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Flavius Ardabur Aspar (Greek language: Ἄσπαρ, fl. 400471) was an Eastern Roman patrician and magister militum ("master of soldiers") of Alans-Goths descent. As the general of a Germanic peoples army in Roman service, Aspar exerted great influence on the Eastern Roman Emperors for half a century, from the 420s to his death in 471, through the reigns of Theodosius II, Marcian and Leo I, who, in the end, had him killed. His death led to the ending of the Germanic domination of Eastern Roman policy.
Aspar attained the Roman consul in 434 after campaigning in Africa. However, Aspar could not become Roman Emperor because of his Arianism religion. Instead, he played the role of kingmaker with his subordinate Marcian, who became emperor by marrying Theodosius II's sister Pulcheria.
On 27 January 457 Marcian died, and the political and military establishment figures of the Eastern court took eleven days to choose a successor. Despite the presence of a strong candidate to the purple, the magister militum and Marcian's son-in-law Anthemius, the choice was quite different. Aspar, who in this occasion was probably offered the throne by the senate but refused,The episode was told by Theodoric the Great at a synod held in Rome in 501; Aspar refused, cryptically stating, "I fear I would launch an imperial tradition", (Croke, p. 150). could have chosen his own son Ardabur, but instead selected an obscure tribune of one of his military units, Leo I.Croke, p. 150. The account of Leo's coronation ceremony records a "foremost patrician" sitting in the chariot with Leo during the procession and a "leading senator" offering him a golden crown at the Forum of Constantine. Aspar is suspected to be both of these.Croke, p. 152.
In 470, in an episode of the struggle for power between Aspar and the Isaurians general Zeno, Aspar persuaded the emperor to appoint his second son, Patricius, as caesar and give him in marriage his daughter Leontia. However, since the clergy and people of Constantinople did not consider an Arian eligible to become emperor, at the news of the appointment riots broke out in the city hippodrome, led by the head of the Acoemetae, Marcellus: Aspar and Leo had to promise to the bishops that Patricius would convert to Orthodoxy before becoming emperor, and only after the conversion would he marry Leontia.
In 471 an imperial conspiracy organized by Leo I and the Isaurians caused the death of Aspar and of his elder son Ardabur. It is possible that Patricius died on this occasion, although some sources report that he recovered from his wounds. His death led to the ending of the Germanic peoples domination of Eastern Roman policy.
Aspar had another son, Ermanaric, with the sister of Theodoric Strabo and daughter of Triarius.Herwig Wolfram, p. 32. Aspar's wife was an Ostrogoth, as the Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great was her nephew.Bunson, 38. A cistern attributed to Aspar still exists today in Istanbul.
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