Euphemia – Wife

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Aelia Marcia Euphemia

Empress of West 467-472 AD

Wife of Anthemius
Daughter of Marcian

Aelia Marcia Euphemia was the only daughter of the Eastern Emperor Marcian (450-457AD). Her stepmother was Pulcheria, the sister of Theodosius I, who married Euphemia’s father, Marcian, for political purposes to allow him to be linked as an heir to the Theodosian Dynasty. However, Pulcheria had taken a religious vow of chastity, and there were no offspring with Marcian.

Euphemia was married to Anthemius in 453AD, a union that resulted in four sons and a daughter. Marcian prepared to have Anthemius as his successor. Following Euphemia’s marriage to Anthemius, he was appointed a Comes rei militaris and sent to defend the Danube frontier in the aftermath of the death of Attila the Hun.

Anthemius returned to Constantinople in 454AD and was rewarded by Marcian with the offices of magister militum and Patrician. In 455AD Anthemius served as co-consul with Valentinian III. At this point in history, Marcian then took the final step and named Anthemius emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

This was when Euphemia was proclaimed as Augusta, most likely at the time that her husband was elevated to the Western throne in 467AD. Her coinage is of such extreme rarity that its issue was probably confined to a single occasion. The marriage, no doubt, was also political since it also linked Anthemius himself to be entitled to the throne. Like most of Anthemius’ issues, his wife’s solidi understandably reflects contemporary Eastern models. Euphemia’s fate, following her husband’s downfall in 472 AD, has not been recorded.