Aelia Verina was married to Leo sometime before his reign began in 457, and they had one daughter. After 457 another daughter and a son (who did not survive) were born. Very little is known of her until the death of Leo in 474, except that her large family rose to powerful positions.

As with other eastern empresses, she had a taste for power. After the death of Leo their grandson Leo II was given power, though he was only 7. His father Zeno was proclaimed regent and co-Augustus, and Leo II died that same autumn. Verina joins conspirators against Zeno, and in 475 tricked him into fleeing Constantinople with his wife (Ariadne, daughter of Leo & Verina) and his mother. Basiliscus (brother of Verina) was then crowned emperor, though Verina had been led to believe her lover Patricus would receive the crown. Instead, he was executed by the new emperor. Verina now began to contribute to efforts to bring Zeno back, but was forced to seek refuge away from Constantinople.

An Isaurian named Illus who was of high rank in the court, turned against Basiliscus and returned Zeno to the throne in 476. Verina returned to Constantinople, but was exiled again after she was found plotting against Illus. She was sent to various monasteries, and never returned to Constantinople.

Verina's brothers and son-in-law launched a revolt in Constantinople in 479 and were nearly successful, but were defeated by Isaurian troops under Illus. In about 480 Zeno's wife Ariadne, the daughter of Verina, led a plot which succeeded in wounding Illus, who decided to flee the captial and was instead given control over all eastern troops by Zeno.

In this position, Illus launched a revolt against Zeno in 484, and his candidate for the throne Leotius was backed by Verina. This revolt failed, and the rebels withdrew to the fortress of Papirius (or Cherris?) in Isauria. Verina died soon after arriving at the fortress, though the other rebels held out until 488. Her body was brought back to the capital by Ariadne for burial.

Tarasicodissa was from Rosoumblada (or maybe this was his father's name) in Isauria, a mountainous region in southern Asia Minor. He was a chieftain of the Isaurians, a "barbaric" people who had been Roman subjects for around 200 years. He was called to the court of Leo I in an effort to supplant the Germanic people in the eastern military, as the Germans were wreaking havoc in the western empire. As part of the arrangement he was wed to Leo's oldest daughter, Ariadne. He took the Greek name "Zeno" to better blend in with the population of Constantinople.

He was primarily a military leader, and was the original commander of the excubitores. He was given a high post in Thrace in 467 to oppose an assault by the Huns. Only a few years later he eliminated his court rival, the powerful Germanic general Aspar. By 473 Zeno had taken Aspar's former position of "Master of Soldiers" over the entire eastern empire.

When Leo I died in 474, he had appointed his grandson (Zeno's son) Leo II as Augustus. Zeno was the regent for the 7-year old boy, and by 9 February was appointed as co-Augustus by the senate. By the end of the year Leo II was dead, apparently from an illness. This left Zeno as the sole Augustus over the eastern empire. Both the Vandals and the Ostrogoths were in revolt, though both were soon brought to a stop.

Zeno had to deal with a number of revolts, the first being with his trusted general Illus, together with Verina and her brother Basiliscus in January of 475. Zeno was tricked into fleeing by Verina, and stayed in his homeland of Isauria for 20 months raising an army, while Basiliscus ruled. Towards the end of this Illus abandoned Basiliscus in favor of Zeno, and together they marched back with an army of Isaurians to Constantinople. So unpopular was Basiliscus that they received no resistance, and in August of 476 he was back in power. Zeno faced another revolt in 484 from Illus, Leontius, and the dowager empress Verina. They were quickly defeated and fled, though it was another 4 years before their holdout was captured.

One of the most notable events in the reign of Zeno was the end of the western empire in 476. The Herulian Odoacer had deposed the last of the western rulers and sent back the imperial regalia to Zeno, asking to be recognized as the ruler of Italy under him. Zeno was in no position to protest, and agreed though the arrangement was a mere formality. Zeno insisted that the last western emperor, Julius Nepos be recognized as emperor-in-exile of the west, but in reality the western empire was lost.

In 482 Zeno was trying to mediate religious disputes between the Monophysites and the Catholic church, and issued a ruling called The Act of Union (Henotikon) that was popular with the moderate factions of the empire, though the more extreme Monophysite and Orthodox bishops opposed it and were replaced by Zeno. These problems led Pope Felix III to excommunicate the Patriarch of Constantinople, causing a schism with the western church.

Zeno was also a cunning strategist, playing the Ostrogoths against the Amals in the Balkans, and later the Amals against the Germans in Italy. Zeno died from epilepsy in the spring of 491, after a long and very eventful reign. Though often unpopular in Constantinople due to his origin, he was largely successful, and had even been able to remove most of the German tribes from eastern territories. The Isaurians in the capital expected his brother Longinus to replace him, but when Ariadne chose Anastasius instead, they revolted. The Isaurians were forced from the capital, ending the power base of the past few emperors.