Arcadius was dominated for the rest of his rule by Anthemius, the Praetorian Prefect, who made peace with Stilicho in the West.

Anthemius of Tralles ( c. 474 – before 558 ; ) was a Greek professor of Geometry in Constantinople ( present-day Istanbul in Turkey ) and architect, who collaborated with Isidore of Miletus to build the church of Hagia Sophia by the order of Justinian I. Anthemius came from an educated family, one of five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician.

Anthemius was also a capable mathematician.

Isidore of Miletus was one of the two main Byzantine Greek architects ( Anthemius of Tralles was the other ) that Emperor Justinian I commissioned to design the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople from 532-537A. D.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles originally planned on a main hall of the Hagia Sophia that measured 230 feet by 250 feet, making it the largest church in Constantinople, but the original dome was nearly 20 feet lower than it was constructed, “ Justinian suppressed these riots and took the opportunity of marking his victory by erecting in 532-7 the new Hagia Sophia, one of the largest, most lavish, and most expensive buildings of all time .” Although Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles were not formally educated in architecture, they were scientists that could organize the logistics of drawing thousands of laborers and unprecedented loads of rare raw materials from around the Roman Empire to create the Hagia Sophia for Emperor Justinian I.

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Anthemius ( or, less frequently, year 1158 Ab urbe condita ).

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valentinianus and Anthemius ( or, less frequently, year 1208 Ab urbe condita ).

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Anthemius without colleague ( or, less frequently, year 1221 Ab urbe condita ).

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Florentius and Anthemius ( or, less frequently, year 1268 Ab urbe condita ).

In 472, the Western Roman Empire was plagued by a civil war between Emperor Anthemius and his Magister militum ( commander in chief of the army ), Ricimer.

It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.

Under Anthemius he was raised to the rank of patrician, becoming a possible threat to Ricimer, the powerful kingmaker behind the western throne.

Marcia Euphemia was the only known daughter of Marcian, and she was married to Anthemius, later Western Roman Emperor.

Once again, Gaiseric was his major supporter, but once again his hopes were shattered, as the Eastern Emperor Leo I the Thracian chose the noble Procopius Anthemius.

In 472 Olybrius was sent to Italy by the Eastern Emperor, Leo I the Thracian, ostensibly to mediate between Ricimer and the Western Emperor, Anthemius, whom Ricimer had trapped in a siege of Rome.

Instead, after arriving in Rome, Olybrius ' was proclaimed emperor several months before Anthemius ' death, in April or May 472.

Then Ricimer besieged the part of Rome where Anthemius was for several months until the lawful Emperor was abandoned by his partisans, captured in a church and put to death by Gundobad, Ricimer's nephew.

What other reason could there be, Bury asks, then answers his own rhetorical question, " the facts that Anthemius was Leo's chosen candidate, his filius, and that Olybrius was the friend of his foe Genseric, are a strong counter-argument.

Anthemius assumes a property of an ellipse not found in Apollonius's work, that the equality of the angles subtended at a focus by two tangents drawn from a point, and having given the focus and a double ordinate he goes on to use the focus and directrix to obtain any number of points on a parabola — the first instance on record of the practical use of the directrix.

Successful recreations have been performed by Anthemius of Tralles ( 6th century AD ), Proclus ( 6th century ) ( who by this means purportedly destroyed the fleet of Vitellus besieging Constantinople ), Ibn Sahl in his On Burning Mirrors and Lenses ( 10th century ), Alhazen in his Book of Optics ( 1021 ), Roger Bacon ( 13th century ), Giambattista della Porta and his friends ( 16th century ), Athanasius Kircher and Gaspar Schott ( 17th century ), the Comte du Buffon in 1740 in Paris, Ioannis Sakas in the 1970s in Greece, and others.

Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles built by Constantine with a new church under the same dedication.

* 472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in the Old St. Peter's Basilica and put to death.

He is succeeded by his 7-year-old son, Theodosius II, who rules under the domination of his devout Christian sister Pulcheria and Anthemius, who acts as regent.

In Rome, Hilarius worked zealously to counter the new emperor's 467 edict of toleration for schismatic sects, inspired, according to a letter of Pope Gelasius I by a favourite of Emperor Anthemius named Philotheus, who espoused the Macedonian heresy.

He had Olybrius followed by another envoy, bearing a letter for Anthemius which is said to have read ;

Leo's reign was also noteworthy for his influence in the Western Roman Empire, marked by his appointment of Anthemius as Western Roman Emperor in 467.

This hypothesis is further strengthened by the fact that Anthemius ' prestige misled the 6th century historian John Malalas to state that Marcian had actually designated Anthemius as Western Emperor after Avitus.

On 25 March 467, Leo I, with the consent of Ricimer, designated Anthemius Western Emperor as Caesar and sent him to Italy with an army led by the Magister militum per Illyricum Marcellinus.

Anthemius ' election was celebrated in Constantinople with a panegyric by Dioscorus.

The new Emperor, however, had been chosen by the Eastern court, and, despite the bond of the marriage between Ricimer and Anthemius ' daughter, Alypia, they were not on good terms.

The tipping point of their relationship was the trial of Romanus, an Italian senator, who was a patricius and was supported by Ricimer, whom Anthemius accused of treachery and condemned to death in 470.

Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with a new and incomparable St Sophia.

This succession of honourable events – the wedding with Marcian's daughter ; a promotion to an important military rank, but with administrative rather than military tasks ; the prestigious rank of patricius and the highest military position ; the consulate held with an Emperor as colleague – suggests that Marcian had selected Anthemius as a possible candidate for the Eastern or Western throne.

By choosing Anthemius, Leo obtained three results: he sent a possible candidate to the Eastern throne far away ; he repulsed Gaiseric's attempt to put a puppet of his on the Western throne ; and he put a capable and proven general with a trained army in Italy, ready to fight the Vandals.

Anthemius held the consulate with the honour of the sine collega ( to be appointed without colleague ) in 468, the first year he started as Emperor, following a similar honour given to Leo in 466.

In 471, the year in which Leo held his fourth consulate with the Praetorian prefect of Italy Caelius Aconius Probianus as colleague, the two emperors strengthened their bonds with a marriage between Anthemius ' son, Marcian, and Leo's daughter, Leontia ; Marcian was honoured with his second consulate the following year, this time chosen by the Eastern court.

Anthemius lost his allies and, with the imperial treasury almost emptied by the failed operation, renounced taking Africa back and concentrated on the second problem of his Empire, keeping under his control the Western provinces that were the target of Visigoth expansion.

Ricimer had gathered 6, 000 men for the war against the Vandals, and after the death of Romanus he moved with his men to the north, leaving Anthemius in Rome.

Anthemius, with the aristocracy and the people of the city faced the Goth magister militum and the barbaric units of the army, which included Odoacer's men.

Anthemius elevated Bilimer to the rank of Rector Galliarum and had him enter Italy with the loyal army.

In the late Roman Empire, the Latin title comes, meaning ( imperial ) " companion ", denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative: before Anthemius became emperor in the West in 467, he was military comes charged with strengthening defenses on the Danube frontier.

She then became her own brother ’ s regent: “ In 412 Pulcheria quarreled with Antiochus, who like Anthemius had served the dynasty faithfully for a number of years, and induced her brother to dismiss him from the duties of praepositus.

* 467 – Anthemius becomes western emperor with the support of Leo I.