Constans

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Gold multiple of Constans

Constans (* between 320 and 323; † February 350 in southern Gaul near Elne ), with full name Flavius ​​Iulius Constans , was the youngest son of Constantine the Great and from 337 to 350 Roman emperor . In 333, when he was still a child, he was first appointed Caesar (lower emperor) and, after the death of his father in 337, he ruled the Roman Empire as Augustus together with his two brothers Constantine II and Constantius II . Since 340 he ruled the entire west. In 350 he was murdered by the hunters of the usurper Magnentius .

Contemporary history background

The Roman Empire went through a profound change at the beginning of the 4th century. Constans' father Constantine the Great had prevailed in the succession struggles that broke out with the end of the tetrarchy founded by Emperor Diocletian , and thus founded the Constantinian dynasty , to which Constans also belonged. While under Diocletian the importance of descent for the legitimacy of imperial rule was pushed into the background, dynastic legitimation played a central role for Constantine, who passed his empire on to his sons.

His reign was significant for two main reasons: On the one hand, under Constantine, the central power began to slowly shift to the eastern part of the empire with the new imperial city of Constantinople . On the other hand, he systematically promoted Christianity since 312 and thus initiated the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Even if the traditional gods were not abolished, from then on they lost their influence.

Not least because of foreign policy considerations, Constantine decided in favor of the new residence on the Bosporus, because Constantinople was about the same distance from the threatened borders of the empire on the Danube and Euphrates . However, while the situation on the Danube on the eve of the Huns' storm and " Great Migration " was still largely secure, the situation in the east remained dangerous, as the Persians, after a troubled peace since the end of the reign of Constantine I under Shapur II, were again at war with the Romans. Another foreign policy focus was and remained the Rhine border in Gaul , which was always threatened by looters .

Division of the Roman Empire after the death of Constantine I in 337: enumeration from west to east: Constantine II (orange), Constans (green), Dalmatius (light yellow), Constantius II (turquoise). After Dalmatius was murdered, his territory was divided between Constans and Constantius II.

Life

Coin portrait of Constans

Constans was born between 320 and 323 as the third son of Constantine the Great and his wife Fausta . His siblings were Constantine II , Constantius II , Constantina and Helena . Constans received a Christian upbringing and, above all, was promoted in rhetoric - he was taught by the famous speaker Aemilius Magnus Arborius , for example . As a child - on December 25, 333 - he was appointed Caesar , under-Emperor of his father. Around the year 335 he went to Italy to take over the business of government. A few years later he became engaged to Olympias, the daughter of Constantine's army master Flavius ​​Ablabius . However, the wedding did not take place, the reasons for this are controversial.

After Constantine's death on May 22, 337, a series of murders took place : the military killed various relatives of the emperor, obviously with the intention of eliminating potential rivals of the sons of Constantine. Whether these - as beneficiaries of the action - were involved in the planning is controversial, but at least in the case of Constans rather unlikely. Ancient authors rather suspected his brother Constantius II, whose complicity has not been proven. Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans finally took the titles of Augusti on September 9, 337 and a few months later at the conference of Viminacium in what is now Serbia, divided the rule of the empire among themselves. In addition to Italy and Africa , Constans was also given responsibility for the Balkan Peninsula , which was formerly administered by his murdered cousin Dalmatius .

Shortly afterwards there were conflicts between Constans and his older brother Constantine II, who ruled in Gaul, Britain and Hispania. Constans obviously did not want to accept that, unlike his brothers, he was not given legislative powers. In his part of the empire he held the government, but the legislation should possibly be taken over by Constantine II for Constans, who was found too young. When Constans nevertheless passed laws, it came to a conflict with Constantine, who as the eldest son of Constantine anyway claimed priority in the entire empire, in the course of which the older brother 340 was surprisingly killed at Aquileia . To keep his back clear, Constans had ceded Thrace with Constantinople to Constantius II in 339.

Constans now ruled the entire West, but made many enemies with his religious policy and his apparently inept handling of the army. In addition, there were religious and power-political tensions with his brother Constantius, who ruled the East. Nevertheless, he was very successful in securing the border against the Teutons . He had the forced resettlement of Franconian tribal groups celebrated on a coin that shows a Roman soldier leading a small, bareheaded figure from a hut. The same motif can also be found on a coin of Constantius II. The inscription reads FEL TEMP REPARATIO, an abbreviation for "To the restoration of happy times".

Nevertheless, discontent grew in the army. On January 18, 350, General Magnentius was proclaimed emperor by the troops there in Autun in Gaul , who was able to quickly secure the support of the army. The usurpation was evidently largely driven by Constans' own treasurer Marcellinus .

Forced relocation of Franconian tribal groups on Roman coins, minted around 348/350

Constans lacked any support outside his immediate circle, and when he tried to put Magnentius into battle, his troops mutinied, so that he was forced to flee; However, he could not escape the usurper: Magnentius' partisan Gaiso caught up with Constans with a troop of horsemen in the Helenas fort (today Elne ) at the foot of the Pyrenees and killed him. Magnentius for his part was finally defeated in 353 by Constantius II, who thus took over power in the entire empire.

Religious politics

Athanasius, the main adversary of the Arians

Emperor Constans had been brought up as a Christian. He gave very rich gifts to the churches. Milan had developed into the administrative center of Italy in the 4th century, at the same time as Rome was withering. The court and administration resided there, and for this very reason the bishopric there was of immense importance. Constans had settled in Milan as emperor for the entire western Roman Empire.

After his Arian -minded brother Constantius II once again banned the leading bishops of Orthodoxy in the East, the Synod of Church consecration of Antioch of 341 , which was under his influence, endorsed Pope Julius I and the Roman Synod of 340/341 for Athanasius with the acceptance ended by Arian formulas and the banishment of the Athanasian party, Constans expressly advocated the cause of Orthodoxy. In North Africa Constans tried in vain in the years 347/348, with the help of his envoys Paul and Macarius, to pursue a policy of reunifying the Donatists and Catholics.

Even a hoped-for reconciliation between Arians and Orthodox could not be achieved at the end of 344 when four Eastern Roman bishops came to the emperor. They submitted to him a new creed (the formula macrostichos ) that was so skilfully formulated and interpretable that it was unacceptable to the synod in Milan. It was only after the relations between the two fraternal emperors had normalized in 346 that the last bishops distanced themselves from the Arians in the second synod of Milan in 347. Thus the struggle of the Emperor Constans against Arianism in his part of the empire ended with an almost complete victory, even if a few years later a Bishop Auxentius as the successor of Eustorgius of Milan (344-350) belonged again to the Arian group. Constantius II continued to sympathize with the Arians and Homoeists.

Constans had adopted the political theology that Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea had developed for Constantine the Great . As the bearer of the highest worldly power, he claimed to lead his subjects to the true knowledge of God and to piety. As long as the church is united, the position of a Christian emperor in the sense of Eusebius is a simple one. But as soon as different parties fight each other within the large church community, the emperor must necessarily become the champion of one or the other party. Constantine the Great had already experienced this.

swell

The contemporary writer Iulius Firmicus Maternus mentions that Constans visited Britain at the beginning of the year 343, of all times, in winter during the cold season, without naming the reason for his trip. The main source for Constans is Ammianus Marcellinus , who served under Constantius II, the brother of the emperor. However, his history is only available from volume 14, which begins with the year 353. Cross-references, however, suggest that the lost volumes dealt with Constans in great detail, among other things. Byzantine authors such as Zonaras provide more information .

literature

Web links

Commons : Constans  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Constantine the Great, or Constantine I , was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 . From 324 he ruled as sole ruler.
  2. ↑ Otto Seeck , in: RE , Volume IV, 1, Col. 948, assumes that Olympias was not of marriageable age until Constans' death in 350. Political reasons could also have played a role (e.g. DiMaio, Frakes in their article in De Imperatoribus Romanis ).
  3. ↑ On the murders cf. Richard Klein , The struggles for succession after the death of Constantine the Great , in: Richard Klein, Roma versa per aevum. Selected writings on pagan and Christian late antiquity , ed. by Raban von Haehling and Klaus Scherberich , Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 1999, pp. 1-49 ( Spudasmata 74) or Klaus Rosen , Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christenhasser , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 50–53, ISBN 3-608-94296-3 .
  4. ↑ On the fratricidal war cf. Bruno Bleckmann : The civil war between Constantine II and Constans (340) . In: Historia . tape 52 , 2003, p. 225-250 . On the previous legislative conflict, cf. Pedro Barceló , Constantius II and his time. The beginnings of the state church , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, p. 56f., ISBN 3-608-94046-4 .
  5. ↑ In addition Werner Portmann, The political crisis between the emperors Constantius II. And Constans . In: Historia 48, 1999, pp. 301-330.
  6. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus 30.7.5.
  7. ↑ Overbeck / Klose, Antike im Münzbild, pp. 75f
  8. ^ Athanasius, apologia ad Constantium 7.
  9. ↑ Zeiller, orig. 263.
  10. ↑ http://www.santiebeati.it/search/jump.cgi?ID=70600
  11. ^ According to Joseph Vogt , in: Saeculum 9, 1958, p. 318.
predecessor Office successor
Constantine I. Roman emperor
337-350 		Constantius II
personal data
SURNAME Constans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Constans I .; Flavius ​​Julius Constans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman emperor
DATE OF BIRTH between 320 and 323
DATE OF DEATH February 350
Place of death at Elne in southern Gaul