Chrysaphius (Greek: Χρυσάφιος) was a eunuch in the Eastern Roman court who became the chief minister of Theodosius II (r. 402–450).
His real name was Taiouma (Theophanes 151) or Tumna (Cedrenus I 601) or Tzoumas (Patria II 182; George Codinus 47) or even Ztommas (Malalas 363–6).
Cyrus saved himself by converting to Christianity, but the malice of Chrysaphius was not so easily frustrated, and the eunuch arranged for him to be appointed bishop of Cotyaeum in Phyrgia, where the population had lynched the previous four incumbents.
150; Priscus 227); the later Patria (II 182; Codinus 47) names him anachronistically as a parakoimomenos, after the all-powerful eunuch officials of the 9th-10th centuries.
Chrysaphius adopted a policy of appeasement, and the imperial government paid Attila a huge tribute to go away, rather than fight.
Chrysaphius had also been involved in the ecclesiastical disputes of the time, and taking bribes from the various parties he amassed a great fortune.
He was the godson of the aged Cyrillian abbot Eutyches, whom he hoped to place on the episcopal throne of Constantinople and so increase his own political influence.
Flavian died a few days after the closure of the Latrocinium because of the injuries suffered from the mob of Dioscorus' monks, led by the dreaded abbot Barsaumas, "a wild, illiterate Syrian archimandrite".
Chrysaphius sent an envoy with money, and Attila consented in contemptuous language to forgive him and the emperor provided that he received an annual compensation payment of 700 pounds of gold a year.
This burden of taxes on an empire already devastated by the ravages of the Huns made the already unpopular favourite deeply hated.
According to most, Pulcheria avenged herself against Chrysaphius by handing him over to his mortal enemy Jordanes, who had him put to death (Theophanes 160; Chronicon Paschale 390; Malalas 368; Zonaras; III 107–109, Cedrenus I 601–1603).
On the way there, the fallen minister was stoned to death by a mob infuriated by the high taxes needed to pay Attila's tribute.
The political career of Chrysaphius is recorded by the Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos,[3] who deals with his actions in the critical years 449–451.