Helena Augusta

246 – 330 · Generation XV · Constantinian

Helena (AD 246 – AD 330). Married Constantius around AD 270; they were set apart in AD 289. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Of humble birth — Ambrose called her a stable-maid — she ended as Augusta and saint, and later legend credited her with finding the True Cross in Jerusalem. Tradition places her birth at Drepanon in Bithynia, a town her son later renamed Helenopolis. Whether her union with Constantius was a lawful marriage or a common-law partnership is still argued. She bore Constantine at Naissus, probably around 272; when Constantius put her aside for Theodora, Maximian’s daughter, she went with the boy to Diocletian’s court at Nicomedia and never married again. Brought back into public life after her son’s rise, she lived in a palace in Rome, was proclaimed Augusta in 324 and, Eusebius says, had free use of the imperial treasury. Her journey through Palestine in 326–328 brought churches at Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives, though some modern scholars think the trip served political ends as well as pious ones. She died around 330 with Constantine at her side and was buried in a mausoleum on the Via Labicana outside Rome.

Place in the family

Helena Augusta was the mother of Constantine the Great.
The archive records 8 of her descendants, across 3 generations.

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.

Partners

Married Constantius Chlorus (250 – 306) in 270; they separated in 289 — one child together

Children

Constantine the Great (272 – 337)

Life

246 — Born
270 — Married Constantius
289 — Parted from Constantius
330 — Died