The gentle and scholarly Theodosius, an easily dominated man who has allowed his government to be run by a succession of relatives and ministers, dies on July 28, 450, from injuries suffered during a hunting accident.

Aspar's influence has increased: on August 25, he and Theodosius' Christian sister, Pulcheria, appoint as emperor one Marcian, an Illyrian (or Thracian) officer and senator who had begun his career as a professional soldier and came to hold a high position in the service of Aspar.

As part of this arrangement, the fifty-eight year old Marcian is made the nominal husband of Pulcheria in order to formally perpetuate the Theodosian dynasty.

She gives the imperial diadem to the Marcian and is crowned as empress in the Hippodrome at Constantinople in a first religious coronation ceremony.

Aspar is made a patrician.

Marcian orders the execution (or assassination) of the unpopular court eunuch Chrysaphius, and discontinues the tribute payments to Attila.