Helena
326 – 360 · Generation IV
Helena was a daughter of Constantine the Great and his wife Fausta, and the wife of the emperor Julian. Her brothers were the emperors Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans. Her father died in 337 and her mother in 326, so she was probably nearly thirty or older when she married, as Edward Gibbon pointed out, although no ancient source gives her age.
On 6 November 355 her brother Constantius II made their cousin Julian his Caesar, the only surviving male of the dynasty fit for the role, and within days gave him Helena in marriage to bind him to the throne. Several ancient historians record the match, among them Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus. Julian was then sent to defend Gaul, and Helena appears to have gone with him.
Her pregnancies ended in loss. Ammianus reports that a son born in Gaul died at birth because a bribed midwife cut the cord too short, and that the empress Eusebia, herself childless, later gave Helena a potion in Rome so that she would miscarry whenever she conceived. Modern historians treat the story with caution. Timothy Barnes dates the stillbirth to 356 and the Roman miscarriage to 357, and the medical historian Plinio Prioreschi called a potion working for years after a single dose an obvious impossibility.
When Julian’s soldiers proclaimed him Augustus in 360, Helena briefly became empress. She died the same year, before the quarrel between her husband and her brother was settled.
Place in the family
- Helena was a daughter of Constantine I.
Line of descent: Constantius I → Constantine I → Helena.
Parents
- Constantine I (272 – 337)
- Fausta (289 – 326)
Siblings
- Constantine II (316 – 340)
- Constantius II (317 – 361)
- Constans I (320 – 350)
Partners
- Married Julian (331 – 363) in 355
Life
- 326 — Born
- 355 — Married Julian
- 360 — Died
Sources
- Helena (wife of Julian) · Wikipedia
- Julian (emperor) · Wikipedia