Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II (7 August, 317 - November 3, 361) was a Roman Emperor (337 - 361) of the Constantinian dynasty.

Biography

Rise to power

Constantius was the second of the three sons of Constantine I and his second wife Fausta. Constantius was born in Sirmium (then in Panonia, now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) and named Caesar by his father. He married three times, first to a daughter of Julius Constantius, then to Eusebia, and last to Faustina, who gave birth to a posthumous daughter called Constantia, who later married Emperor Gratian.

When Constantine died in 337, Constantius II led the massacre of his relatives descended from the second marriage of his grandfather Constantius Chlorus and Theodora, leaving himself, his older brother Constantine II, his younger brother Constans and two cousins (Gallus and his half-brother Julian) as the only surviving males related to Constantine. The three brothers divided the Roman Empire among them, according to their father's will. Constantine II received Britannia, Gaul and Hispania; Constans ruled Italia, Africa, and Illyricum; and Constantius ruled the East.

Struggles against usurpers and foreign threats

This division changed when Constantine II died in 340, trying to overthrow Constans in Italy, and Constans became sole ruler in the Western half of the empire. The division changed once more in 350 when Constans was killed in battle by forces loyal to the usurper Magnentius. Until this time, Constantius was preoccupied with fighting the Sassanid Empire, and he was forced to elevate his cousin Gallus to Caesar of the East to assist him, while he turned his attention to this usurper.

Constantius eventually met and crushed Magnentius in the Battle of Mursa Major, one of the bloodiest battles in Roman history, in 351. Magnentius committed suicide in 353, and Constantius soon after put his cousin Gallus to death. However, he still could not handle the military affairs of both the Eastern and German frontiers by himself, so in 355 he elevated his last remaining relative, Julian, to the rank of Caesar.

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 should have replaced Silvanus, bribed some troops, and Silvanus was killed.

Arbitio was the main general (magister militum) of Constantius. He was given a consulship in 355.

Death and succession

As Julian was hailed Augustus by the army in Gaul, in 361, Constantius saw no alternative but to face the usurper with violent force. As the two armies sought engagement, Constantius died from a fever near Tarsus on October 5th, 361, and Julian was proclaimed Augustus throughout the Roman Empire. Many of his ministers were put to trial at the Chalcedon tribunal

Religious issues

Constantius took an active part in the affairs of the Christian church — convening one council at Rimini and its twin at Seleuca, which met in 359 and 360. "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.

Jones also notes 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. Ammianus also notes that Constantius II repeatedly murdered Roman aristocrats on the merest hint that they might be seeking the Empire themselves, including killing one because he had a dream about him, and another because he had a purple tablecloth which might have been fashioned into the robe of an Emperor.

Notes

External links

• This list of Roman laws of the fourth century shows laws passed by Constantius II relating to Christianity.
• DiMaio, Michael, and Robert Frakes, "Constantius II," De Imperatoribus Romanis site.
• Ch. Vogler, Constance II et l’administration impériale (Strasbourg, 1979).
• David Rohrbacher, "Why didn't Constantius II Eat Fruit?," Classical Quarterly 55,1 (2005), 323-326.

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