Julius Constantius
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Flavius Julius Constantius (d. September, 337) was a son of Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and his second wife Flavia Maximiana Theodora. He was a younger half-brother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.
His father died on July 25, 306 when Julius Constantius was either a child or an adolescent. He is considered to have spent much of the 300s, 310s and 320s under virtual house arrest in Tolosa , Gallia Narbonensis, Gaul, Western Roman Empire under orders of his brother.
He first married Galla, sister of both Vulcacius Rufus and Neratius Cerealis. They had three known children.:
- Constantius Gallus (325/326 - 354).
- A son. Murdered in 337.
- Daughter of Julius Constantius. First Empress consort of his nephew Constantius II.
He married for a second time to Basilina, daughter of Julius Julianus, prefect of Egypt. They only had one known son:
- Flavius Claudius Iulianus ("Julian the Apostate," born 331/332, reigned 361 - 363).
Basilina was a Christian; Palladius notes that she left land to the Church, and Athanasius listed her among those who supported Arianism.[1]
His half-brother favored Julius Constantius by naming him patrician and by appointing him consul in 335. When Constantine died on May 22, 337, Julius Constantius was in position to claim the throne for himself. He was murdered within months of Constantine's death along with most males of their family.
Only five males survived the series of assassinations. His nephews and new Roman Emperors Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans along with his two own young sons. Constantius II is suspected to have ordered the assassination of his uncle.
[edit] References
- ^ Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, "Basilina"; the citation of Athanasius is of his History of the Arians.
