barbarian strongmen had brought the Western Empire to the brink of extinction, and he was determined that the East would not suffer the same fate. But how could you counter the men who controlled the army and the purse strings to save the Roman state?

Aegidius and Syagrius, father and son warriors, born of an ancient Roman-Gaul senatorial lineage, would keep the dream of Rome alive in Gaul long after the Western Empire fell.  In the baddest of bad neighborhoods, for three decades they reminded the world what Rome stood for, with no help from an emperor in Ravenna or Constantinople.  It wasn't about fame for these two, it was about principle!  Prepare to be blown away....

Join Lost Roman Heroes for Part 2 of our Honorable Mentions series, and meet some of the most remarkable Romans you never heard of: Pope Leo I (stood up to Attila), Anthemius the Prefect (built the Theodosian Walls), Constantine III (Britannia's last hope), Flavius Constantius (one of the West's last magister militums), and our favorite, Marcellinus (THE LAST JEDI)!

Lost Roman Heroes get their own episode, true, but as Season 2 draws to close we admit that we made some mistakes.  We missed some guys, sad but true, and some genuinely heroic characters had the great misfortune  of not appearing in the historical record.  It's OK, these are our misfits, the extra-lost, Lost Roman Heroes, that we believe deserve an HONORABLE MENTION (PART 1).  Tune in and meet Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo (Nero's nemesis), Avidius Cassius (Marcus Aurelius almost-successor), Gratian (Valentinian's super capable son, boy-emperor), Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (the last gentleman-pagan), and Timasius (Timmy-tim-tim, Theodosius' general and friend).