| Constantius II | |
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| Emperor of the Roman Empire | |
Bust of Constantius II |
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| Reign | 324 (November 13) – 337 (May 22): Caesar under his father, Constantine I 337 – 340: co-Augustus (ruled Asian provinces & Egypt) with Constantine II and Constans 340 – 350: co-Augustus (ruled Asian provinces & Egypt) with Constans 350 – 361 (November 3): Sole Augustus of the Roman Empire |
| Full name | Flavius Julius Constantius (from birth to accession); Flavius Julius Constantius Caesar (as Caesar); Flavius Julius Constantius Augustus (as Augustus) |
| Born | 7 August 317 |
| Birthplace | Sirmium, Pannonia Inferior (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) |
| Died | 3 November 361 (aged 44) |
| Place of death | Mopsuestia, Cilicia |
| Predecessor | Constantine I |
| Successor | Julian |
| Wives | 1) Daughter of Julius Constantius 2) Eusebia 3) Faustina |
| Offspring | Flavia Maxima Constantia, born posthumously, later married Gratian |
| Dynasty | Constantinian |
| Father | Constantine I |
| Mother | Fausta |
Constantius II (Latin: Flavius Julius Constantius Augustus;[1][2] August 7, 317 – November 3, 361), was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death.
In 340, Constantius' brothers clashed over the western provinces of the empire. The resulting conflict left Constantine II dead and Constans as ruler of the west until he was overthrown and assassinated in 350 by the usurper Magnentius. Unwilling to accept Magnentius as co-ruler, Constantius marched against him. Magnentius was defeated at the battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus, committing suicide after the latter. This left Constantius as sole ruler of the empire.
His subsequent military campaigns against Germanic tribes were successful: he defeated the Alamanni in 354, and campaigned across the Danube against the Quadi and Sarmatians in 357. Contrastingly, in the east, the two decade old war against the Sassanids continued with mixed results.
As a consequence of the difficulty of managing the entire empire alone, Constantius elevated two of his cousins to the subordinate rank of Caesar. Constantius Gallus, the eldest surviving son of Constantius' half-uncle, Julius Constantius, was promoted in 351, but executed three years later for his supposedly violent and corrupt nature. Constantius then promoted Gallus' younger half-brother, Julian, who was Constantius' last surviving cousin and the man who would ultimately succeed him, in 355.
However, the actions of Julian in claiming the rank of Augustus in 360 led to war between the two. Ultimately, no battle ever took place as Constantius became ill and died late in 361, though not before naming his opponent as his successor.
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Constantius was born in 317 at Sirmium, Pannonia. He was the third son of Constantine the Great, and second by his second wife Fausta, the daughter of Maximian. Constantius was made Caesar by his father on 13 November 324.[3]
When his father died at Constantinople on 22 May 337, Constantius was the nearest of his sons to that city. Although on campaign in the eastern provinces, he immediately returned to the city to oversee his father's funeral.[4]
The role of Constantius in the massacre of his relatives descended from the second marriage of his paternal grandfather Constantius Chlorus and Theodora) is unclear.[5][6] Eutropius, writing between 350 and 370, writes that Constantius merely sanctioned “the act, rather than commanding it”.[7] However, Eutropius was hostile to Constantius – he was a friend of Julian – Constantius’ cousin and ultimately his enemy. Constantius, his older brother Constantine II, his younger brother Constans, and three cousins Gallus, Julian and Nepotianus were left as the only surviving male relatives of Constantine the Great.
Meeting at Sirmium not long after the massacre, the three brothers proceeded to divide the Roman Empire among them, according to their father's will. Constantius received the eastern provinces, including Egypt, Syria, Thrace, and Asia Minor. Constantine II received Britannia, Gaul, Hispania, and Mauretania. Constans, though initially under the supervision of Constantine II, received Italy, Africa, Illyricum, Pannonia, Macedonia, and Achaea.[8]
In 336, religious unrest in Armenia and tense relations between Constantine and king Shapur II caused war to break out between Rome and Sassanid Persia.[9] Though he made initial preparations for the war, Constantine fell ill and sent Constantius east to take command of the eastern frontier.[10][11] Before Constantius arrived, the Persian general Narses, who was possibly the king's brother, overran Mesopotamia and captured Amida. Constantius promptly attacked Narses, and after suffering minor setbacks defeated and killed Narses at the Battle of Narasara.[12] Constantius captured Amida and initiated a major refortification the city, enhancing the city's circuit walls and constructing large towers. He also built a new stronghold in the hinterland nearby, naming it Antinopolis.[13]
In early 337, Constantius hurried to Constantinople after receiving news that his father was near death.[14] After burying his father in the Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantius met his brothers Constantine and Constans in Pannonia to formalize the partition of the empire.[15] After securing his hold on the throne by having six of his cousins killed,[16] including Hannibalianus, Constantius hurried east to Antioch to resume the war with Persia.[17] While Constantius was away from the eastern frontier in early 337, Shapur assembled a large army, including war elephants, and launched an attack on Roman territory, laying waste to Mesopotamia[18] and putting Nisibis under siege.[19] Despite initial success, Shapur lifted his siege after his army missed an opportunity to exploit a collapsed wall.[20] When Constantius learned of Shapur's withdrawal from Roman territory, he prepared his army for a counter-attack, drilling them and upgrading the equipment of his cataphracts. He spent most of his time defending the eastern border against invasions by the aggressive Sassanid Empire under king Shapur II. These conflicts were mainly limited to Sassanid sieges of the major fortresses of Roman Mesopotamia, including Nisibis (Nusaybin), Singara, and Amida (Diyarbakir). Although Shapur seems to have been victorious in most of the confrontations, the Sassanids were able to achieve little.[21][22] However, the Romans won a decisive victory at the Battle of Narasara, killing Shapur's brother, Narses.[21][23] Ultimately, Constantius was able to push back the invasion, Shapur failing to make any significant gains.[22] Meanwhile, his brother Constantine desired to retain control of Constans' realm – leading Constantius' two brothers into open conflict. Constantine was killed in 340 near Aquileia during an ambush.[7] As a result, Constans took control of his deceased brother’s realms and became sole ruler of the Western two-thirds of the empire. This division lasted until 350, when Constans was assassinated by forces loyal to the usurper Magnentius.[7][24]
This new state of affairs was unacceptable to Constantius, who felt that as the only surviving son of Constantine the Great, the position of emperor was his alone.[25] He was determined to march west across the empire to fight the usurper. However, feeling that the east still required some sort of imperial presence, he elevated his cousin Constantius Gallus to Caesar of the eastern provinces. As an extra measure to ensure the loyalty of his cousin, he married the elder of his two sisters, Constantina, to him.[25]
Before facing Magnentius, Constantius first came to terms with Vetranio, a loyal general in Illyricum who had recently been acclaimed emperor by his soldiers. Vetranio immediately sent letters to Constantius pledging his loyalty, which Constantius may have accepted simply in order to stop Magnentius from gaining more support. These events may have been spurred by the action of Constantina, who had since traveled east to marry Gallus. Constantius subsequently sent Vetranio the imperial diadem and acknowledged the general‘s new position as Augustus. However, when Constantius arrived Vetranio willingly resigned his position and accepted Constantius’ offer of a comfortable retirement in Bithynia.[26]
The following year, Constantius clashed with Magnentius in Pannonia with a large army. The ensuing Battle of Mursa Major was one of the largest and most bloody battles between two Roman armies in Roman history.[27][28][29][30] The result was a victory for Constantius, but a costly one. However, Magnentius himself managed to survive the battle and, determined to fight on, withdrew into northern Italy. Rather than pursuing his opponent, Constantius then turned his attention to securing the Danubian border, where he spent the early months of 352 campaigning against the Sarmatians along the middle Danube. After having achieved his aims in that region, Constantius finally advanced on Magnentius in Italy. This action leading the cities of Italy to switch their allegiance to him and eject Magnentius’ garrisons. Again, Magnentius withdrew, this time to southern Gaul.[31]
In 353, Constantius and Magnentius met for what would be the final time at the Battle of Mons Seleucus in southern Gaul, and again, Constantius emerged the victor.[31] Soon after, Magnentius, realizing the futility of continuing his position, committed suicide on 10 August 353.[32]
Constantius spent much of the rest of 353 and early 354 on campaign against the Alamanni on the Danube frontier. The campaign was successful and raiding by the Alamanni ceased temporarily. In the meantime, Constantius had been receiving some disturbing reports regarding the actions of his cousin Gallus.[33] Possibly as a result of these reports, Constantius concluded a peace with the Alamanni, and traveled to Mediolanum (Milan).[34]
Once there, he decided to first call Ursicinus, Gallus’ magister equitum, to Mediolanum for reasons that remain unclear.[35] Constantius then requested the presence of Gallus and Constantina.[36] Although at first Gallus and Constantina complied with the order, when Constantina died in Bithynia,[36] Gallus began to hesitate. However, after some convincing by one of Constantius’ agents,[37] Gallus continued his journey west, passing through Constantinople and Thrace to Poetovio (Ptuj) in Pannonia.[38][39]
In Poetovio, Gallus was arrested by the soldiers of Constantius under the command of Barbatio.[40] He was then moved to Pola, and interrogated. Once there, Gallus claimed that it was Constantina who was to blame for all the trouble that had been caused while he was in charge of the eastern provinces.[41] At first, this so greatly angered Constantius that he immediately ordered Gallus' execution.[42] Soon after however, he changed his mind and recanted his order.[43][44] Unfortunately for Gallus, this order was delayed by Eusebius, one of Constantius‘ eunuchs, and as a result Gallus was executed.[39]
On 11 August 355, the magister militum Claudius Silvanus revolted in Gaul. Silvanus had surrendered to Constantius after the Battle of Mursa Major. Constantius had made him magister militum in 353, with the purpose of blocking the German threats, a feat that Silvanus achieved by bribing the German tribes with the money he had collected. A plot organized by members of Constantius' court led the emperor to recall Silvanus. After Silvanus revolted, he received a letter by Constantius that recalled him to Milan, but which made no reference to the revolt. Ursicinus, who was meant to replace Silvanus, bribed some troops, and Silvanus was killed.
However, Constantius realised that too many threats still faced the Empire, and he could not possibly handle all of them by himself, so on 6 November 355,[45] he elevated his last remaining relative, Julian, to the rank of Caesar.[46] A few days later, Julian was married to Helena, the last surviving sister of Constantius.[47] Not long after Constantius sent Julian off to Gaul.[48]
Constantius spent the next few years overseeing affairs in the western part of the empire primarily from his base at Mediolanum. In 357 he visited Rome for the first and only time in his life. The same year he forced Sarmatian and Quadi invaders out of Pannonia and Moesia Inferior, then subsequently led a successful counter-attack across the Danube against the enemy.[49]
In the winter of 357–8, Constantius received ambassadors from Shapur II who demanded that Rome restore the lands surrendered by Narseh.[50][51] Despite rejecting these terms,[52][53] Constantius still tried to avert war with the Sassanid Empire by sending two embassies to Shapur II.[54][55][56] As a result of Constantius' rejection of his terms, Shapur II launched another invasion of Roman Mesopotamia. In 360, when news reached Constantius that Shapur II had destroyed Singara,[57] and taken Kiphas (Hasankeyf), Amida,[58] and Ad Tigris (Cizre),[59] he decided to travel east to face the re-emergent threat.
In the meantime, Julian had won some victories against the Alemanni tribe, who had once again invaded Roman Gaul. However, when Constantius requested reinforcements from Julian’s army for the eastern campaign, the Gallic legions revolted and proclaimed Julian Augustus.[60][61][62][63]
However, on account of the immediate Sassanid threat, Constantius was unable to directly respond to his cousin’s usurpation other than by sending missives by which he tried to convince Julian to resign the title of Augustus and be satisfied with that of Caesar. By 361, Constantius saw no alternative but to face the usurper with force; and yet the threat of the Sassanids remained. Constantius had already spent part of early 361 unsuccessfully attempting to re-take the fortress of Ad Tigris.[64] After a time he had withdrawn to Antioch to regroup and prepare for a confrontation with Shapur II.[65] However, the campaigns of the previous year had inflicted heavy losses on the Sassanids and they did not attempt another round of campaigns that year. This temporary respite in hostilities allowed Constantius to turn his full attention to facing Julian.[66]
Constantius immediately gathered his forces and set off west. However, by the time he reached Mopsuestia in Cilicia, it was clear that he was fatally ill and would not survive to face Julian. Apparently, realising his death was near, Constantius had himself baptised by Euzoius, the Semi-Arian bishop of Antioch, and then declared that Julian was his rightful successor.[66] Constantius II died of fever on 3 November 361.[67]
Constantius II was married three times:
First to a daughter of his half-uncle Julius Constantius, whose name is unknown. She was a full-sister of Gallus and a half-sister of Julian. She died c. 352/3.
Second, to Eusebia, a woman of Macedonian origin from the city of Thessaloniki, whom Constantius married before his defeat of Magnentius in 353. She died in 360.
Third and lastly, in 360, to Faustina, who gave birth to Constantius' only child, a posthumous daughter named Flavia Maxima Constantia, who later married Emperor Gratian.
Constantius seems to have had a particular interest in the religious state of the Roman Empire. As a Christian Roman Emperor, Constantius made a concerted effort to promote Christianity at the expense of Roman polytheism (‘paganism’). As such, over the course of his reign, he issued a number of different edicts designed specifically to carry out this agenda (see below). Constantius also took an active part in attempting to shape the Christian church.
In spite of the some of the edicts issued by Constantius, it should be recognised that he was not fanatically anti-pagan – he never made any attempt to disband the various Roman priestly colleges or the Vestal Virgins,[68] he never acted against the various pagan schools, and, at times, he actually made some effort to protect paganism. In fact, he even ordered the election of a priest for Africa.[68] Also, he remained pontifex maximus until his death, and was deified by the Roman Senate after his death. The relative moderation of Constantius' actions toward paganism is reflected by the fact that it was not until over 20 years after Constantius' death, during the reign of Gratian, that any pagan senators protested their religion's treatment.[69]
Pagan-related edicts issued by Constantius (by himself or with others) included:
Although often considered an Arian,[73] Constantius ultimately preferred a third, compromise version that lay somewhere in between Arianism and the Nicene Creed, retrospectively called Semi-Arianism.[74][75] As such, during his reign, Constantius made a concerted attempt to mold the Christian church to follow this compromise position, and to this end, he convened several Christian councils during his reign, the most notable of which were one at Rimini and its twin at Seleuca, which met in 359 and 360 respectively. "Unfortunately for his memory the theologians whose advice he took were ultimately discredited and the malcontents whom he pressed to conform emerged victorious," writes the historian A.H.M. Jones. "The great councils of 359–60 are therefore not reckoned ecumenical in the tradition of the church, and Constantius II is not remembered as a restorer of unity, but as a heretic who arbitrarily imposed his will on the church."[76]
Christian-related edicts issued by Constantius (by himself or with others) included:
Judaism faced some severe restrictions under Constantius, who seems to have followed an anti-Jewish policy in line with that of his father.[84] Early in his reign, Constantius issued a double edict in concert with his brothers limiting the ownership of slaves by Jewish people[85] and banning marriages between Jews and Christian women.[85] A later edict issued by Constantius after becoming sole emperor decreed that a person who was proven to have converted from Christianity to Judaism would have their entire property confiscated by the state.[86] However, Constantius' actions in this regard may not have been so much to do with Jewish religion as Jewish business; apparently, it was often the case that privately-owned Jewish businesses were in competition with state-owned businesses. As such, Constantius may have sought to provide as much of an advantage to the state-owned businesses as possible by limiting the skilled workers and the slaves available to the Jewish businesses.[84]
Jew-related edicts issued by Constantius (by himself or with others) included:
Constantius II is a particularly difficult figure to judge properly, mainly as a result of the hostility of most sources that mentions him. A.H.M Jones writes that Constantius "appears in the pages of Ammianus as a conscientious emperor but a vain and stupid man, an easy prey to flatterers. He was timid and suspicious, and interested persons could easily play on his fears for their own advantage."[87] However, Kent & M. and A. Hirmer suggest that Constantius "has suffered at the hands of unsympathetic authors, ecclesiastical and civil alike. To orthodox churchmen he was a bigoted supporter of the Arian heresy, to Julian the Apostate and the many who have subsequently taken his part he was a murderer, a tyrant and inept as a ruler".[88] They go on to add, "Most contemporaries seem in fact to have held him in high esteem, and he certainly inspired loyalty in a way his brother could not".[88] In the military sphere, the campaigns of Constantius and his subordinates on the Rhine and Danube frontiers in the late 350s restored stability to those regions after the troubles caused by Magnentius' revolt.
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4. Constantius Chlorus |
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2. Constantine I |
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5. Helena |
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1.Constantius II |
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6. Maximian |
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3. Fausta |
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7. Eutropia |
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Constantius II
Born: 7 August 317 Died: 3 November 361 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Constantine I |
Roman Emperor 337–361 Served alongside: Constans and Constantine II |
Succeeded by Julian |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Sextus Anicius Faustus Paulinus, Julius Julianus |
Consul of the Roman Empire 326 with Constantine I |
Succeeded by Lucius Valerius Maximus Basilius, Flavius Constantius |
| Preceded by Ursus, Polemius |
Consul of the Roman Empire 339 with Constans |
Succeeded by Septimius Acindynus, Lucius Aradius Valerius Proculus |
| Preceded by Petronius Probinus, Antonius Marcellinus |
Consul of the Roman Empire 342 with Constans |
Succeeded by Marcus Maecius Memmius Furius Baburius Caecilianus Placidus, Flavius Romulus |
| Preceded by Amantius, Marcus Nummius Albinus |
Consul of the Roman Empire 346 with Constans |
Succeeded by Vulcacius Rufinus, Eusebius |
| Preceded by Magnentius, Gaiso |
Consul of the Roman Empire 352–354 with Constantius Gallus, Decentius, Paulus, Magnentius |
Succeeded by Arbitio, Lollianus Mavortius |
| Preceded by Arbitio, Lollianus Mavortius |
Consul of the Roman Empire 356–357 with Julian the Apostate |
Succeeded by Neratius Cerealis, Datianus |
| Preceded by Eusebius, Hypatius |
Consul of the Roman Empire 360 with Julian the Apostate |
Succeeded by Taurus, Florentius |