Faustina (wife of Constantius II)

Faustina was the third wife of the Roman emperor Constantius II . She gave birth to his only child, Constantia .

Nothing is known about Faustina's origins. She married Constantius in Antioch at the beginning of 361 , shortly after Eusebia , his previous wife, died in 360. In the same year she became pregnant. Shortly afterwards, however, Constantius died. His cousin Julian became the new emperor . We do not know how Faustina and her daughter spent the time of the emperors Julian (361–363) and Jovian (363–364). The two are not mentioned again until 365 when the usurper Procopius took them on his campaign from Constantinople. Faustina was presented to some soldiers because Procopius, who drew his legitimacy from his kinship with Emperor Julian, hoped to gain the confidence of the army, whose ties to the Constantinian dynasty he wanted to exploit. Later she had to accompany Procopius with her daughter in a sedan chair in the fight against Valens , so that the soldiers had to protect the life of the empress, which was supposed to motivate them further. Faustina's daughter Constantia later married the Emperor Gratian (375–383) and thus linked the Constantinian and the Valentinian dynasties .

literature

• Otto Seeck : Faustina 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2086.
• Adolf Lippold : Faustina. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 522 f.
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Faustina. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 326 ( online version ).

Web links

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

Remarks

1. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus 26,7,10.
2. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus 26.9.3.