Leo II was the child grandson of Marcian. After both Marcian and then Leo I died, Leo II turned out to be the next closest of kin and was thus made emperor. Just three weeks later his own father, Zeno, assumed co-emperorship with him and the two ruled jointly until Leo's own death later in the year of an unidentified illness left Zeno to rule by himself. Due to the extremely short sole reign, there was hardly a chance for coins to come out in Leo's name alone. Yet there are a handful of such coins. This is likely due to their being issued in his name alone as well as jointly with Zeno while both...

Leo was a Thracian soldier who gained enough clout fighting for the armies of Marcian that upon his death he was able to secure the throne. Leo mounted only one major military campaign and it was against the Vandals in Northern Africa. The naval invasion fleet was decimated by the forces of Gaiseric and the unfavorable conclusion of this battle marks the final Roman attempt to recover this key region. The rest of Leo's career was taken up handling the blessing and vetoing of the many puppet emperors during the last years of the West as well as handling various other foreign and domestic matters....