Birthday Greetings #69

I've trolled back through previous blog entries and I'm pretty sure I haven't given this guy a birthday shout out before.  I hope not, it's becoming embarrassing.  Still, in the hopes that my rather haphazard due diligence is accurate, happy birthday to Constantius II, Roman emperor.

Constantius was the son of the previous emperor, Constantine the Great who had reunified the empire through a series of civil wars after its administrative separation under Diocletian.  Then, on his deathbed Constantine deunified it again by leaving the empire to his three sons each of whom got a chunk of the territory.

The three sons incidentally were named Constans, Constantine and Constantius which indicates either a lack of imagination on their father's part or a simple desire not to have to remember the names of his children.  Constantine got the bit on the left (Britain, Gaul, Spain, Mauretania), Constans got the bit in the middle (Italy, Africa, Illyria, Macedonia etc) and our boy got the bit on the right (Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Thrace and the city of Constantinople itself).  Constantius also inherited a war with the Persians which he was probably somewhat less grateful for.

Oh yes, there were a couple of cousins who also got small patches of the empire for their very own but to commemorate his father's death Constantius initiated (or was the totally unwitting beneficiary of) a bloodbath of various members of the imperial family which left just the three sons and a couple of odd (very odd) cousins standing.  With the lines of inheritance conveniently cleared Constantius settled down to rule.  War with the Persians was top of the agenda but whereas his father had all the resources of the empire to fight them with Constantius had to make to with effectively a third of that.  His response was what we would now call a strategic defensive (and what was at the time suggested to be cowardice and incompetence).  Fortified cities would hold vital points while the bulk of the army would be held back to counterattack any Persian troops who got through.  This worked for several years but was rather tough on the people who lived in the areas that Constantius had written off as undefensible.

Constantius has got rather a bad press from historians.  This is partly because his successor was a spectacular failure rather than a boring success and partly for religious reasons.  Constantius was condemned as an adherent of the Arian heresy and his reputation amongst religious historians (and most historians were religious, nobody else had the time and leisure to write histories) suffered as a result.  It seems that Constantius wasn't a card carrying Arian but rather favoured some sort of compromise that would bring Arians and Orthodox together.  Naturally the Orthodox hated him.  If the Arians had won they would probably have hated him too.

He was also supposed to be nervous, paranoid and utterly under the control of the eunuchs who made up his government.  Given the death rate in imperial families at the time being nervous and paranoid could better be described as vital survival traits.  As for the eunuch thing, well maybe but unless you plan to deal with every single bit of paperwork yourself then as emperor you kind of have to rely on your officials.  Some (and by some I mean "all") of these were corrupt but most of them were competent and the administration of the empire certainly didn't collapse during Constantius' time which was pretty impressive considering the strains it was under.

Over in the left two thirds of the empire things had been changing.  Constans, ruler of the middle bit of the empire, had been a minor when he had come to the throne and his brother Constantine had excercised a sort of guardianship over him.  Constans grew up and told his brother he didn't need guarding any more.
"Oh yes you do," replied Constantine.
"Who from," demanded Constans.
"Me!"
Bold words but Constans proved a precocious little tyke and defeated (and killed) his brother and took over his part of the empire which he ruled for ten years.  At the end of that time the commander of his guard units murdered him and took over his part of the empire.

Constantius was having none of it though.  Brother on brother murder was all very well but there was no way an outsider was going to be allowed to get away with spilling the imperial blood.  Hastily grabbing a convenient cousin and appointing him Caesar (with special responsibility for taking the blame if the Persians invaded) Constantius gathered together all the troops he could raise and marched west.  His forces met those of the usurper at the Battle of Mursa Major sometimes known as the day the Roman army committed suicide.  Casualties on both sides were appalling but Constantius won the day and chased his opponent into Italy (pausing to beat up some Sarmatians en route).  After another defeat the usurper (his name was Magnentius by the way) committed suicide and Constantius was ruler of the whole Roman empire.

Which was useful because his attention was suddenly called back to the east.  His cousin Gallus whom he had appointed Caesar in the east had, apparently been making an almighty hash of things.  Cruelty, tyranny and the slaughter of prominent citizens (and probably non prominent citizens as well but nobody cared about such things) could perhaps be forgiven if they hadn't been accompanied by mismanagement.  Antioch was suffering from a famine, the Persians were getting restive, the army was getting mutinous and tax revenues were declining.  From his current base at Milan (then called something longer and more tedious) Constantius ordered Gallus to appear in the imperial presence and explain himself.  Somewhat reluctantly Gallus did so.  He explained himself by blaming everything on his wife who had conveniently died recently.  This didn't impress Constantius too much not least because said wife was his own sister and he ordered his cousin's execution.  Apparently he changed his mind shortly afterwards but those sneaky eunuchs delayed the arrival of the reprieve until Gallus was safely dead.

Constantius had spent a couple of years in the west campaigning against barbarians, stamping out a couple of other plots and generally doing emperor stuff but with the deteriorating situation in the east it was obvious he had to leave.  However he needed somebody he could rely on to hold down the west while he was gone.  Obviously it had to be family, unfortunately he had already killed most of his family.  Hastily scrabbling through ancestry.com he discovered another cousin by the name of Julian.  Julian was an odd fish who had spent most of his time buried in the study of ancient Greece and avoiding his cousin's attention (I said he was odd, I didn't say he was stupid).  Well, so much for the scholarly life.  Julian was dragged out of Athens, wrapped in imperial purple and dumped in Gaul as Caesar of the West while Constantius marched east to deal with the Persians and such like.

In his absence the Persians had captured places, devastated stuff and generally fire and sworded whole areas.  Constantius was forced into attempts to recapture territory.  The initial campaigning was inconclusive and Constantius pulled back to Antioch to regroup.  He'd beaten up on the Persians a bit but if he wanted an outright victory he needed more troops.  He sent a quick message back to his Julian ordering detachments of the western army to join him for the next campaign.

Julian responded by declaring himself emperor and marching his entire army towards Constantius.  With a definite "here we go again" air Constantius gathered up his own troops and headed off to meet just the latest in a whole series of family disappointments.  It didn't come to a battle though.  By this time Constantius was seriously ill and it soon became apparent to him that the end was coming.  On his deathbed he announced Julian as his legitimate successor and then died.  Julian made a big show of giving him a magnificent funeral because, well you do don't you?