relations death_place death_date birth_place allegiance rank article_title name
bouzes -lrb- nephew -rrb- , coutzes and venilus -lrb- sons -rrb- john constantinople july 520 zaldapa byzantine empire '' magister militum '' vitalian -lrb- general -rrb-
 vitalian
vitalian -lrb- general -rrb-

vitalian -lrb- , ; died 520 -rrb- was a general of the east roman -lrb- byzantine -rrb- empire .
a native of moesia in the northern balkans , and probably of mixed roman and barbarian descent , he followed his father into the imperial army , and by 513 had become a senior commander in thrace .
in that year he rebelled against emperor anastasius i -lrb- r. 491 -- 518 -rrb- , whose fiscal stringency and promotion of miaphysitism were widely unpopular , and allowed vitalian to quickly win over large parts of the army and the people of thrace to his cause .
after scoring a series of victories over loyalist armies , vitalian came to threaten constantinople itself , and forced anastasius to officially recant his adoption of miaphysitism in summer 515 .
soon after , however , as anastasius failed to honour some of the terms of the agreement , vitalian marched on constantinople , only to be decisively defeated by anastasius ' admiral , marinus .
vitalian fled to his native thrace and remained in hiding until anastasius 's death in 518 .
as a staunch promoter of chalcedonian orthodoxy , he was pardoned by the new emperor justin i -lrb- r. 518 -- 527 -rrb- and was engaged in the negotiations with the pope to end the acacian schism .
he was named consul for the year 520 , but was murdered shortly after , probably on the orders of justin 's nephew and heir-apparent , justinian -lrb- r. 527 -- 565 -rrb- , who saw in him a potential rival for the throne .
his sons also became generals in the east roman army .
