Helena the Younger
325 – 360 · Generation XVII
Helena (AD 325 – AD 360). Married Julian around AD 355. Constantine’s youngest daughter, given in marriage to Julian as he was made Caesar. Her mother was Fausta, who died in 326, so Helena was at least twenty-nine at her wedding in November 355 — a match that bound the new Caesar, her first cousin, to her brother Constantius II. She seems to have followed Julian to Gaul, where a baby son was lost, probably in 356; Ammianus alleged that a bribed midwife killed the child and that the childless empress Eusebia later gave her a potion to make her miscarry, charges historians still weigh. She was in Rome in 357 for her brother’s twentieth-anniversary celebrations. When the Gallic troops proclaimed Julian Augustus in 360 she became empress, but she died before his quarrel with Constantius was settled. Julian sent her remains to his villa on the Via Nomentana outside Rome, where her sister Constantina also lay.
Place in the family
- Helena the Younger was a daughter of Constantine the Great.
Line of descent: Constantius Chlorus → Constantine the Great → Helena the Younger.
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)
- Constantina Flavia Julia (318 – 354)
- Constans Flavius Julius (320 – 350)
Partners
- Married Julian the Philosopher (331 – 363) in 355
Life
- 325 — Born
- 355 — Married Julian
- 360 — Died