Constantina Flavia Julia
318 – 354 · Generation XVII · Constantinian
Constantina (AD 318 – AD 354). Married Constantius around AD 351. Constantine’s daughter, married to her cousin Gallus; buried in the porphyry mausoleum now called Santa Costanza. The eldest daughter of Constantine and Fausta, she was first married in 335 to her cousin Hannibalianus, whom her father made “King of Kings” over the Pontic peoples, and may have been named Augusta; her husband was killed in the purges after Constantine’s death in 337. When Magnentius rose in the west in 350, she put her influence behind Vetranio as a rival to him, and Magnentius’s bid for her hand was refused by her brother Constantius II. Constantius then gave her to Gallus, newly made Caesar in the East, and the pair governed from Antioch. Ammianus Marcellinus portrays her as a savage spur to her husband’s harsh rule, even taking a necklace as the price of a nobleman’s execution. Summoned with Gallus in 354, she went ahead to placate her brother but died of a sudden fever in Bithynia. Medieval legend recast her as Saint Constance.
Place in the family
- Constantina Flavia Julia was a daughter of Constantine the Great.
One of 10 people of Constantinian (246–363) in this archive. Constantine’s house — the first Christian emperors, and a new capital in the east.
Line of descent: Constantius Chlorus → Constantine the Great → Constantina Flavia Julia.
Parents
- Constantine the Great (272 – 337)
- Fausta Flavia Maxima (289 – 326)
Siblings
- Crispus Flavius Julius (300 – 326) (half)
- Constantine II Flavius Claudius (316 – 340)
- Constantius II Flavius Julius (317 – 361)
- Constans Flavius Julius (320 – 350)
- Helena the Younger (325 – 360)
Partners
- Married Constantius Gallus (326 – 354) in 351
Life
- 318 — Born
- 351 — Married Constantius
- 354 — Died