CONSTANTIUS II (Flavius Julius Constantinus), Emperor. - Son of Constantine the Great and of Fausta, born on 7 August 317, probably at Sirmium, named Caesar on 8 November 324, he became Augustus before he was yet twenty years old at the death of his father, on 22 May 337, together with his brothers Constantine II and Constans. His father had assigned him, as his portion of the Empire, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor. Immediately after Constantine's death, his half-brother Julius Constantius was killed by the soldiers, along with his sons Dalmatius Caesar, Hannibalianus king of Pontus and other relatives. It is not established whether C. was the author of these crimes or merely aware of them, but everyone believed him guilty and he himself felt remorse for it his whole life (Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat., 21, 26).
The three brothers met in September 337 at Viminacium on the Danube and established the partition of the Empire. The portion of the slain Dalmatius, Thrace with Constantinople, was assigned to Constans, then (339) to C. In the early years C. resided mostly at Antioch, always occupied in the struggle against the Persians. At the death of Constantine II, in 340, C. from then on dominated the whole East, at that time the most powerful part of the Empire. In 350 the usurper Magnentius, by killing Constans, seized Gaul, Italy and Africa. C. created as Caesar his cousin Gallus, son of Julius Constantius, who had been killed in 337. C. defeated Magnentius in the bloody battle of Mursa (28 September 351) and pursued him into Gaul, where Magnentius ended as a suicide (Lyons, 10 August 353). In 354 C. also had Gallus executed and named as Caesar Julian, the half-brother of the deceased (6 November 354). From 350 onward C. resided mostly at Sirmium. In 357 he made his only visit to Rome. When in 361 Julian's troops at Paris proclaimed him Augustus, C. suspended his expedition against the Persians and moved to fight the rebel, but death overtook him at Mopsucrene in Cilicia on 3 November 361, baptized by the Arian bishop Euzoius, at the age of only 45.
Although it is possible to follow the steps of C. almost year by year, we are less informed about his personality and character than about the personality and character of Constantine. C. appears rather mediocre, without ardour, nor personal charm; under him the prestige of the Empire declines noticeably. He surpassed his father, however, in the obstinacy of his religious policy. Constantine wanted to appear and to be the benefactor of the Church, C. wanted to be its master; and he was the first true representative of so-called caesaropapism.
He was a convinced Arian, thanks to the religious formation received in the last years of Constantine, when the influence of Eusebius of Nicomedia dominated at court. As long as his brother Constans lived, who adhered to the Council of Nicaea, he must have felt somewhat constrained, although already at this time he protected Macedonius of Constantinople and fought Athanasius. But after the death of his brother (350) and the victory over the usurper Magnentius (351), he assumed the epithets Aeternitas mea (Ammianus, Rev. gest., XV, 13) and Episcopus episcoporum (Lucifer, Moriendum esse pro Dei filio, 13), terrorized the Synods of Arles (353) and of Milan (355) and attempted to intimidate Pope Liberius (v.). After 358, under the influence of Basil of Ancyra, C. broke away from the extremist Arians (Anomoeans), indeed he set about persecuting them, without however relaxing the pressure on the orthodox at the Synods of Rimini and Seleucia. With the disappearance of C. the Arianism of the Empire rapidly vanished, a sign that he had been its principal support.
On the scope of C.'s laws against pagan sacrifices (Cod. Theod., XVI, 10, 2 of 341; 10, 4 of 356; 10, 5 of 353) and against soothsayers and astrologers (Cod. Theod., IX, 16, 4, 5, 6), modern authors hold divergent opinions (cf. Fliche-Martin-Frutsz, III, nos. 172, 184-87). Their repetition seems to indicate their scant efficacy. C., like his father Constantine, retained the title of Pontifex Maximus.
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