|
Constantius II (Latin: Flavius Julius Constantius Augustus;
Greek: Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman Emperor from 337
to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian
Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through
repeated civil wars and usurpations. His religious policies inflamed domestic
conflicts that would continue after his death.
The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, Constantius was
made Caesar by his father in 324. He led the Roman army in war against the
Sasanian Empire in 336. A year later, Constantine I died, and Constantius
became Augustus with his brothers Constantine II and Constans. He promptly
oversaw the massacre of eight of his relatives, consolidating his hold on
power. The brothers divided the empire among themselves, with Constantius
receiving the eastern provinces. In 340, his brothers Constantine and Constans
clashed over the western provinces of the empire. The resulting conflict left
Constantine dead and Constans as ruler of the west. The war against the
Sasanians continued, with Constantius losing a major battle at Singara in 344.
Constans was overthrown and assassinated in 350 by the usurper Magnentius.
Unwilling to accept Magnentius as co-ruler, Constantius
waged a civil war against the usurper, defeating him at the battles of Mursa
Major in 351 and Mons Seleucus in 353. Magnentius committed suicide after the
latter battle, leaving Constantius as sole ruler of the empire. In 351, Constantius
elevated his cousin Constantius Gallus to the subordinate rank of Caesar to
rule in the east, but had him executed three years later after receiving
scathing reports of his violent and corrupt nature. Shortly thereafter, in 355,
Constantius promoted his last surviving cousin, Gallus' younger half-brother
Julian, to the rank of Caesar.
As emperor, Constantius promoted Arian Christianity,
persecuted pagans by banning sacrifices and closing pagan temples and issued
laws discriminating against Jews. His 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. The war against the
Sasanians, which had been in a lull since 350, erupted with renewed intensity
in 359 and Constantius traveled to the east in 360 to restore stability after
the loss of several border fortresses to the Sasanians. However, Julian claimed
the rank of Augustus in 360, leading to war between the two after Constantius'
attempts to convince Julian to back down failed. No battle was fought, as
Constantius became ill and died of fever on 3 November 361 in Mopsuestia,
naming Julian as his rightful successor before his death.
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. 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. Though he made initial preparations for the war, Constantine
fell ill and sent Constantius east to take command of the eastern frontier.
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. Constantius captured Amida and initiated a major
refortification of 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.
Gold solidus of Constantius Gallus. A paternal cousin of
Constantius, he was made Caesar by Constantius in 350 and was married to the
Emperor's sister, Constantina. However, his mismanagement of the eastern
provinces led to his downfall and death in 354.
In early 337, Constantius hurried to Constantinople after
receiving news that his father was near death After Constantine died,
Constantius buried him with lavish ceremony in the Church of the Holy
Apostles.[9] Soon after his father's death Constantius supposedly ordered a
massacre of his relatives descended from the second marriage of his paternal
grandfather Constantius Chlorus, though the details are unclear. Eutropius,
writing between 350 and 370, states that Constantius merely sanctioned “the
act, rather than commanding it”. The massacre killed two of Constantius' uncles
and six of his cousins,[13] including Hannibalianus and Dalmatius, rulers of
Pontus and Moesia respectively. The massacre left Constantius, his older
brother Constantine II, his younger brother Constans, and three cousins Gallus,
Julian and Nepotianus as the only surviving male relatives of Constantine the
Great.
Soon after, Constantius met his brothers in Pannonia at
Sirmium to formalize the partition of the empire. Constantius received the
eastern provinces, including Constantinople, Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt,
and Cyrenaica; Constantine received Britannia, Gaul, Hispania, and Mauretania;
and Constans, initially under the supervision of Constantine II, received
Italy, Africa, Illyricum, Pannonia, Macedonia, and Achaea.
Constantius then hurried east to Antioch to resume the war
with Persia. While Constantius was away from the eastern frontier in early 337,
King Shapur II assembled a large army, which included war elephants, and
launched an attack on Roman territory, laying waste to Mesopotamia and putting
the city of Nisibis under siege.[18] Despite initial success, Shapur lifted his
siege after his army missed an opportunity to exploit a collapsed wall. When
Constantius learned of Shapur's withdrawal from Roman territory, he prepared
his army for a counter-attack.
Constantius repeatedly defended the eastern border against
invasions by the aggressive Sassanid Empire under Shapur. 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 these confrontations, the Sassanids
were able to achieve little. However, the Romans won a decisive victory at the
Battle of Narasara, killing Shapur's brother, Narses. Ultimately, Constantius
was able to push back the invasion, and Shapur failed to make any significant
gains.
Meanwhile, Constantine II desired to retain control of
Constans' realm, leading the brothers into open conflict. Constantine was
killed in 340 near Aquileia during an ambush. 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.
As the only surviving son of Constantine the Great,
Constantius felt that the position of emperor was his alone,[23] and he
determined to march west to fight the usurper, Magnentius. 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.
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.
In 351, Constantius clashed with Magnentius in Pannonia with
a large army. The ensuing Battle of Mursa Major was one of the largest and
bloodiest battles ever between two Roman armies. The result was a victory for
Constantius, but a costly one. Magnentius survived the battle and, determined
to fight on, withdrew into northern Italy. Rather than pursuing his opponent,
however, Constantius 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 achieving his aims, Constantius advanced on Magnentius
in Italy. This action led the cities of Italy to switch their allegiance to him
and eject the usurper's garrisons. Again, Magnentius withdrew, this time to
southern Gaul.
In 353, Constantius and Magnentius met for the final time at
the Battle of Mons Seleucus in southern Gaul, and again Constantius emerged the
victor. Magnentius, realizing the futility of continuing his position,
committed suicide on 10 August 353.
Sole ruler of the empire
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 disturbing reports regarding the actions of his
cousin Gallus.[31] Possibly as a result of these reports, Constantius concluded
a peace with the Alamanni and traveled to Mediolanum (Milan).
In Mediolanum, Constantius first summoned Ursicinus, Gallus’
magister equitum, for reasons that remain unclear.[33] Constantius then summoned
Gallus and Constantina. Although Gallus and Constantina complied with the order
at first, when Constantina died in Bithynia, Gallus began to hesitate. However,
after some convincing by one of Constantius’ agents, Gallus continued his
journey west, passing through Constantinople and Thrace to Poetovio (Ptuj) in
Pannonia.
In Poetovio, Gallus was arrested by the soldiers of Constantius
under the command of Barbatio. Gallus was then moved to Pola and interrogated.
Gallus claimed that it was Constantina who was to blame for all the trouble
while he was in charge of the eastern provinces.[39] This angered Constantius
so greatly that he immediately ordered Gallus' execution. He soon changed his
mind, however, and recanted the order. Unfortunately for Gallus, this second
order was delayed by Eusebius, one of Constantius' eunuchs, and Gallus was
executed.
Religious issues
Constantius II depicted in the Chronography of 354
dispensing largesse (a Renaissance copy of a Carolingian copy)
In spite of some of the edicts issued by Constantius, he
never made any attempt to disband the various Roman priestly colleges or the
Vestal Virgins, 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. Also, he remained pontifex maximus
and was deified by the Roman Senate after his death. His relative moderation
toward paganism is reflected by the fact that it was over twenty years after
his death, during the reign of Gratian, that any pagan senator protested his treatment
of their religion.
Christianity
Although often considered an Arian, Constantius ultimately
preferred a third, compromise version that lay somewhere in between Arianism
and the Nicene Creed, retrospectively called Semi-Arianism.[46][47] During his
reign he attempted to mold the Christian church to follow this compromise
position, convening several Christian councils. The most notable of these were
the Council of Rimini and its twin at Seleucia, 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."
Judaism faced some severe restrictions under Constantius,
who seems to have followed an anti-Jewish policy in line with that of his
father.[57] Early in his reign, Constantius issued a double edict in concert
with his brothers limiting the ownership of slaves by Jewish people[58] and
banning marriages between Jews and Christian women.[58] 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 all of his property
confiscated by the state.[59] However, Constantius' actions in this regard may
not have been so much to do with Jewish religion as with Jewish
business—apparently, privately owned Jewish businesses were often in
competition with state-owned businesses. As a result, Constantius may have
sought to provide an advantage to state-owned businesses by limiting the
skilled workers and slaves available to Jewish businesses.
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 from Constantius recalling 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.
Constantius realised that too many threats still faced the
Empire, however, and he could not possibly handle all of them by himself. So on
6 November 355, he elevated his last remaining male relative, Julian, to the
rank of Caesar. A few days later, Julian was married to Helena, the last
surviving sister of Constantius.[62] Constantius soon sent Julian off to Gaul.
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 only time in his life. The same year, he forced Sarmatian
and Quadi invaders out of Pannonia and Moesia Inferior, then led a successful
counter-attack across the Danube.
In the winter of 357–58, Constantius received ambassadors
from Shapur II who demanded that Rome restore the lands surrendered by Narseh.
Despite rejecting these terms, Constantius tried to avert war with the Sassanid
Empire by sending two embassies to Shapur II. Shapur II nevertheless launched
another invasion of Roman Mesopotamia. In 360, when news reached Constantius
that Shapur II had destroyed Singara, and taken Kiphas (Hasankeyf), Amida, and Ad Tigris (Cizre), he decided to travel
east to face the re-emergent threat.
Usurpation of Julian and crises in the east
Missorium of Kerch depicting Constantius II on horseback
with a spear. He is preceded by victory and accompanied by a guardsman.
In the meantime, Julian had won some victories against the
Alamanni, 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.
On account of the immediate Sassanid threat, Constantius was
unable to directly respond to his cousin's usurpation, other than by sending
missives in 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. After a time he had withdrawn
to Antioch to regroup and prepare for a confrontation with Shapur II.[ The
campaigns of the previous year had inflicted heavy losses on the Sassanids,
however, 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.
Death
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.[80] Constantius II died of fever on 3 November 361.
|