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Constantius II – Roman Emperor: 337-361 A.D. –
Bronze AE3 18mm (2.37 grams) Struck at the mint of Siscia 351-355 A.D.
Reference: RIC 350 (VIII, Siscia), LRBC 1218 –
DNCONSTANTIVSPFAVG – Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
FELTEMPREPARATIO Exe: BSISZ – Soldier
spearing falling horseman,
who is wearing Phrygian helmet.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
The Phrygian helmet, also known as the Thracian helmet,was a
type of helmet that originated in
Classical Greece
and was widely use in
Thrace
,
Dacia
,
Magna Graecia
and the
Hellenistic
world until well into the
Roman Empire
.
Characteristics
The names given to this type of helmet are derived from its shape, in
particular the high and forward inclined apex, which resembles the
caps
(usually of leather) habitually worn by
Phrygian
and
Thracian
peoples. Like other types of Greek
helmet, the vast majority of Phyrgian helmets were made of bronze. The skull of
the helmet was usually raised from a single sheet of bronze, though the
forward-pointing apex was sometimes made separately and riveted to the skull.
The skull was often drawn out into a peak at the front, this shaded the wearer’s
eyes and offered protection to the upper part of the face from downward blows.
The face was further protected by large cheekpieces, made separately from the
skullpiece. Sometimes these cheekpieces were so large that they met in the
centre leaving a gap for the nose and eyes. When constructed in this manner they
would have embossed and engraved decoration to mimic a beard and moustache.
Use
Ancient depiction of a Macedonian infantryman (right). He is
equipped with a typical Phrygian/Thracian helmet with a peak.
Alexander Sarcophagus
.
The Phrygian helmet was worn by
Macedonian
cavalry in King
Philip
‘s day but his son
Alexander
is said to have preferred the
open-faced
Boeotian helmet
for his cavalry, as recommended
by Xenophon
.[4]
The royal burial in the
Vergina
Tomb contained a helmet which was a
variation on the Phrygian type, exceptionally made of iron, this would support
its use by cavalry. The Phrygian helmet is prominently worn in representations
of the infantry of Alexander the Great’s army, such on the contemporary
Alexander sarcophagus
[5]
The Phrygian helmet was in prominent use at the end of the
Classical Era
and into the
Hellenistic period
, replacing the earlier ‘Corinthian‘
type from the 5th century BC.[
In antiquity, Phrygia (
Greek
: Φρυγία,
Ancient Greek: [pʰryɡía])
Turkish
:
Frigya) was a kingdom in the west central part of
Anatolia
, in what is now modern-day
Turkey
, centered around the
Sakarya River
.
The Phrygians
are most famous for their legendary
kings of the
heroic age
of
Greek mythology
:
Gordias
whose
Gordian Knot
would later be untied by
Alexander the Great
,
Midas
who turned whatever he touched to gold,
and
Mygdon
who warred with the
Amazons
. According to
Homer
‘s
Iliad
, the Phrygians were close allies of the
Trojans and participants in the
Trojan War
against the
Achaeans
. Phrygian power reached its peak in
the late 8th century BC under another, historical
King Midas
, who dominated most of western and
central Anatolia and rivaled
Assyria
and
Urartu
for power in eastern Anatolia. This
later Midas
was however also the last independent
king of Phrygia before its capital
Gordium
was sacked by
Cimmerians
around 695 BC. Phrygia then became
subject to Lydia
, and then successively to
Persia
,
Alexander
and his
Hellenistic
successors,
Pergamon
,
Rome and
Byzantium
. Phrygians were gradually assimilated
into other cultures by the early medieval era, and the name Phrygia passed out
of usage as a territorial designation after the
Turkish
conquest of Anatolia.
Origins
Inscriptions found at
Gordium
make clear that Phrygians spoke an
Indo-European
language with at least some
vocabulary similar to
Greek
, and clearly not belonging to the family
of
Anatolian languages
spoken by most of Phrygia’s
neighbors.
According to one of the so-called
Homeric Hymns
, the
Phrygian language
was not mutually intelligible
with Trojan.[3]
According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians
anciently migrated to
Anatolia
from the
Balkans
.
Herodotus
says the Phrygians were called
Bryges
when they lived in Europe.[4]
He and other Greek writers also recorded legends about King
Midas
that associated him with or put his
origin in
Macedonia
;
Herodotus
for example says a wild rose garden
in Macedonia was named after
Midas
.[5]
The Phrygians were also connected by some classical writers to the
Mygdones
, the name of two groups of people, one
of which lived in northern Macedonia and another in
Mysia
. Likewise the
Phrygians
have been identified with the
Bebryces
, a people said to have warred with
Mysia
before the
Trojan War
and who had a king named
Mygdon
at roughly the same time as the
Phrygians were said to have had a king named Mygdon. The classical historian
Strabo
groups Phrygians,
Mygdones
,
Mysians
,
Bebryces
and
Bithynians
together as peoples that migrated to
Anatolia from the Balkans
.[6]
This image of Phrygians as part of a related group of northwest Anatolian
cultures seems the most likely explanation for the confusion over whether
Phrygians
,
Bebryces
and Anatolian
Mygdones
were or were not the same people.
The apparent similarity of the
Phrygian language
to Greek and its
dissimilarity with the
Anatolian languages
spoken by most of their
neighbors is also taken as support for a European origin of the Phrygians.
Some scholars have theorized that such a migration could have occurred more
recently than classical sources suggest, and have sought to fit the Phrygian
arrival into a narrative explaining the downfall of the
Hittite Empire
and the end of the high Bronze
Age in Anatolia.[7]
According to this recent migration theory, the Phrygians invaded just before or
after the collapse of the
Hittite Empire
at the beginning of the 12th
century BC, filling the political vacuum in central-western Anatolia, and may
have been counted among the “Sea
Peoples” that Egyptian records credit with bringing about the Hittite
collapse. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western Anatolia during
this period has been suggested to be an import connected to this invasion.
However, most scholars reject such a recent Phrygian migration and accept as
factual the Iliad
‘s account that the Phrygians were
established on the
Sakarya River
before the
Trojan War
, and thus must have been there
during the later stages of the
Hittite Empire
, and likely earlier. These
scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians’ origins among the many nations of
western Anatolia who were subject to the
Hittites
.[8]
This interpretation also gets support from Greek legends about the founding of
Phrygia’s main city
Gordium
by
Gordias
and of
Ancyra
by
Midas
,[9]
which suggest that Gordium and Ancyra were believed to be date from the distant
past before the
Trojan War
. Some scholars dismiss the claim of
a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, likely arising from the coincidental
similarity of their name to the
Bryges
.
No one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of the
Hittites
might have represented early
Phrygians. According to a classical tradition, popularized by the Jewish-Roman
historian
Flavius Josephus
, the Phrygians can be equated
with the country called
Togarmah
by the ancient Hebrews, which has in
turn been identified as the Tegarama of Hittite texts and Til-Garimmu of
Assyrian records.
Josephus
called
Togarmah
“the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks
resolved, were named Phrygians”. However, the Greek source cited by
Josephus
is unknown, and it is unclear if there
was any basis for the identification other than name similarity. Scholars of the
Hittites
believe Tegarama was in eastern
Anatolia – some locate it at
Gurun
– far to the east of Phrygia. Some
scholars have identified Phrygia with the
Assuwa
league, and noted that the
Iliad
mentions a Phrygian (Queen
Hecuba
‘s brother) named
Asios
.[10]
Another possible early name of Phrygia could be Hapalla, the name of the
easternmost province that emerged from the splintering of the Bronze Age western
Anatolian empire Arzawa
. However, scholars are unsure if Hapalla
corresponds to Phrygia or to
Pisidia
, further south.
A further claim made by
Herodotus
is that Phrygian colonists founded
the Armenian
nation.[11]
This is likely a reference to a third group of people called
Mygdones
living in northern
Mesopotamia
who were apparently allied to the
Armenians; Xenophon
describes them in his
Anabasis
in a joint army with the
Armenians
. However, little is known about these
eastern
Mygdones
and no evidence of
Phrygian language
in that region has been
found.
History
Around the
time of the Trojan war
The Iliad
describes the homeland of the Phrygians
on the
Sangarius River
, which would remain the center
of Phrygia throughout its history. According to the
Iliad
, Phrygia was famous for its wine and had
“brave and expert” horsemen.
According to the Iliad
, before the
Trojan War
, a young king
Priam
of
Troy had taken an army to Phrygia to support it in a war against the
Amazons
. Homer calls the Phrygians “the people
of
Otreus
and godlike
Mygdon
.[12]
According to Euripides
,
Quintus Smyrnaeus
and others, this Mygdon’s
son, Coroebus
, fought and died in the
Trojan War
; he had sued for the hand of the
Trojan princess
Cassandra
in marriage.
According to the
Bibliotheca
, the Greek hero
Heracles
slew a king Mygdon of the
Bebryces
in a battle in northwest Anatolia that
if historical would have taken place about a generation before the
Trojan War
. According to the story, while
traveling from Minoa
to the
Amazons
, Heracles stopped in
Mysia
and supported the
Mysians
in a battle with the
Bebryces
.[13]
According to most interpretations,
Bebryces
is an alternate name for Phrygians and
this Mygdon is the same person mentioned in the
Iliad
.
King Priam
married a Phrygian princess,
Hecuba
,[14]
and maintained a close alliance with the Phrygians, who repaid him by fighting
“ardently” in the
Trojan War
against the Greeks.
There are indications in the Iliad that the heart of the Phrygian country was
further north and downriver than it would be in later history. The Phrygian
contingent arrives to aid
Troy coming from
Lake Ascania
in northwest Anatolia, and is led
by Phorcys
and
Ascanius
, an apparent eponym. The
Iliad
calls the Phrygians “the people of
Otreus
and godlike Mygdon”: the name Otreus
could be an eponym for
Otrea
, a place on the Ascanian Lake in the
vicinity of the later
Nicaea
, and the name Mygdon is clearly an
eponym for the
Mygdones
, a people said by
Strabo
to live in northwest Asia Minor, and who
appear to have sometimes been considered distinct from the
Phrygians
.[15]
However,
Pausanias
believed that Mygdon’s tomb was
located at
Stectorium
in the southern Phrygian highlands,
near modern
Sandikli
.[16]
In one of the so-called
Homeric Hymns
, Phrygia is said to be “rich in
fortresses” and ruled by “famous
Otreus
“.[17]
Peak and destruction of the Phrygian kingdom
Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pararli,
Turkey, 7th–6th Centuries BC; Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,
Ankara
. A griffin, sphinx and two
centaurs are shown.
During the 8th century BC the Phrygian kingdom with its capital at
Gordium
in the upper
Sakarya River
valley expanded into an empire
dominating most of central and western Anatolia and encroaching upon the larger
Assyrian Empire
to its southeast and the
kingdom of Urartu
to the northeast.
According to the classical historians
Strabo
,[18]
Eusebius
and
Julius Africanus
, the king of Phrygia during
this time was another Midas
. This historical
Midas
is believed to be the same person named
as Mita in Assyrian texts from the period and identified as king of the
Mushki
. Scholars figure that Assyrians called
Phrygians “Mushki” because the Phrygians and
Mushki
, an eastern Anatolian people, were at
that time campaigning in a joint army.[19]
This Midas is thought to have reigned Phrygia at the peak of its power from
about 720 BC to about 695 BC (according to
Eusebius
) or 676 BC (according to
Julius Africanus
). An Assyrian inscription
mentioning “Mita”, dated to 709 BC, during the reign of
Sargon of Assyria
, suggests Phrygia and
Assyria
had struck a truce by that time. This
Midas
appears to have had good relations and
close trade ties with the Greeks, and reputedly married an Aeolian Greek
princess.
A system of writing in the
Phrygian language
developed and flourished in
Gordium during this period, using a Phoenician-derived alphabet similar to the
Greek one. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears during
this period.
However, the Phrygian Kingdom was then overwhelmed by
Cimmerian
invaders, and
Gordium
was sacked and destroyed. According to
Strabo and others, Midas
committed suicide by drinking bulls’
blood.
Tomb at Midas
City (6th century BC), near
Eskişehir
A series of digs have opened
Gordium
as one of Turkey’s most revealing
archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of
Gordium
around 675 BC. A tomb from the period,
popularly identified as the “Tomb of Midas,” revealed a wooden structure deeply
buried under a vast tumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and
food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara).
As a Lydian province
After their destruction of
Gordium
, the Cimmerians remained in western
Anatolia and warred with
Lydia
, which eventually expelled them by around
620 BC, and then expanded to incorporate Phrygia, which became the Lydian
empire’s eastern frontier. The
Gordium
site reveals a considerable building
program during the 6th century BC, under the domination of Lydian kings
including the proverbially rich King
Croesus
. Meanwhile, Phrygia’s former eastern
subjects fell to Assyria
and later to the
Medes
.
There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference to
royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky Phrygian prince
Adrastus
, who accidentally killed his brother
and exiled himself to Lydia
, where King
Croesus
welcomed him. Once again,
Adrastus
accidentally killed
Croesus
‘ son and then committed suicide.
As a Persian province
Some time in the 540s BC, Phrygia passed to the
Persian Empire
when
Cyrus
conquered
Lydia
. After Darius became Persian Emperor in
521 BC, he remade the ancient trade route into the Persian “Royal Road” and
instituted administrative reforms that included setting up satrapies. The
Phrygian satrapy lay west of the
Halys River
(now
Kızıl River
) and east of
Mysia
and
Lydia
. Its capital was established at
Dascylium
, modern
Ergili
.
Under
Alexander and his successors
Alexander the Great
passed through
Gordium
in 333 BC, famously severing the
Gordian Knot
in the temple of Sabazios (“Zeus“).
According to a legend, possibly promulgated by Alexander’s publicists, whoever
untied the knot would be master of Asia. With
Gordium
sited on the
Persian Royal Road
that led through the heart
of Anatolia, the prophecy had some geographical plausibility. With Alexander,
Phrygia became part of the wider
Hellenistic
world.
In the chaotic period after Alexander’s death, northern Phrygia was overrun
by Celts
, eventually to become the province of
Galatia
. The former capital of
Gordium
was captured and destroyed by the Gauls
soon afterwards and disappeared from history. In 188 BC, the southern remnant of
Phrygia came under the control of the
Attalids
of
Pergamon
. However, Phrygian language survived,
now written in the
Greek alphabet
.
Under Rome and
Byzantium
The two Phrygian provinces within the Diocese of Asia, c. 400 AD
In 133 BC, the remnants of Phrygia passed to
Rome. For purposes of provincial administration the Romans maintained
a divided Phrygia, attaching the northeastern part to the province of
Galatia
and the western portion to the province
of
Asia
. During the reforms of
Diocletian
, Phrygia was divided anew into two
provinces: “Phrygia I” or Phrygia Salutaris, and Phrygia II or Pacatiana, both
under the
Diocese of Asia
. Salutaris with
Synnada
as its capital comprised the eastern
portion of the region and Pacatiana with
Laodicea on the Lycus
as capital the western
portion. The provinces survived up to the end of the 7th century, when they were
replaced by the
Theme system
. In the
Byzantine
period, most of Phrygia belonged to
the
Anatolic theme
. It was overrun by the Turks in
the aftermath of the
Battle of Manzikert
(1071). The Byzantines were
finally evicted from there in the 13th century, but the name of Phrygia
remained in use until the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The last
mentions of the Phrygian language date to the 5th century and it was likely
extinct by the 7th century.[20]
Culture
The Phrygian
goddess
Cybele
with her attributes
It was the “Great Mother”,
Cybele
, as the Greeks and Romans knew her, who
was originally worshiped in the
mountains
of Phrygia, where she was known as
“Mountain Mother”. In her typical Phrygian form, she wears a long belted dress,
a polos (a high cylindrical headdress), and a veil covering the whole
body. The later version of Cybele was established by a pupil of
Phidias
, the
sculptor
Agoracritus
, and became the image most widely
adopted by Cybele’s expanding following, both in the
Aegean
world and at
Rome. It shows her humanized though still enthroned, her hand resting
on an attendant lion and the other holding the
tympanon
, a circular frame drum, similar to
a tambourine
.
The Phrygians also venerated
Sabazios
, the sky and father-god
depicted on horseback. Although the Greeks associated Sabazios with
Zeus, representations of him, even at Roman times, show him as a
horseman god. His conflicts with the indigenous Mother Goddess, whose creature
was the
Lunar Bull
, may be surmised in the way that
Sabazios’ horse places a hoof on the head of a bull, in a
Roman relief
at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
.
Phrygian costumes
Phrygia developed an advanced
Bronze Age
culture. The earliest traditions of
Greek music
derived from Phrygia, transmitted
through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, and included the
Phrygian mode
, which was considered to be the
warlike mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian
Midas
, the king of the “golden touch”, was
tutored in music by
Orpheus
himself, according to the myth. Another
musical invention that came from Phrygia was the
aulos
, a reed instrument with two pipes.
Marsyas
, the
satyr
who first formed the instrument using the
hollowed antler
of a
stag
, was a Phrygian follower of Cybele. He
unwisely competed in music with the
Olympian
Apollo
and inevitably lost, whereupon Apollo
flayed Marsyas alive and provocatively hung his skin on Cybele’s own sacred
tree, a pine
.
Phrygia retained a separate cultural identity. Classical Greek iconography
identifies the Trojan
Paris
as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, which
was worn by
Mithras
and survived into modern imagery as the
“Liberty
cap” of the American and
French revolutionaries
. The Phrygians spoke an
Indo-European language
. (See
Phrygian language
.) Although the Phrygians
adopted the alphabet
originated by the
Phoenicians
, only a few dozen inscriptions in
the Phrygian language have been found, primarily funereal, and so much of what
is thought to be known of Phrygia is second-hand information from Greek sources.
Mythic past
The name of the earliest known mythical king was Nannacus (aka Annacus).[21]
This king resided at Iconium, the most eastern city of the kingdom of Phrygia at
that time; and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood
overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. The next
king mentioned in extant classical sources was called Manis or Masdes. According
to Plutarch, because of his splendid exploits, great things were called “manic”
in Phrygia.[22]
Thereafter the kingdom of Phrygia seems to have become fragmented among various
kings. One of the kings was
Tantalus
who ruled over the north western
region of Phrygia around
Mount Sipylus
. Tantalus was endlessly punished
in Tartarus
, because he allegedly killed his son
Pelops
and sacrificially offered him to the
Olympians, a reference to the suppression of
human sacrifice
. Tantalus was also falsely
accused of stealing from the lotteries he had invented. In the mythic age before
the
Trojan war
, during a time of an
interregnum
,
Gordius
(or Gordias), a Phrygian farmer, became
king, fulfilling an oracular
prophecy
. The kingless Phrygians had turned for
guidance to the oracle of Sabazios (“Zeus” to the Greeks) at
Telmissus
, in the part of Phrygia that later
became part of Galatia
. They had been instructed by the oracle
to acclaim as their king the first man who rode up to the god’s temple in a
cart. That man was Gordias (Gordios, Gordius), a farmer, who dedicated the
ox-cart in question, tied to its shaft with the “Gordian
Knot“. Gordias refounded a capital at Gordium in west central
Anatolia, situated on the old trackway through the heart of Anatolia that became
Darius
‘s Persian “Royal Road” from
Pessinus
to
Ancyra
, and not far from the
River Sangarius
.
The Phrygians are associated in Greek mythology with the
Dactyls
, minor gods credited with the invention
of iron smelting, who in most versions of the legend lived at
Mount Ida
in Phrygia.
Gordias
‘s son (adopted in some versions) was
Midas
. A large body of myths and legends
surround this first king Midas.[23]
connecting him with a mythological tale concerning
Attis
.[24]
This shadowy figure resided at Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to
the young Attis in spite of the opposition of his lover Agdestis and his mother,
the goddess Cybele
. When Agdestis and/or Cybele appear and
cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to have died
in the ensuing chaos.
The famous king Midas is said to have associated himself with
Silenus
and other satyrs and with
Dionysus
, who granted him the famous “golden
touch”.
Man in Phrygian costume,
Hellenistic
period (3rd–1st century
BC), Cyprus
In one version of his story, Midas travels from Thrace accompanied by a band
of his people to Asia Minor to wash away the taint of his unwelcome “golden
touch” in the river
Pactolus
. Leaving the gold in the river’s
sands, Midas found himself in Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless
king Gordias and taken under the protection of Cybele. Acting as the visible
representative of Cybele, and under her authority, it would seem, a Phrygian
king could designate his successor.
The Phrygian Sibyl
was the priestess presiding over the
Apollonian oracle
at Phrygia.
According to
Herodotus
,[25]
Herodotus), the Egyptian pharaoh
Psammetichus II
had two children raised in
isolation in order to find the original language. The children were reported to
have uttered bekos which is Phrygian for “bread”, so Psammetichus
admitted that the Phrygians were a nation older than the Egyptians.
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
.
 Constantius joins the lengthy list of emperors whose career
was marked by a seemingly endless series of wars both domestic and foreign. He
served as Caesar from 324 until his father’s death in 337 at which time he
shared the title of Augustus with two other brothers, Constantine II and
Constans. To make sure no more Johnny-come-latelies in his family would try
their hand at being emperor too it is thought that he engineered a bloodbath
that left nary a relative. Constantine II died in battle and Constans was
murdered by the men of Magnentius, the first of several usurpers. This left
Constantius finally as sole legitimate emperor and he moved quickly to suppress
Magnentius, an endeavor he eventually accomplished. The strife didn’t end there,
however, as he still had to deal with other revolts and wars on every corner of
the empire. Caught in these never-ending battles he died while on his way to
battle Julian II.
Flavius Iulius Constantius was born at
Sirmium
(now
Sremska Mitrovica
in
Serbia
) in
province of Pannonia
, 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.
When the elder
Constantine
died at
Constantinople
on 22 May 337, Constantius was nearest of his sons to that
city, and despite being on campaign in the eastern provinces, immediately
returned to the city to oversee his father’s funeral.
The
Massacre of 337
The role of Constantius in the massacre of his relatives
(those descended from the second marriage of his paternal grandfather
Constantius Chlorus
and
Theodora
) is unclear.
Zosimus
,
writing 498-518 claims that Constantius “caused”
the soldiers to murder his relatives, as opposed to actually ordering the
action. Eutropius
, writing between 350 and 370, writes that Constantius merely
sanctioned “the act, rather than commanding it”.
However, it must be noted that both of these sources are hostile to Constantius
– Zosimus
being a pagan,
Eutropius
a friend of
Julian
, Constantius’ cousin and, ultimately, his enemy.
Whatever the case, Constantius himself, his older brother
Constantine II
, his younger brother
Constans
and three cousins,
Gallus
, his half-brother
Julian
and
Nepotianus
,
son of
Eutropia
, were left as the only surviving males related to Constantine.
Division
of the Empire
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. Constantine II received
Britannia
, Gaul
and Hispania
;
Constans (initially under the supervision of Constantine II)
Italia
,
Africa
, Illyricum,
Thrace
,
Macedon
and
Achaea
; and Constantius the East.
Reign
in the East
There are few details of the early years of Constantius’ sole
reign in the East. He seems to have spent most of his time defending the eastern
border against invasions by the aggressive
Sassanid Empire
under
Shapur II
.
These conflicts seem to have been mainly limited to Sassanid sieges of the
various fortresses (Nisibis,
Singara
,
Constantia and
Amida
) of Roman
Mesopotamia
, which achieved little for either side.
Although Shapur II
seems to have been victorious in most of the confrontations
– except the Battle of Narasara, where one of
Shapur II
‘s
brothers, Narses, was killed
– the overall result must be considered a victory for Constantius because
Shapur
failed to make any significant gains.
In the meantime,
Constantine II
‘s desire to retain control of
Constans
‘
realm had lead Constantius’ two surviving brothers into open conflict; resulting
in the death of the elder in 340.
As a result, Constans took control of his deceased elder brother’s realms and
became sole ruler of the Western two-thirds of the Empire. This division lasted
until 350, when Constans was killed in battle by forces loyal to the
usurper
Magnentius
.
War
against Magnentius
This new state of affairs proved unacceptable to Constantius,
who felt that, as the only surviving son of
Constantine the Great
, the position of
Emperor
was his alone.
As such, he determined to march west to enforce his claims. However, feeling
that the east still required some sort of imperial control, he elevated his
cousin
Constantius Gallus
to Caesar of the East. As an extra measure to ensure the
loyalty of his cousin, he married the elder of his two sisters,
Constantina
, to
Gallus
.
Before facing
Magnentius
,
Constantius first came to terms with
Vetranio
, a
loyal Constantian general, who had previously accepted the position of Augustus
in order to retain the loyalty of his troops, and probably to stop Magnentius
from gaining more support. This action may have been carried out at the urging
of Constantius’ own sister,
Constantina
, who had since traveled east to marry
Gallus
. Constantius for his own part had previously sent
Vetranio
the imperial diadem and acknowledged the general‘s new position. However, when
Constantius arrived,
Vetranio
willingly and gladly resigned his position and accepted Constantius’ offer of a
comfortable retirement in
Bithynia
.
The following year, Constantius finally met
Magnentius
in the
Battle of Mursa Major
,
one of the bloodiest battles in Roman history. The result was a defeat for the
usurper, who withdrew back to his Gaulish domains. As a result, the cities of
Italy
switched their allegiance to Constantius and ejected all of
Magnentius
’
garrisons. Constantius spent the early months of 352 on a campaign against the
Sarmatians
,
before moving on to invade
Italy
.
When Constantius and Magnentius finally met again, at the
Battle of Mons Seleucus
in southern Gaul, Constantius once again emerged the
victor.
Soon after, Magnentius
, realising the futility of continuing his revolt, committed
suicide 10 August 353.
Sole
Ruler of the Roman Empire
Constantius spent much of the rest of 353 and early 354 on
campaign against the
Alemanni
on
the Danubian borders. The exact details of this campaign are uncertain, though
it seems to have ended with victory for Constantius.
The
Downfall of Gallus
In the meantime, Constantius had been receiving some
disturbing reports regarding the actions of his cousin,
Gallus
.
Possibly as a result of these reports, Constantius concluded a peace with the
Alemanni
,
and withdrew to Milan
.
Once there, he decided to first call
Ursicinus
, Gallus’ magister equitum, to Milan for reasons that remain
unclear.
Constantius then requested the presence of
Gallus
and
Constantina
.
Although at first
Gallus
and
Constantina
complied with this order, when
Constantina
died in
Bithynia
,
Gallus
begun to hesitate. However, after some convincing by one of
Constantius’ agents,
Gallus continued his journey west, passing through
Constantinople
and
Thrace
to Petobio in the province of
Noricum
.
It was there that
Gallus
was arrested by the soldiers of Constantius under the command of
Barbatio
.
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 east.
Apparently, at first, this so greatly angered Constantius that he immediately
ordered the death of
Gallus
.
However, soon after, he changed his mind, and recanted his execution order.
Unfortunately for Gallus, this order was delayed by
Eusebius
, one of Constantius‘ eunuchs, and, as a result,
Gallus
was executed.
More
Usurpers and Julian 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 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,
he elevated his last remaining relative, Julian, to the rank of
Caesar
.
A few days later,
Julian
was married to
Helena
, the last surviving sister of Constantius.
Not long after Constantius sent
Julian
off to Gaul.
Constantius
in the West and Return to the East
Constantius spent the next few years overseeing affairs in
the western part of the Empire primarily from his base at
Milan
. However,
he also visited Rome
– for the first and only time in his life – in 357, and, in that same year, he
forced Sarmatian
and Quadi
invaders out of
Pannonia
and Moesia Inferior
,
then led a successful campaign across the Danube against the
Sarmatians
and the Germanic Quadi
tribe.
Around 357/8, Constantius received ambassadors from
Shapur II
,
who demanded that Constantius restore the lands surrendered by
Narseh
.
Despite rejecting these terms,
Constantius still tried to avert war with the
Sassanid Empire
by sending two embassies to
Shapur II
.
As a result of Constantius’ rejection of his terms,
Shapur II
launched another invasion of Roman Mesopotamia. When news reached Constantius
that Shapur
II
had not only invaded Roman territory, but taken
Amida
[46],
destroyed Singara
and taken Bezabde
he decided to return to there to face this re-emergent threat in 360.
The
usurpation of Julian and Problems in the East
In the meantime,
Julian
had won some victories against the
Alemanni
tribe, who had once again invaded
Roman Gaul
.
As such, Constantius requested reinforcements from
Julian
for his own campaign against Shapur II. However, when he requested
reinforcements from
Julian
’s Gaulish army, the Gaulish legions revolted and proclaimed
Julian
Augustus.
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 violent force; and yet the threat of the
Sassanids
remained. Constantius had already spent part of early 361
unsuccessfully attempting to take the fortress of
Bezabde
.
After a time, he had withdrawn to
Antioch
to
regroup, and prepare for a confrontation with
Shapur II
.
However, as it turned out, the campaigns of the previous year had inflicted such
heavy losses on the
Sassanids
that they did not attempt another round of engagements in 361.
This allowed Constantius to turn his full attention to facing the usurpation of
Julian
[55].
Death
As such, Constantius immediately gathered his forces and set
off west. However, by the time he reached
Mopsuestia
in Cicilia, 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.
Constantius II died of fever on 3 November 361.
Marriages
and Children
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 he married before Constantius’ defeat of Magnentius in
353. She died in 360.
Third and lastly, in 360, to
Faustina (empress)
, who gave birth to Constantius’ only child, a posthumous
daughter named
Flavia Maxima Constantia
, who later married Emperor
Gratian
.
Religious
Issues
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.
Paganism
under Constantius
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
,
he never acted against the various pagan schools, and, at times, he actually
even made some effort to protect paganism.
Also, most notably, he remained
pontifex maximus
until his death, and was actually 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.
Christianity
under Constantius
Although often considered an
Arian
,
Constantius ultimately preferred a third, compromise version that lay somewhere
in between Arianism
and the
Nicaean Creed
, retrospectively called
Semi-Arianism
[61][62].
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.”
Judaism
under Constantius
Judaism faced some severe restrictions under Constantius, who
seems to have followed an anti-Jewish policy in line with that of his father.
Early in his reign, Constantius issued a double edict in concert with his
brothers limiting the ownership of slaves by Jewish people
and banning marriages between Jews and Christian women.
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.
However, it should be noted that 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.
Religious
Edicts Issued by Constantius
Pagan-related edicts issued by Constantius (by himself
or with others) included:
-
The banning of sacrifices;
-
The closing of pagan temples;
-
Edicts against soothsayers and magicians.
Christian-related edicts issued by Constantius (by
himself or with others) included:
-
Exemption from compulsory public service for the clergy;
* Exemption from compulsory public service for the sons of clergy;
-
Tax exemptions for clergy and their servants,
also later for their family;
-
Clergy and the issue of private property;
-
Bishops exempted from being tried in secular courts;
-
Christian prostitutes only able to be bought by
Christians.
Jew-related edicts issued by Constantius (by himself
or with others) included:
-
Weaving women who moved from working for the government
to working for Jews, must be restored to the government; Jews may not marry
Christian women; Jews may not attempt to convert Christian women;
-
Any non-Jewish slave bought by a Jew will be confiscated
by the state; if a Jew attempts to circumcise a non-Jewish slave, the slave
will be freed and the Jew shall face capital punishment; any Christian
slaves owned by a Jew will be taken away and freed;
-
A person who is proven to have converted from
Christianity to Judaism shall have their property confiscated by the state.
Reputation
Constantius II is a particularly difficult figure to judge
properly, mainly as a result of the hostility of most every source 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.”
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”.
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”.
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