Anastasius I ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from 491 to 518, and is best remembered for his skill with money. He was born around 430 at Dyrrachium, modern Durrës in Albania, and people called him Dicorus because his eyes were two different colours.

He was not a born soldier. When he took the throne, Anastasius was about sixty and serving as a silentiarius, a palace official who kept order at court. Where he really shone was finance. In 498 he scrapped the chrysargyron, a tax on traders and craftsmen that was widely hated. The same year he reformed the copper coinage, introducing a large follis marked M for 40 nummi, along with smaller coins marked K, I and E, a system that lasted for centuries. By his death the treasury was said to hold some 320,000 pounds of gold.

Religion was his weak point. He sympathised with the Miaphysites, who rejected the Council of Chalcedon, and his attempts to favour them led to riots in Constantinople in 512 and helped spark the general Vitalian's revolt of 513–515. He died in 518 without an heir, and Justin I, commander of the palace guard, took the throne.