Anastasius I Dicorus

Latin: Flavius Anastasius Augustus
c. 431 - 9 July 518

Anastasius I was a consul of the Roman Emperire and a Byzantine Emperor from 11 April 491 to 9 July 518.

He was born in the Balkans at Dyrrhachium, into an Illyrian family. He had one blue eye and one black (also known as heterochromia), for which he was nicknamed Dicorus ('two-pupiled').

He was childless and could not decide which of his three nephews would inherit the throne. He tried to let fate decide for him by putting a message under a couch, the nephew who sat on it would be the new emperor, but none of them sat on it. He then let the matter to God - the one of them who entered his chambers first in the morning would succeed him. It was Justin, the chief of guards.