Civillian Supporters of Flavius Ardaburius Aspar
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Flavius Ardabudius Aspar was an Eastern Roman military commander of Alanic-Gothic descent. As the supreme military commander of Eastern Roman armies, Aspar exerted great influence on the Eastern Roman politics for almost half a century, with some interludes from the 420s to his death in 471. Modern scholarship focuses on Aspar’s military accomplishments and tends to ascribe his influence almost exclusively to the military dynasty he has established within the Eastern Roman army leadership through patronage or clever marriage policy. Not to mention that Aspar himself directly chose or influenced the choice of not one, but two Eastern Roman emperors. Aspar’s position is even compared with that of Western Roman patricii and military commanders such as Stilicho, Flavius Aetius and others with the conclusions that Aspar’s influence did not extend as far as that of his Western Roman counterparts, since they, to a degree, also exerted control over some civilian bodies (or highest civilian officials) of the Western Roman government. The present-day state of research, however, is lacking a more detailed study of Aspar’s supporters from among the ranks of highest civilian representatives of the Eastern Roman government and an analysis of his relations with these individuals. This paper – with regard to all the relevant primary sources and several modern studies, introduces such an analysis. |
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