Everything about Constantius Ii totally explained
Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as
Constantius II, born in
Sirmium (now
Sremska Mitrovica,
Serbia), (
7 August,
317 -
October 5,
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 now called
Sremska Mitrovica (in
Panonia) 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 couldn't 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 353/353, with the purpose of blocking the German threats, a feat that Silvanus achieved by bribing the German tribes with the money he'd 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
oecumenical in the tradition of the church, and Constantius II isn't 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'd a dream about him, and another because he'd a purple tablecloth which might have been fashioned into the robe of an Emperor.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Constantius Ii'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://constantius_ii.totallyexplained.com">Constantius II Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
