Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/850

Rh «32 CONSTANTINUS. CONSTANTI^iUS. From altove. Further issue of Constantius Chlorus by his second wife, Theodora. i 1. Constautinus, murdered by the emperor Constan- tius IT. ; no issue known. I 2. Dalmatms Flavius Hannibalianus ; time of death unknown. 3. Constantius, Consul, 335 ; murdered by the emperor Constantius ; married, 1. Galla ; 2. Basilina. J 1 . Dalmatius, Flavius Julius, Consul in A. D. 333. Put to death by the em- peror Constantine the Younger in 339 or 340 ; no issue known. . . I 2. Hannibalianus, Flavius Claudius, king of Pontus ; married Constantina, eldest daughter of Constantine the Great ; perished in the wholesale murder of his kinsmen. A Son, 2. Gallas, Flavius Julius, bom in killed 32.5; Caesar, 34] ; disobedient; by the put to death by the emperor Con- emperor Btantius II. near Pola, in Istria, in Constan- 354 ; married Constantina, widow tius II. of Hannibalianus and eldest daugh- in 341. ter of Constantine the Great. I 3. A daugh- ter, mar- ried the emperor Constan- tius. 4. Julianus, sumamed the Apostate ; bom 332 (?) ; Caesar, 355 ; succeeded Constantius in 361; killed in the Per- sian war, 26th of June, 363. Married Helena, Flavia Maximiana, youngest daughter of Constantine the Great ; left issue whose fate is unknown. From above. Further issue of Constantius Chlorus by Theodora. 4. Constantia or Constantina [CoN- stantia] Flavia Valeria, married in 313 Valeria Licinianus Licinius, Augustus ; died between 328 and 330. Flavius Licinianus Licinius, put to death by Constantine the Great. 6. Eutropia, mar- ried Popiliiis Ne- potianus, consul. 5. Anastasia, married Bassianus Caesar, and after his death, probably, Lucius Ra- mius Aconitus Optatus, consul. Flavius Popilius Nepotianus ; assumed the purple in Gaul in 350 ; killed at Rome in the same year. Constantine was bom in the month oi l^ebruary, A. D. 272. There are many different opinions re- specting his birth-place ; but it is most probable, and it is now generally believed, that he was born at Naissus, now Nissa, a well-known town in Dardania or the upper and southem part of Moesia Superior.* Constantine was distinguished by the choicest gifts of nature, but his education was chiefly military. When his father obtained the supreme command in Gaul, Britain, and Spain, he did not accompany him, but remained with the emperor Diocletian as a kind of hostage for the fidelity of his parent, and he attended that emperor on his celebrated expedition in Egypt. After the capture of Alexandria and the pacification of that country in A. D. 296, Constantine served under Galerius in the Persian war, which resulted in the conquest and final cession to the Romans of Iberia, Arme- niii, Mesopotamia, and the adjoining countries, for which Diocletian and Maximian celebrated a triumph in Rome in 303. In these wars Constan- tine distinguished himself so much by personal courage as well as by higher military talents, that he became the favourite of the army, and was as a reward appointed tribunus militum of the first class. But he was not allowed to enjoy quietly the honours which he so justly deserved. In his this town Kriafia kclL iraTpls KwvaTavTivov rov /SowiAeaJs, meaning by Kriaua that that town was enlarged and embellished by Constantine, which was the case. The opinion that Constantine was born in Britain is ably refuted in Schbpflin's dis- sertation, " Constautinus Magnus non fuit Britan- nus," contained in the author's " Commentationes Historicae," Basel, 1741, 4 to. position as a kind of hostage he was exposed to the machinations of the ambitious, the jealous, and the designing ; and the dangers by which he was surrounded increased after the abdication of Dio- cletian and Maximian and the accession of his father and Galerius as emperors (a. d. 305). He continued to live in the East under the eyes of Galerius, whose jealousy of the superior qualities of Constantine was so great, that he meditated his ruin by exposing him to personal dangers, from which Constantine, however, escaped unhurt. In such circumstances he was compelled to cultivate and improve his natural prudence and sagacity, and to accustom himself to that reserve and dis- cretion to which he afterwards owed a considerable part of his greatness, and which was the more re- markable in him as he was naturally of a most lively disposition. The jealousy of Galerius be- came conspicuous when he conferred the dignity of Caesar upon his sons, Severus and Maximin, a dignity to which Constantine seemed to be en- titled by his birth and merits, but which was withheld from him by Galerius and not conferred upon him by his father. In this, however, Con- stantius Chlorus acted wisely, for as his son was still in the hands of Galerius, he would have caused his immediate ruin had he proclaimed him Caesar; so that if Constantine spoke of disappoint- ment he could only feel disappointed at not being in the camp of his father. To bring him thither became now the great object of the policy of both father and son. Negotiations were carried on for that purpose with Galerius, who, aware of the consequences of the departure of Constantine, de- layed his consent by every means in his power, till at last his pretexts were exhausted, and he was obliged to allow him to join his father. Justly afraid of being detained once more, or of being cut
 * Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Hcua-aos) calls