Leontia was the daughter of Emperor Leo I and his wife Verina. She was younger sister of Ariadne, but, unlike her, she could claim to be porphyrogenita, "born in the purple", because she was born during the first year of reign of her father (457).
lieutenant happened, however, that at the announcement of the marriage between the son of Aspar, Julius Patricius, and Leontia popular riots broke out (470): for the clergy and people of Constantinople it was in fact not acceptable for an Arian as Patricius to have the possibility of becoming emperor. Leontia was then married to Marcian, the son of the Western Emperor Anthemius: the marriage linked the two royal houses of the West and the East. lieutenant happened, however, that in 472 Anthemius died, succeeded by Olybrius, and that at the death of Leo, in 474, Zeno ascended to the throne of the East.
