Constantia (daughter of Constantius II)

Constantia (* 361/62; † beginning of 383 ) was the daughter of the Roman emperor Constantius II and later wife of Emperor Gratian .

Constantia was the daughter of Faustina , the third wife of Constantius II. She was only born after the death of her father on November 3, 361, that is, either at the end of 361 or at the beginning of 362. 364–365 the usurper Procopius Constantia and her mother used to ensure the loyalty of his troops. He hoped that the soldiers would be reminded of their loyalty to Emperor Constantius II, as he saw his legitimation for the empire based on his membership of the Constantinian dynasty . He often showed himself to the soldiers with the child Constantia in his arms and took them with him on his campaign against Emperor Valens , in the course of which he was finally defeated.

In 374, around the age of 13, she was to be married to the Caesar (co-emperor) Gratian in Augusta Treverorum (Trier). In doing so, she was almost killed in an unexpected major attack by the Germanic Quadi and Sarmatic Jazyz in the Balkans . Coming up the Danube from the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople , the wedding convoy stopped in a villa publica called Pistrensis to dine when the breaking news of the attack arrived. Her companions, led by Messala, the Rector provinciae (governor) of the province of Pannonia Secunda , managed at the last minute to reach the provincial capital Sirmium , only 16 miles away .

With the marriage between Constantia and Gratian, the Constantinian and the Valentinian dynasties were combined . Since Gratian married a second time before his death in August 383, she must have died before her husband. However, she must have been alive in the year 380, since she is mentioned in a work by John Chrysostom written around this time ( ad vid. Iun. 4). Constantia's body was sent on the long way back to Constantinople. He arrived there on August 31, 383. Constantia was buried there on December 1 of the same year. It is therefore believed that she died in early 383.

literature

• Otto Seeck : Constantia 15 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 959.
• Adolf Lippold : Constantia 3. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, column 1284.
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Constantia 2. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 221 ( online version ).
• Werner Portmann: Constantia 3rd In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 135.

Web links

• Michael DiMaio, Jr .: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).

Remarks

1. ↑ Maria Radnoti-Alföldi : Questions about coin circulation in the 4th century AD. In: Maria Radnoti-Alföldi: Gloria Romanorum. Writings on late antiquity. On the 75th birthday of the author on June 6, 2001. Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07918-1 , pp. 308–331, here: pp. 317–318; Ammianus Marcellinus 29,6,6.