| Fausta | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta | |||||
 | |||||
| Roman empress | |||||
| Tenure | 307–326 | ||||
| Born | Rome, Italy | ||||
| Died | 326 | ||||
| Spouse | Constantine I | ||||
| Issue | |||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | Constantinian | ||||
| Father | Maximian | ||||
| Mother | Eutropia | ||||
Flavia Maxima Fausta Augusta [lower-alpha 1] (died 326 AD) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of Maximian and wife of Constantine the Great, who had her executed and excluded from all official accounts for unknown reasons. Historians Zosimus and Zonaras reported that she was executed for adultery with her stepson, Crispus.
Fausta was the daughter of the emperor Maximian and his wife Eutropia. As her age is nowhere outright attested, scholarly estimates have ranged from 289/290 [4] to the end of the 290s. [5] [6] To seal the alliance between them for control of the Tetrarchy, Maximian married her to Constantine I in 307. [7]
Constantine at first tried to present Maximian’s suicide as an unfortunate tragedy, but later started spreading another version where Fausta was involved in her father’s downfall. Barnes observed that the story “shows clear signs of being invented during Constantine’s war against Maxentius.” [8]
During her marriage, she had 5 children. [9] Fausta held the title of nobilissima femina up until 324, [10] when Constantine held her in high enough regard to grant her the title of augusta , which she received together with Constantine’s mother Helena. [3] [11] [12]
In 326, Fausta was put to death by Constantine, following the execution of Crispus, his eldest son by Minervina. [3] The circumstances surrounding the two deaths were unclear. Various explanations have been suggested; in one, Fausta is set against Crispus, as in the anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus, [13] or conversely her adultery, perhaps with the stepson who was close to her in age, is suggested.
According to the Latin Epitome de Caesaribus and the Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius (as epitomized by Photius), Fausta was executed by being locked in a bath which was over heated, [13] in connection with the death of Crispus, which "people [thought]" was caused by Fausta's accusation of unclear nature.
But Constantine, having obtained rule over the whole Roman Empire by remarkable success in wars, ordered his son Crispus to be put to death, at the behest (so people think) of his wife Fausta. Later he locked his wife Fausta in overheated baths and killed her, because his mother Helena blamed him out of excessive grief for her grandson. [14]
Zosimus, on the other hand, suggests adultery as the reason:
He killed Crispus, who had been deemed worthy of the rank of Caesar, as I have said before, when he incurred suspicion of having sexual relations with his stepmother Fausta, without taking any notice of the laws of nature. Constantine’s mother Helena was distressed at such a grievous event and refused to tolerate the murder of the young man. As if to soothe her [feelings] Constantine tried to remedy the evil with a greater evil: having ordered baths to be heated above the normal level, he deposited Fausta in them and brought her out when she was dead. [15]
In Zonaras' version written in the 12th century, Crispus' death was caused by Fausta's retaliatory accusation of rape following her unsuccessful sexual advances toward him. But when Constantine realized his innocence, he punished her, mirroring the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus. [16] Scholars have noted that if Crispus was found to be innocent, his condemnation of memory should have been lifted, but it was not. [17] [18] [19]
Although Hans Pohlsander dismissed the idea of Fausta’s death being accidental, viewing the condemnation of memory to be certain proof that Constantine intended to kill his wife, David Woods’ response was that, “Accidents continue to happen even to people deep in disgrace.” [20] He suggested that Crispus and Fausta were not actually executed, offering the connection of overheated bathing with contemporaneous techniques of abortion, [21] a suggestion that implies an unwanted, adulterous pregnancy from her relationship with Crispus [22] and a fatal accident during the abortion.
Constantine I ordered the damnatio memoriae of Fausta and Crispus around 326 with the result that no contemporary source records details of her fate: "Eusebius, ever the sycophant, mentions neither Crispus nor Fausta in his Life of Constantine, and even wrote Crispus out of the final version of his Ecclesiastical History (HE X.9.4)", Constantine's biographer Paul Stephenson observes. [23] Although Julian praised Fausta in his panegyric to Constantius II, [24] there is no other evidence of her memory being rehabilitated. [25] [11]
Fausta is an important antagonist in Dorothy L. Sayers' chronicle-play The Emperor Constantine (1951). In addition, Fausta was portrayed by Belinda Lee in the film Constantine and the Cross (1961).
Constantine II was Roman emperor from 337 to 340. The son of the emperor Constantine I, he was proclaimed caesar by his father shortly after his birth. He was associated with military victories over the Sarmatians, Alamanni and Goths during his career, for which he was granted a number of victory titles. He held the consulship four times – in 320, 321, 324, and 329.
Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christianity in Rome, decriminalizing Christian practice and ceasing Christian persecution in a period referred to as the Constantinian shift. This initiated the cessation of the established ancient Roman religion. Constantine is also the originator of the religiopolitical ideology known as Constantinianism, which epitomizes the unity of church and state, as opposed to separation of church and state. He founded the city of Constantinople and made it the capital of the Empire, which remained so for over a millennium.
The 320s decade ran from January 1, 320, to December 31, 329.
Year 326 (CCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantinus and Constantinus. The denomination 326 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Flavius Valerius Constantius, also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 to 305 and then ruling as augustus until his death. Constantius was also father of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. The nickname "Chlorus" was first popularized by Byzantine-era historians and not used during the emperor's lifetime.
Maximian, nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent most of his time on campaign. In late 285, he suppressed rebels in Gaul known as the Bagaudae. From 285 to 288, he fought against Germanic tribes along the Rhine frontier. Together with Diocletian, he launched a scorched earth campaign deep into Alamannic territory in 288, refortifying the frontier.
Flavia Julia Helena, also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena, was an Augusta of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. She was born in the lower classes traditionally in the city of Drepanon, Bithynia, in Asia Minor, which was renamed Helenopolis in her honor, although several locations have been proposed for her birthplace and origin.
Flavius Valerius Severus, also called Severus II, was a Roman emperor from 306 to 307, and a member of the Tetrarchy. He shared control of the western half of the empire with Constantine I, but spent most of his short reign in a civil war against the usurper Maxentius, who later killed him and took over Italy.
Magnus Magnentius was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul under the emperor Constans. On 18 January 350 Magnentius was acclaimed Augustus. Quickly killing the unpopular Constans, Magnentius gained control over most of the Western Empire. The Eastern emperor Constantius II, the brother of Constans, refused to acknowledge Magnentius' legitimacy and led a successful campaign against Magnentius. Ultimately, Magnentius' forces were scattered after the Battle of Mons Seleucus, and he died by suicide on 10 August 353.
Flavius Julius Crispus was the eldest son of the Roman emperor Constantine I, as well as his junior colleague (caesar) from March 317 until his execution by his father in 326. The grandson of the augustus Constantius I, Crispus was the elder half-brother of the future augustus Constantine II and became co-caesar with him and with his cousin Licinius II at Serdica, part of the settlement ending the Cibalensean War between Constantine and his father's rival Licinius I. Crispus ruled from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in Roman Gaul between 318 and 323 and defeated the navy of Licinius I at the Battle of the Hellespont in 324, which with the land Battle of Chrysopolis won by Constantine forced the resignation of Licinius and his son, leaving Constantine the sole augustus and the Constantinian dynasty in control of the entire empire. It is unclear what the legal status of the relationship Crispus's mother Minervina had with Constantine was; Crispus may have been an illegitimate son.
Flavia Maximiana Theodora was a Roman empress as the wife of Constantius Chlorus.
Priestess of Avalon is a 2000 novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, completed posthumously by Diana L. Paxson. It follows detailing the life of Helena, first wife of Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine.
Minervina was either the first wife or a concubine of Constantine I, and the mother of his eldest son Crispus.
The Constantinian dynasty is an informal name for the ruling family of the Roman Empire from Constantius Chlorus to the death of Julian in 363. It is named after its most famous member, Constantine the Great, who became the sole ruler of the empire in 324. The dynasty is also called Neo-Flavian because every Constantinian emperor bore the name Flavius, similarly to the rulers of the first Flavian dynasty in the 1st century.
Marcus Aurelius Sabinus Julianus, known in English as Julian of Pannonia was a Roman usurper against Emperor Carinus or Maximian. It is possible that up to four usurpers with a similar name rebelled in a timeframe of a decade, but at least one of them is known by numismatic evidence.
Licinius II, also called Licinius Junior or Licinius Caesar, was the son of the Roman emperor Licinius I. He held the imperial rank of caesar between March 317 and September 324, while his father was augustus, and he was twice Roman consul. After losing a civil war, his father lost power and both he and Licinius Junior were eventually put to death.
Helena was a Roman Empress by marriage to Julian, Roman emperor in 360–363. She was briefly his Empress consort when Julian was proclaimed Augustus by his troops in 360. She died prior to the resolution of his conflict with Constantius II.
The civil wars of the Tetrarchy were a series of conflicts between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire, starting from 306 AD with the usurpation of Maxentius and the defeat of Severus to the defeat of Licinius at the hands of Constantine I in 324 AD.
The German and Sarmatian campaigns of Constantine were fought by the Roman Emperor Constantine I against the neighbouring Germanic peoples, including the Franks, Alemanni and Goths, as well as the Sarmatian Iazyges, along the whole Roman northern defensive system to protect the empire's borders, between 306 and 336.
Claudia was the purported mother of Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus according to ancient sources. These sources claim her to be a relative of Roman emperors Claudius Gothicus and Quintillus, a claim modern historians tend to view with suspicion.
The full text of Panegyric in honour of Constantius at Wikisource
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
