Constantinian Dynasty

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As Constantinian dynasty of is I. Constantius Chlorus and his son Constantine referred founded dynasty of Roman emperors. It ranged from the elevation of Constantius I to sub-emperor in 293 to the death of Emperor Julian in 363. Since 324, when Constantine finally won a protracted civil war and became sole ruler, the members of the Constantinian dynasty ruled largely unchallenged Rich. Due to the fact that the name "Flavius" under Constantine the Great according to to 96 n. Chr. Ruling Flavians for the second time to a part of the ruler title, it is also sometimes referred to as Second Flavian dynasty or as dynasty of Neo-Flavii designated .

The time of the Constantinian dynasty was marked by a profound change within the Roman Empire. The most important change was the Constantine turn towards Christianity initiated by Constantine the Great , which Julian later tried to revise. Above all, Constantine's sons had to deal with considerable problems of church politics (cf. Arian argument ). The Constantinian emperors also initiated other important reforms: for example, Constantine relocated the capital to the east of the empire, to Constantinople . One of the most important tasks for the emperors was to secure the borders. In the east there were repeated wars with the Sassanids under Shapur II , which Constantius II was still relatively successful in repelling, while Julian finally fell on a catastrophic campaign in the Sassanid Empire (see Roman-Persian Wars ). The Goths also had to be fended off on the Danube, and above all the Alamanni and Franks on the Rhine , with Julian being particularly outstanding.

Contemporary history background

In the course of the 3rd century, at the end of which Constantius I, the first member of the Constantinian dynasty, was made emperor, various problems of the principle system had emerged . Soldier emperors ruled over the Roman Empire from 235 , most of whom were proclaimed emperors by the army. This period of the imperial crisis of the 3rd century was marked by high political instability: there were often several emperors who fought each other, hardly any of the emperors died a natural death during this period - 235–285 there were a total of 70 emperors. At the same time, foreign policy problems arose: while the previously existing threat from the Teutons on the Rhine and Danube increased, a new threat from the Persian Sassanids arose in the east from 224 onwards .

Follis Diocletians

In 284 Diocletian finally came to power. He not only reformed the provincial system (downsizing the provinces and introducing dioceses), but also strictly separated civil from military administration. Mainly because of these reforms, which led to a stronger bureaucratization and centralization of the Roman Empire, the transition from the principate to late antiquity is generally set with Diocletian's assumption of government . Diocletian also introduced a new tax system ( Capitatio-Iugatio ), which remained in effect throughout late antiquity. In a military reform, he increased the number of legions , but their crew strength was reduced at the same time. He tried to counter inflation with a - probably unsuccessful - maximum price edict.

The political instability of the imperial crisis, in which the constant usurpations led to a paralysis of the entire empire, was combated by Diocletian in 293 with the introduction of the tetrarchy . In this system, four emperors were to rule, two of them as Augusti , that is, upper emperors , two as Caesares , as lower emperors . Each of the emperors could act relatively autonomously within their territory; Laws were passed on behalf of all emperors. As early as 286 Diocletian had appointed his friend Maximian to be the second Augustus and divided the empire into two halves: Maximian ruled in the west, Diocletian in the east, until the two Caesares Constantius Chlorus and Galerius joined them in 293 . The tetrarchs, who were not related to each other, tried to ensure greater cohesion through marriage and marriage, but this proved in vain at the beginning of the 4th century: the tetrarchical system could not exist without Diocletian, who voluntarily gave up his office in 305 culminated in a rapid succession of civil wars from which Constantine the Great emerged victorious.

The Constantinian Dynasty

Constantius Chlorus and Constantine the Great

The founder of the Constantinian dynasty was Constantius I . He had lived with Helena for about 270 years , but because of her low background he probably did not marry her. The couple had a son, Constantine . Constantius separated from Helena when he married Theodora , the stepdaughter of Emperor Maximian , probably in 289 . This connection was probably politically motivated; in any case, when the tetrarchy was introduced in 293, Constantius was elevated to the rank of Caesar (co-emperor or sub-emperor) of Maximian. The marriage between Constantius and Theodora produced six children: the three boys Julius Constantius , Flavius ​​Dalmatius and Flavius ​​Hannibalianus and the daughters Constantia , Anastasia and Eutropia . Constantius I thus laid the foundation for a rivalry that later fermented between the branch of the Constantine family and that of the children of Theodora.

When Constantius died in Eburacum in Britain in 306 , the soldiers proclaimed his son Constantine to be emperor. In accepting the dignity of Augustus, he disregarded the tetrarchical succession regulation, according to which Severus was actually designated as the successor of Constantius, and thus risked the outbreak of a civil war. Before 307 he was married or at least in a relationship with Minervina , who gave birth to his first son Crispus in 305 . In 307 he married Fausta , another daughter of Maximian, in order to conclude a political alliance with him, who had also been illegally proclaimed emperor. Whether Minervina was already dead at this point in time or whether Constantine disowned her cannot be reconstructed from the sources. The following years were marked by fierce power struggles between Constantine and his rivals for the imperial throne until the civil war was initially ended with Constantine's victory against the usurper Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. Constantine came to an understanding with Licinius , who ruled the east from now on, while Constantine ruled the west of the Roman Empire. To strengthen the alliance, Licinius married Constantia, Constantine's half-sister. He also used Anastasia, his other half-sister, for his marriage policy when he married her in 313 or 314 to Bassianus , who was briefly his Caesar. In the same year the two emperors issued the Edict of Tolerance of Milan , in which the free exercise of all religions in the empire was permitted. In the period that followed, Constantine primarily promoted Christianity and was even baptized at the end of his life (cf. Constantinian turn ).

Since Constantine at the latest, the Constantinian emperors invoked an alleged descent from Claudius Gothicus , a soldier emperor who was famous for his victories against the Teutons. This connection was probably made public for the first time in a panegyric , an eulogy for Constantine from the year 310, and from then on it was consistently propagated by Constantine. The propaganda was also taken up later by some sources, but the relationships there were presented differently. Modern research has now been able to prove that it was a propaganda lie that was supposed to conceal the dynasty's low origin. The origin of Constantius I is unknown, we already know nothing about his parents. Helena, Constantine's mother, is even referred to as the “landlady”; in any case she was of very low origin.

In the more or less peaceful phase that followed, Fausta gave birth to her husband five children: First Constantine II was born in 316 , followed later by Constantius II , Constantina , Constans and Helena , who was named after her grandmother. Constantine appointed his four sons Crispus, Konstantin, Constantius and Constans to be Caesares when they were still children . In 324 there was another civil war between Constantine and Licinius, from which Constantine emerged victorious. Licinius and his son Licinianus , a son of Constantine's half-sister Constantia, were subsequently executed. The dynasty, which ruled over the entire Roman Empire from this point in time, also expanded due to the families of Constantine's half-brothers: Julius Constantius married Galla and fathered three children - Constantius Gallus (* 325/326) and another son whose name was not known and a girl who later became Constantius II's first wife. After Galla's death, Julius Constantius married a woman named Basilina , with whom he fathered the future emperor Julian (* 331).

Constantine's half-brother Flavius ​​Dalmatius also fathered two sons, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus . Nothing is known about the descendants of the third half-brother, Flavius ​​Hannibalianus, perhaps he died early. In 326 a tragedy broke out in Constantine's family: Constantine had first his son Crispus and then his wife Fausta killed one after the other. The reasons for this are difficult to reconstruct today, ancient sources report a jealous drama, but it could also have been about power-political disputes. Constantine also included the descendants of his stepmother Theodora in the rule of the empire: in 335 he raised Dalmatius, his half-nephew, to Caesar and Hannibalianus, his brother, to rex . At the same time, Constantine married his daughter Constantina to Hannibalianus. Presumably Constantine wanted to make it clear that Dalmatius and Hannibalianus should also be involved in the rule after his death.

Constantine's sons and nephews

When Constantine died on May 22nd, 337, everything turned out differently: some Roman soldiers murdered almost all of Constantine's male relatives in a purge - except for his sons. Julian and Constantius Gallus, the sons of Julius Constantius, also survived - perhaps because they were too young to pose a serious threat. Her father, however, was one of the victims of the murders along with Hannibalianus, Dalmatius and others. It was evident that the murders cemented the sons of Constantine's claim to power, and soon these - especially Constantius II - were suspected of having ordered the purge. However, it is no longer possible to reliably reconstruct whether this is the case today. Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans assumed the title of Augustus and divided the empire among themselves.

However, as early as 340 there were conflicts between Constantine II and Constans. The elder Constantine II invaded Italy, the part of the empire of Constans, and was killed. Ten years later Constans, who had made himself unpopular in the army, fell victim to the usurper Magnentius , who rose in Gaul. Against Magnentius, Nepotianus , the son of Constantine's half-sister Eutropia, who also belongs to the Constantinian dynasty , rose up shortly afterwards . However, Magnentius soon put down the uprising of Nepotianus in Rome and had him executed; his mother was murdered in the course of proscriptions.

Constantius II, the last remaining son of Constantine the Great, named his cousin Constantius Gallus Caesar of the East and married him to his sister Constantina. So he was able to deal with Magnentius in the west without leaving the eastern border uncovered. After Constantius had finally defeated Magnentius in 353, however, he found that Gallus' rule in the east had not been to his satisfaction: he had turned the citizens of his residence city Antioch against him and was suspected of intriguing against Constantius. He had him executed in 354 after Constantina had died shortly before.

In 353 Constantius married the officer's daughter Eusebia after his first wife had died shortly before. Eusebia recommended that he appoint his nephew Julian as the new Caesar in Gaul. In 355 this proposal was implemented, Julian was assigned Lutetia (Paris) as the residential city and was married to Constantius' sister Helena. Both the marriage between Constantius and Eusebia and that between Helena and Julian remained childless or at least without surviving children. The Constantinian dynasty, which had since been severely decimated, did not recover. In 360 there was a conflict between Julian and Constantius, a civil war was only prevented by Constantius' natural death in 361. In this conflict Julian polemicized against Constantine, Constantius' father, calling him a bastard - a recourse to the long-simmering conflict between the Helena and Theodora branches of the family. Constantius II is therefore not a legitimate emperor either.

After his wife Helena died in the winter of 360, Julian no longer married. With his death in a campaign against the Persians in 363, the direct male line of the Constantinian dynasty died out. A distant relative of Julian's, Procopius , was able to take advantage of the general appreciation for the Constantinian imperial dynasty again in 365 to be proclaimed emperor. However, his uprising was put down a little later. Shortly before his death, Constantius II had married Faustina, who finally gave him a child after his death, even if it was only a daughter: Constantia later married the Emperor Gratian and thus connected the Constantinian with the Valentinian dynasties .

family tree

Konst dyn.jpg

Ruler list

Ruler Full name Reign Remarks
Constantius I. Marcus Flavius ​​Valerius Constantius 293-305
305-306 		Caesar in Gaul
emperor in the west
Constantine I. Gaius Flavius ​​Valerius Constantinus 306-307 / 310
307 / 310-337 		Caesar (nominally) in Gaul
emperor in the west , from 324 sole ruler
Bassianus unknown 314/316 Caesar (designated) in Italy
Crispus Flavius ​​Iulius Valerius Crispus 317-326 Caesar in Gaul
Constantine II Flavius ​​Claudius Constantinus 317-337
337-340 		Caesar in Italy, from 328 emperor in Gaul
in the west
Constantius II Flavius ​​Iulius Constantius 324-337
337-361 		Caesar in the East,
Emperor in the East , 350 / 353–360 sole ruler
Constans Flavius ​​Iulius Constans 333-337
337-350 		Caesar in Italy
emperor in the west (338–339 also in the east), until 340 alongside Constantine II.
Dalmatius Flavius ​​Iulius Delmatius 335-337 Caesar in the Balkan provinces
Hannibalianus Flavius ​​Hannibalianus 335 / 36-337 Rex in Cappadocia (?)
Nepotianus Flavius ​​Iulius Popilius Nepotianus Constantinus 350/51 With (?) Kaiser in Rome, against Magnentius
Constantius Gallus Flavius ​​Claudius Constantius Gallus 351-354 Caesar in Syria
Julian Flavius ​​Claudius Iulianus 355-360
360-363 		Caesar in Gaul
emperor in the west , sole ruler from 361

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Calculation by Alexander Demandt , Die Spätantike. Roman history from Diocletian to Justinian 284-565 AD , 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 47.
  2. ↑ Some sources give the year 293 for the wedding, but Panegyrici latini 10 (2), 11.4 speaks against this . On this, Otto Seeck , Constantius 1) , in: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft , Volume IV, 1 (1901), Col. 1040-1043, here Col. 1041; Timothy D. Barnes , The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine , Cambridge, Massachusetts / London 1982, pp. 125f.
  3. ↑ Timothy D. Barnes, The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine , Cambridge, Massachusetts / London 1982, pp. 33f. contrary to the communis opinio of research, assumes that Theodora was Maximian's biological daughter.
  4. ↑ XII Panegyrici Latini , 6,2,1f.
  5. ↑ Eutropius 9.22; Julian 6d; 51c; Anonymous Valesianus 2; Historia Augusta , Claudius 13.2; Zonaras 7.26.
  6. ^ Anonymus Valesianus 2,2,2. Ambrosius of Milan , De obitu Theodosii 42, describes her as the landlady. Hermann Dessau , About Time and Personality of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae , in: Hermes 24 (1889), pp. 337-392, here pp. 342f. , First mentioned the falsification of the parentage . pointed out. Adolf Lippold , Constantius Caesar, victor over the Teutons - descendant of Claudius Gothicus? The Panegyricus of 297 and the Vita Claudii of the HA , in: Chiron 11, 1981, pp. 347-369, tries to move the invention of the saga into the reign of Constantius.
  7. ↑ Cf. current Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto , Konstantin der Große , Darmstadt 2007, pp. 141–146 and Oliver Schmitt, Constantin der Große , Stuttgart 2007, pp. 221–229, with a discussion of the difficult source situation and various research positions.
  8. ↑ On the murders of 337 cf. for example Richard Klein , The struggles for the 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, ISBN 3-487-11032-6 , pp. 1-49 ( Spudasmata 74).