Constantina (daughter of Constantine the Great)

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Constantina (also Constantia or more rarely Constantiana ; * around 320; † 354 in Caenos Gallicanos ( Bithynia )) was a Roman noblewoman in the late antique imperial era . She was the daughter of Constantine the Great and later the wife of the Emperor Constantius Gallus . As the daughter and wife of two emperors and as the bearer of the title Augusta ("the sublime"; this was the honorary title for the Roman empresses during the imperial period) she had considerable political influence. So she supported her husband in his conflict with her brother, the Emperor Constantius II .

Contemporary history background

At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Constantina's father Constantine the Great ruled over the Roman Empire, first together with others, then from 324 as the sole ruler Augustus . During his reign, Constantine took care of the Constantinian turning point named after him and thus initiated the triumphant advance of Christianity. He also moved the capital to the east of the empire, to Constantinople .

In 335, two years before his death, Constantine introduced a system of rule that resembled the tetrarchy established by Emperor Diocletian : he appointed his three sons and a nephew as Caesares , as sub-emperors, each assigned a part of the empire for that they should be responsible for. In contrast to the original tetrarchy, the Caesares had only military powers and otherwise a more representative function - the officials of the high emperor, Augustus Constantine, were responsible for the legislative and executive, not the Caesares.

After Constantine's death, there was a series of murders : In the east, the military killed several members of the Constantinian dynasty, potential rivals of the sons of Constantine. But even these murders did not prevent the power struggles that soon followed: In 340 there was a fratricidal conflict in which Constantine II , the eldest son of Constantine the Great, was murdered by his younger brother Constans . This soon fell victim to the usurper Magnentius , against whom Constantius II , the third brother, had to defend himself .

Life

Hannibalianus and Vetranio

Constantina was born around the year 320 as the eldest daughter of Emperor Constantine I and his second wife Fausta . This made her the sister of the future emperors Constantine II , Constantius II and Constans as well as Helena . Constantine married her around 335 to Hannibalianus , his nephew and thus her cousin. Hannibalianus was the Roman client king in Armenia at that time as rex regum et Ponticarum gentium , and Constantine supposedly gave his daughter the title of Augusta in honor of her. Two years later, however, Hannibalianus perished in the turmoil after Constantine's death.

In the time after Hannibalianus was assassinated, Constantina lived in the west of the Roman Empire, where Constans , her youngest brother, ruled at that time . It was not mentioned again until 350 when she persuaded the officer Vetranio in Sirmium to be proclaimed Augustus . This was probably done in coordination with her brother, the Emperor Constantius II, who needed help against the usurper Magnentius , who was rising in the west . Constantius found out about the new Augustus through a letter from Constantina and immediately recognized him by sending him a diadem . It is conceivable that Constantina's marriage to Vetranio was planned. Magnentius offered Constantius peace by offering him his daughter as a wife, while he himself wanted to marry Constantina in order to secure the peace. The Kaiser declined the offer.

Gallus

In the year 351 Constantius had still not defeated the usurper after he had already had to overthrow Vetranio, who had allied himself with Magnentius, in December 350. In order to be able to fight against Magnentius in the west, but not to leave the eastern front unguarded, he installed Constantius Gallus as the new Caesar. In order to ensure his loyalty, he married his sister Constantina to Gallus. The wedding took place on March 15, 351 in Sirmium. Then the couple moved to Antioch , where Gallus resided. Constantina soon gave birth to a daughter, whose name and fate are unknown to her husband.

In the portrayal of Ammianus Marcellinus , who is the main source for this period, Gallus is described as a tyrant and tyrant in the subsequent period. Constantina, who in fact had quite a lot of influence on her husband, is dubbed by Ammian as a “mortal megarist ”. In fact, in the east of the empire, the two did not act cautiously: In response to a famine, Gallus lowered the price of grain on his own initiative, which earned him the wrath of the wealthy citizens of Antioch.

The already tense relationship got a deep rift when the officials, Domitianus and Montius, sent by Constantius , were killed in Antioch. Constantius had commissioned Domitianus to lure Gallus to Milan , where he wanted to take him out of circulation. Domitianus, however, behaved so condescendingly and imperiously towards Gallus that the latter finally - according to Ammian - had him captured by the guards. The quaestor Montius came to the aid of Domitianus, which made Gallus even more angry. He stirred up a crowd who lynched the two emperor's officers. According to the version of the church historian Philostorg , Constantina played a special role here: Outraged by the behavior of Montius towards her husband, Caesar, she “pulled him away in person and handed him over to the bodyguard”.

Sarcophagus of Constantina

After this lynching, Constantius finally lost patience with his Caesar and ordered him to Milan. Gallus sent his wife ahead to speak for him, but Constantina succumbed to a fever while traveling at a post office in Bithynia . This also tore the last bond between Constantius and Gallus, and the emperor had Gallus executed. Constantina was buried on the Via Nomentana near Rome. Her grave, in which her sister Helena later found her final resting place, was built around 350 by Constantine I - the mausoleum of Santa Costanza was named after her . Her porphyry sarcophagus is now in the Vatican Museums . It shows erots during the grape harvest. While she was still alive, she had a church built in Rome in honor of St. Agnes (the predecessor of today's church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura ) and founded a monastery.

rating

Constantina was certainly not the “mega-hero” portrayed by Ammian who was “greedy for human blood”. In fact, she seems to have been a thoroughly self-confident woman who demanded participation in power for herself. The reason for this probably gave her the kinship to the imperial family and to Constantine as well as her Augusta title. Unlike, for example, her sister Helena, Constantina tried to act on her own initiative within the scope of her possibilities - an example of this is the elevation of Vetranio to Augustus. What Ammian had probably alienated about Constantina was her relationship with Gallus, to which she did not unconditionally subordinate herself, but rather influenced him and exerted pressure when she saw it necessary. A symbol for this is a representation by Ammian, in which Constantina repeatedly "stuck her head through the curtain" during a court hearing and urged Gallus to impose harsher punishments. For Ammian, Constantina's world would have been the one “behind the curtain”.

The reason for this understanding of marriage could again have been the kinship to the imperial family and, if it is credible, Constantina's Augusta dignity: as Augusta, she would have been nominally superior to Caesar Gallus. In the conflict with Constantius, Constantina shared Gallus' view of the competencies of a Caesar: The two assumed that Caesares - similar to the original tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian - would have to have extensive autonomy over the areas entrusted to them also means legislative and executive powers. Constantius, on the other hand, strove for sole rule similar to that of his father Constantine - in this, Constantius himself, apart from control over the army, had only a representative function as Caesar.

Legend of saints

The church of Santa Costanza, where Constantina was buried

Constantina is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church under her Italian name Costanza . The related legend of saints says that the terminally ill Costanza was healed at the grave of St. Agnes of Rome († around 250) and was thereby converted to Christianity. It was promised to a Roman officer named Gallicanus. But when he had to go to war, she gave him her best servants, Saints Paul and John. She herself took his two daughters from their first marriage, Attica and Artemia, and brought them to the Christian faith through her prayer. From then on, the three of them led a life as virgins and together they built the Agnes Basilica, which today is only in ruins . Costanza is said to have lived in a house near the basilica until her death. According to one version, Gallicanus, who was converted by Costanza, is said to have later led an ascetic life.

The relics of these virgins were brought under a new altar by Pope Alexander IV . Today Constanza's tomb is in the Santa Costanza church in Rome. It was not until the 16th century that Constanza, Attica and Artemia were mentioned for the first time in martyrologies , that is, martyrs' directories. Constanza's name day is February 18. She is also worshiped (but separately from Attica and Artemia) on January 28th and February 17th; in connection with these she is also venerated on February 25th and June 25th.

swell

The main source for depicting the reign of Gallus is Ammianus Marcellinus , whose work, however, remains consistently tendentious with regard to Constantina and Gallus. Philostorgios describes Constantina's role in connection with Vetranio. Zosimos , Zonaras and the Artemii Passio also offer some smaller information .

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the name cf. J. Den Boeft, D. Den Hengst, HC Teitler, Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXI , Groningen 1991, p. 9; also Bleckmann, Constantina, Vetranio and Gallus Caesar , p. 31, note 14.
  2. ↑ a b In fact, among the historians, only Philostorgios can report on Constantina's Augusta dignity (3.28 and 3.22). This and a few other (apparent) inconsistencies led Kenneth Holum to believe that Augusta was not historical (Kenneth G. Holum: Theodosian Empresses. Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity , Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 1982, pp. 31, 33f .). Bleckmann, Constantina, Vetranio and Gallus Caesar , pp. 33–42, argued at length against it.
  3. ↑ Zosimos 2,40,2-3.
  4. ↑ On the usurpation of Vetranio cf. Bleckmann, Constantina, Vetranio and Gallus Caesar .
  5. ↑ Bleckmann, Gallus, César de l'Orient , in: Consuetudinis amor , Rom 2003, pp. 45–56, recently takes the view that Gallus was not intended as Caesar for the East from the start.
  6. ↑ "Megaera quaedam mortalis", Ammian 14,1,2.
  7. ↑ On the role of Gallus and Constantina in the Antiochene supply crisis, cf. Ammian 14.1; 14: 7-8 and John F. Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus , London 1989, pp. 406-408.
  8. ↑ Ammian 14, 7, 9-17; Philostorg 3.28; see. on this, Bleckmann, Constantina, Vetranio and Gallus Caesar , p. 63, and Thomas M. Banchich's account in the online encyclopedia De Imperatoribus Romanis ( [1] ).
  9. ↑ on this Artemii passio 14; Ammian 14,11,6; Philostorg 4.1; Zonaras 8.9.
  10. ↑ Ammian 14,1,2.
  11. ↑ Ammian, 14,9,3, cf. on this in detail Wieber-Scariot, Between Polemics and Panegyric , pp. 115–150.
  12. ^ Cf. JE Stadler, FJ Heim and JN Ginal (eds.): 1 pp . Constantia, Attica et Artemia, VV . In: Complete Lexicon of Saints . Augsburg 1858–1882, Vol. 1, p. 663. Some sentences of the section have been taken from this now public domain work.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 28, 2006 .
personal data
SURNAME Constantina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Constantia; Constantiana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman emperor's daughter and Augusta
DATE OF BIRTH at 320
DATE OF DEATH 354
Place of death Caenos Gallicanos , Bithynia