the first christian empresses
the fourfold power which diocletian had prudently set up ensured for the empire twenty years of uneventful prosperity. the two emperors and their c?sars guarded and repaired the frontiers, at which the strong young nations of the hills and the forests were now gathering in ominous numbers, while the body of the empire tranquilly pursued its sluggish and debilitated life. but no sooner had the balanced mind and the firm hand of diocletian relinquished their control than the system revealed its weakness. the multiplication of dignities led to a multiplication of aspirants; the distribution of power inflamed the ambition of the stronger and less scrupulous. in one year eight generals claimed and bore the title of augustus, and our stage is crowded with empresses. most of them, however, are so poorly outlined in the records of the time that we may neglect these faint conjugal shadows of inconspicuous rulers, and select for consideration the three or four more prominent consorts of the emperors.
possibly the most widely known of all the roman empresses, more familiar even than the very different figure of messalina, is helena, the mother of constantine. the first christian empress, the generous supporter of the early church, the first royal woman to find a place in the list of the canonized, we turn to her with eagerness to discover the contrast with her pagan predecessors. she does not bear the imperial title, and does not properly fall266 within our range, until she is advanced in years, but we cannot understand her character unless we glance first at her earlier years.
in one of his more important sermons (“de obitu theodosii,” § 42) st. ambrose observes that she “is said to have been a maid at an inn,” and he so clearly accepts the statement that historians, sacred and profane, have not hesitated to follow him. the claim of another roman writer, that constantine had illumined britain “by originating there,” gave rise at one time to a theory that she was british, and our learned commentators furnished so august a lady with a royal pedigree. the phrase is, however, generally understood to refer to the beginning of constantine’s imperial career, and the native town of helena is sought either in dacia or in nicomedia. since constantine gave her name to drepanum, in nicomedia, we may presume that her first humble home was in that town, and that she moved from there to naissos, in dacia, where the birth of constantine is usually placed.
a stabulum was, in the language of the time, one of the meaner inns in the towns through which the roman roads ran. a stabularia—the epithet used by st. ambrose—was a woman or girl connected with the inn; and those temporary resting-places for soldiers or merchants on their journeys were so easy in their ways that the word was sometimes used in an unpleasant sense. we may follow the early tradition that helena was the daughter of a man who kept one of these inns, possibly a quite respectable establishment, at drepanum, on the way to the city of nicomedia, which diocletian had made his capital. here, in or about the year 273, the young roman officer constantius—later, for some obscure reason, called constantius the pale (chlorus)—saw and fell in love with helena. the road that ran through drepanum was much used by the troops, and the encounter is placed at the time when aurelian was conducting his campaign against zenobia. constantius, an excellent officer and the son of a provincial noble of some distinction, would then (273) be in his267 twenty-third year. helena, who was over eighty at her death in 328, must have been two or three years older.
historians have left us a lengthy and learned debate on the question whether she was the wife or the concubine of constantius, and the grouping of the combatants is singular. in the migne edition of the works of the fathers we find a note appended to the passage of st. ambrose, which i have quoted, in which the benedictine commentators observe that “all the writers on roman affairs declare that helena was the concubine, not the wife, of constantius,” and they adopt that view. yet the critical gibbon defends “the legality of her marriage” with a rare and edifying chivalry, and mr. firth, in his recent biography of constantine, asserts that it is “beyond question.” with such weighty encouragement ecclesiastical writers have confidently deserted the benedictines and followed gibbon. let us first hear the authorities, and we may not find the problem insoluble.
bishop eusebius, the chaplain of the imperial family, as one may term him, would not mention such a circumstance in his “life of constantine,” even if he knew it to be true; but it is not quite accurate to say peremptorily that the bishop never mentions it. in the second book of his “chronicle” (ad annum 310) we read that constantine was “the son of constantius by his concubine helena.” we have no means of determining if these words were written by eusebius or added by st. jerome.22 even in the latter case it is a weighty testimony.
another christian historian of jerome’s time, orosius—who does not follow zosimus, as gibbon says, but precedes him—makes the same statement (c. xxv), and it is later repeated in the “chronicle” of cassiodorus. a writer of the generation after constantine, commonly known as “anonymus valesii,” says (c. ii) that constantine was “born of helena, a very common [vilissima] woman, in the town of naissus.” zosimus, a century later, and a268 pagan critic of constantine, says (ii. 8) that he was “born of a woman who was not respectable σεμν? and not legally married to constantius,” and he later observes that maxentius resented the raising to the throne of a man whose mother was “not a matron.” finally, the early medi?val monk, zonaras, says (“annals,” xiii. i): “some say that she was lawfully married to constantius and divorced ... others that she was not a legitimate wife but a paramour.” the grave and weighty eutropius, writing in the generation after constantine, says that he was born of “a somewhat ambiguous [obscuriori] marriage.”
the benedictines had an ample authority, both christian and pagan, for their view, and only one argument is advanced in disproof of it by modern writers. several of the historians tell us that, when constantius was made c?sar, he was compelled by the emperor to “divorce” helena, and, it is said, divorce implies marriage. the argument is hardly conclusive. when eusebius (or jerome) tells us that the c?sars were compelled to dismiss their “wives,” he adds, on the same page, that helena was not a wife, but a concubine. he means merely that constantius was forced to dismiss helena and wed the daughter of maximian, and does not imply that any legal form of divorce was employed. it is quite open to us to interpret the other authority, aurelius victor, in the same way; and zonaras, the only other writer who could be quoted, expressly leaves it open whether helena was married or not. in any case, the single authority of aurelius victor cannot outweigh the others, and even his words do not necessarily imply a legal divorce on the part of both c?sars.
but there is another aspect of the question, which is usually overlooked. could there be a valid marriage between helena and constantius in roman law? when we regard the subject from this point of view, we see that constantius could not possibly have married helena before the birth of constantine, and, unless her legal269 condition was subsequently altered by a special enactment, their union could never become a valid marriage. as i have earlier observed, the strict and ancient forms of roman marriage had fallen very generally out of use under the emperors. they had had the effect of putting the wife under the despotic power of the husband, and roman feeling in regard to the position of woman had entirely changed. looser forms of marriage, which evaded the older tyranny of the husband, were generally employed and legally recognized. if a man and woman lived together uninterruptedly for twelve months—without three nights’ interruption—their union might become a valid marriage. below this was the legally recognized concubine. the ease with which christian writers admitted that helena was a concubine is due to the fact that the church, as well as the law, permitted a concubine, if a man had no wife. as late as the year 400, the important provincial council of toledo decided that such a man and his concubine were to be admitted to communion. st. augustine, we shall see, went even further. below these, again, were the ordinary paramours, the mistresses of a month or the playthings of an hour, which stoic and christian equally condemned.
the real question we have to decide is, therefore, whether the long association of constantius and helena could ever be recognized as a valid marriage in roman law. that they went through any form of marriage in 273 could only occur to a writer who knows nothing of roman law or practice. a young officer, taking a girl from a tavern in a small provincial town on his route, would not dream of any such ceremony; and no ceremony would have been valid in roman law. whatever the legal condition of constantius was, helena was, to roman law, a barbarian, or peregrina, and could not contract a valid marriage.23 we need little acquaintance with roman270 life to imagine what happened. constantius felt for the young woman he found at the country inn a more tender sentiment than that usually entertained by the young centurion or tribune on travel, and he took her to live with him. i do not see how this relation ever could become a valid marriage, nor is there any clear proof that they were ever legally divorced. at the most, it remains “a questionable marriage,” as eutropius calls it, and it began as a free union.
from nicomedia constantius’s troop seems to have passed, possibly after sharing aurelian’s triumph at rome, to thrace, where constantine is said to have been born in the year 274. helena narrowly missed the dignity of empress a few years later, as carus had some disposition to leave the purple to constantius. the mother of constantius had been a niece of the emperor claudius, and his father was one of the chief nobles of dardania. but the accession of carinus dispelled this hope, and helena followed her husband from province to province, and grade to grade, until, in 292, he was selected for the lofty position of c?sar of the west. but with the purple came a command that he must dismiss his concubine, and marry the stepdaughter of maximian, flavia maximiana theodora. from that date until the year of her son’s brilliant triumph helena passes into complete obscurity.
meantime other empresses occupy the pages of the historian. theodora, of whom we have just spoken, is one of those empresses whose propriety of conduct and mediocrity of person have not attracted the lamp of the historian. she was the daughter of eutropia, the syrian wife of maximian, by a former husband. three boys and three girls came of her union with constantius, and she seems to have been a worthy consort of that judicious271 and happy ruler. the full imperial title passed to them when maximian abdicated in 305, and the handsome and spirited constantine joined them at gessoriacum (boulogne), after his romantic flight from nicomedia, in that or the following year. they crossed to britain, and suppressed a rebellion that was in progress. but constantius died at eboracum (york) in the summer of 306, and the unambitious theodora passes from our sight.
constantius had, with a last display of prudence, preferred his eldest son to the legitimate children of his wife, and probably little money needed to be distributed among the legions to ensure that they should recognize his superiority. constantine was then in his early manhood, a commanding and graceful figure, in the finest phase of his character, and the troops followed him with alacrity from the cold mists of north britain to more genial and more cultivated gaul. from gaul the young c?sar watched with close interest the quarrels in which his colleagues prepared to devour each other. in february of 307 he heard that severus had opened his veins, and left the purple in the hands of the crafty maximian and his son maxentius. within a few weeks maximian was in gaul, seeking an alliance with constantine. he brought with him his pretty and charming daughter, fausta, and presently she was married at arles, with great pomp, to constantine, the stepson of her half-sister. the old man returned to his intrigues in italy, from which he was shortly ejected by his son: galerius expelled him from illyricum, where he had taken shelter; and he returned to the court of his son-in-law in gaul.
the portrait-bust of maximian might be confused with that of a modern pugilist, but he had, in addition to strength and ambition, a restless disposition to intrigue. to rust in a court full of women—for we may confidently place in the court of constantine his wife, mother, stepmother, mother-in-law, and three young half-sisters, if not also his concubine—was to him an intolerable experience, and he took the first opportunity of enlivening his surroundings.272 an inroad of the barbarians in the north drew away the young emperor with much of his army, and maximian rebelled. he gave out a report that constantine was dead, emptied the treasury into the hands of the soldiers, and assumed the purple mantle once more. but constantine returned with the stride of a giant, and maximian shut himself in marseilles, which was presently surrendered. the aged intriguer returned to the palace, tried to corrupt the loyalty of his daughter, and brought upon himself the punishment of his crimes.
it is a peculiarity of the time that, the more remote an historian is from an event, the more he knows about it. eutropius and zosimus merely know that fausta revealed her father’s plots to her husband; zonaras, of the twelfth century, is able to tell us the whole story. maximian, he says, persuaded his daughter to have the guards removed from the imperial chamber at night. then, telling the night-attendants that he wished to relate to constantine a remarkable dream he had had, he entered the chamber and plunged his dagger into the sleeping figure on the bed. rushing out to announce the fall of the tyrant, however, he found himself in face of constantine, fausta, and the guards. fausta had been true to her husband, and it was “a vile eunuch” that maximian had slain in the emperor’s bed. whatever truth there may be in this romance, we may accept the statement that fausta betrayed his plots, and maximian came to the end of his career. zosimus sends him into exile, and makes him die a natural death at tarsus. lactantius, with a stronger sense of propriety, tells us that he strangled himself, and it is the general belief that constantine did not permit him to leave gaul alive.
galerius died in the following year (311), leaving the eastern empire to licinius and maximin, while maxentius ruled in italy and africa. four empresses now lived in the court of constantine, but before we seek to penetrate the mystery of their relations to each other, we must briefly accompany constantine in his rise to the position273 of supreme monarch. maxentius, who had expelled his father from italy, now affected a filial anger against his destroyer, and, after some exasperated correspondence, sent toward gaul an army of nearly 200,000 men. constantine boldly led 40,000 of his soldiers across the alps, wore down the strength of his opponent in successive encounters, and, within a few months, exhibited the grisly head of maxentius to the astonished and delighted romans. he was now master of the western empire. devoting two months to the settlement of roman affairs, he returned to milan to meet his eastern colleague licinius. his half-sister constantia was married there to licinius, who returned to asia with his bride, to crush maximin, and to perpetrate the melancholy tragedies over which we shuddered in the last chapter. anastasia, the second daughter of constantius, was married to the senator bassianus. constantine made him c?sar, but put no troops at his command—he had just suppressed the pr?torian guards at rome—and refused to grant him the authority that had hitherto been associated with the title of c?sar. bassianus corresponded angrily with licinius, and before the end of 315 the emperors of the east and west were in arms against each other.
it would be interesting to know what share the daughters of constantius had in promoting these disorders. the correspondence of bassianus and licinius suggests a correspondence of their wives, and, when bassianus was deposed and disgraced, we may assume that constantia was not insensible of the misfortune of her younger sister. the superior age and ability of constantine would hardly reconcile the legitimate children of constantius to their position of dependence. constantia is sometimes represented as a pious peacemaker, but we do not find her in that character until her husband’s power is irremediably broken, after the second war with constantine. she fled in great haste with her husband after the first defeat, and returned with him to nicomedia, to rule his reduced dominions.
274 the court-life of the west flowed with uneventful smoothness in the eight years between the first and second war with licinius. the only break in the monotony is the birth of three sons and three daughters in quick succession. zosimus emphatically asserts that these were not the children of fausta, but of a concubine, whom constantine put to death on a charge of adultery. we are naturally disposed to regard this as a piece of reprehensible malice on the part of the pagan writer, but even the most cautious judgment will find ground for reflection in the circumstance that fausta had borne no children whatever for the first nine years of her marriage, and then children begin to appear with astonishing rapidity. we know that constantine had had a concubine, named minervina, before he married fausta. her son crispus lived at the court. it would not be entirely surprising if minervina had returned to the court, to rear the imperial dynasty which fausta failed to provide, and was eventually destroyed in one of constantine’s bursts of temper.24
in the eastern court the young empress had, if we trust the authorities, a more adventurous career. constantia cannot have been more than seventeen or eighteen at the time of her marriage, but she was a woman of spirit and ability, as well as virtue and beauty. it is said that she, with the whole court, became a christian after constantine’s victory over maxentius, but the story of the miraculous sign in the heavens—a story that is not found in any form until thirty years afterwards—is now rejected, and the conversion of constantine is spread over many years. at nicomedia, however, where constantia occupied the magnificent palace built by diocletian, she met the275 accomplished and courtly eusebius, and induced licinius to allow him the position of bishop of nicomedia. two things, it is said, then transpired in the character of licinius to excite her disgust. he not only persecuted the christians, but made equal war upon virtue. in brief, he, like all the other persecutors, is depicted by the flowing pen of lactantius as an erotic ogre. his eye falls on a christian maiden, of dazzling beauty and virtue, in the suite of constantia, and he sends an officer to corrupt her. she tells constantia, who dresses her as a young military officer, and sends her, with a splendid equipage, to take an imaginary imperial commission to a remote region. in the distant city of amasia she is embarrassed by her masculine hosts, and confides in the bishop. finally, a letter of hers to constantia is intercepted, and she escapes by a very timely death from the embraces or the tortures of licinius.
of these wicked ways, and of her husband’s hostility to the christians, constantia is said to have kept her brother well informed, and, when licinius committed the greater enormity of refusing to surrender fugitive offenders to the vengeance of constantine, the legions were once more led toward the bosphorus. several disastrous battles crippled the power of licinius, and he retired sullenly to nicomedia. whether at his request or no, constantia interceded for him, and constantine swore to respect his life. in assigning the blame for the war we may, perhaps, hesitate between the contradictory charges of the opposing schools of historians, though modern writers usually follow the neutral and sober eutropius, and ascribe it to the ambition of constantine. but there is a sharper indictment of constantine’s conduct after the war. licinius, in surrendering, had relied on the oath of the conqueror. he had been stripped of the purple, and exiled to thessalonica, but he was put to death there shortly afterwards. zosimus and eutropius say that this was done “in spite of the oath,” and the statement of constantine’s more resolute admirers, that licinius was discovered in treasonable276 intrigue, has not carried much conviction with later historians.
constantia passed, with her daughter helena and her boy licinius, to the court of her brother, who was now (324) master of the whole empire. the remark of zosimus, that constantine degenerated into the most wilful license after his attainment of supreme power—a remark feebly supported by the assurance of the cautious eutropius that “prosperity somewhat altered his character”—contrasts quaintly with the circumstance that he now became the imperial patron of the christian religion. here, again, we hesitate between conflicting accounts, or rival romances. according to the medi?val christian writer zonaras, who supplies a remarkable amount of detail that was unknown to contemporary historians, the conversion of constantine had a picturesque origin. on his return to rome, after crushing licinius, he was afflicted with a painful eruption, and his pagan physicians prescribed a bath in the warm blood of children. “at once,” says the lively writer, “children were collected from the whole empire,” and dispatched to the palace. the lamentations of the mothers fell on the ear of constantine, touched his heart, and he left paganism in disgust for christianity.
the pagan greek, zosimus, who at least faithfully reproduces the pagan gossip of his time—as, on this point, we know from sozomen—gives us the legend of his school. after committing certain murders, which will occupy us presently, constantine applied to the priests of the temple of jupiter for purification. the priests sternly replied that their lustral water had no power to obliterate the trace of such a crime, and constantine turned in despair to an egyptian who was known to “the women-folk” of the palace. the christian priest, as he seems to have been, declared that his religion contained the desired remedy, and constantine embraced it.
it will be seen that we now pursue our biographic way amid a forest of legends. happily, we may reject both these stories as, at least, anachronisms. constantine was277 already a christian in 324. he had abolished the decrees of persecution in the year 313, and had taken a keen interest in church matters for some years. the whole court gradually accepted the new faith. helena, eusebius tells us, and fausta for some time opposed the change of religion, but helena at least was converted. eutropia appears in the east a few years later as a zealous opponent of paganism. from their several and ample purses the money poured into the lean coffers of the church, and the conversion of the empire proceeded rapidly. villages that embraced christianity were raised to the dignity of cities; nobles and officers were encouraged by promotion; and ordinary citizens were rewarded with a baptismal robe and a piece of gold.
it is not for us to inquire into the obscure question of constantine’s real attitude. professor bury and other eminent authorities believe that his creed was a liberal, or vague, one until his death. years afterwards we find him building pagan temples at constantinople, and he did not disdain the imperial title of sovereign pontiff of the old religion. on the other hand, the details collected by mr. firth show a very real interest in the church. he opened the great council of nic?a in the year 325, and reverently kissed the wounds of those who had suffered in the persecution. yet even amid this evidence of orthodoxy the hesitating student will find trace of his liberality. in the letter which he sent to the catholic bishops he complained that the subject of their vehement quarrel with the arians was “quite insignificant, and entirely disproportionate to such a quarrel.” the question at issue was the divinity of christ. his experience at the council would give him a larger sense of its importance.
from the benedictions of the prelates and the embraces of the martyrs constantine returned to europe, and, within a year, apparently, his court was rent by a tragedy that has left an irremovable cloud on his memory. he had gone to rome, with the court, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his accession. the city exulted in the rare278 indulgence of his presence, and the games and festivities warmed it with its old enthusiasm. the empire was united and at peace, and the growing brood of children gave promise of an unending dynasty. crispus, constantine’s eldest son, was now a popular and promising commander, clothed in the mantle of a c?sar. two of the sons of fausta, or her substitute, were c?sars. then there was the twelve-year-old son of constantia. over these watched the aged helena and eutropia, and the mothers and aunts of the younger children.
in the middle of the festivity rome was startled to hear that crispus had been arrested, by his father’s command, and exiled to pola, in istria. from that remote and solitary region the report at length came that he had been put to death. every eye was turned on the palace, and before long—most of the historians say—the gay figure of the beautiful young empress disappeared, and the report spread that she had been brutally suffocated in the steam of a dense vapour-bath. the horror was increased, and the prospect of a humane interpretation lessened, when it was learned that the innocent child of constantia also had been put to death. such is the grave and mysterious tragedy of constantine’s mature years. as fausta has been heavily indicted by those who have sought to defend her husband, and helena impeached by his accusers, we may glance at the evidence on which one’s verdict must be based.
there are partisan historians who would cast doubt on the whole story; there are more serious historians, such as gibbon (who again gallantly opposes the critics), who say that fausta, at least, was not slain; and the rest are divided in opinion as to whether it was a just execution or a ghastly crime. the first two opinions are now untenable. there is no serious dispute that crispus and licinius were put to death. that fausta was killed is now equally established. gibbon relied upon a certain anonymous writer to show that fausta was living long afterwards, but it has been shown that the writer is not speaking279 of fausta and constantine. moreover, dr. seeck, in a special study of the evidence (“die verwandtenmorde constantins des grossen,” zeitschrift für wiss. theol., bd. 33), has shown that the coins of fausta and crispus, unlike those of the other members of the imperial family, end before the year 330. dr. g?rres, who held gibbon’s view, consents that this proof is decisive. the only serious question is that of motive or justification.
let us glance at the authorities, in the order of their nearness to the event. bishop eusebius is naturally silent; he professes to give only the things that edify in the life of constantine, and is writing almost in his son’s court. eutropius, the soundest and most impartial writer of the next generation, says (x. 6) that the character of constantine “was somewhat changed with prosperity,” and that “following the exigencies of the situation [necessitudines rerum], he put to death, first his excellent son and the son of his sister, a boy of promising character, then his wife and a number of friends.” st. jerome, in his latin version of the “chronicle” of eusebius, writes, at the year 329, that “crispus, the son of constantine, and licinius the younger, the son of constantia, are most cruelly put to death in the ninth year of his reign,” and three years later we read: “constantine put to death his wife fausta.”25 dr. seeck believes that we have here only an echo of eutropius, but jerome would hardly add “most cruelly” on so cautious a narrative. aurelius victor, a contemporary of eutropius, says that crispus “was put to death by his father for some unknown reason,” and orosius, the christian historian, merely observes that constantine put crispus and licinius to death.
from these earlier writers we learn only that the deaths were cruel, and the motive unknown, but later writers have successively built up a story that has provoked endless280 discussion. sidonius apollinaris, the most cultivated and liberal christian writer of the fifth century, says, with the confidence of a parenthesis (ep. v), that crispus was poisoned, and fausta killed in a vapour-bath; and that a couplet was fixed on the palace-gate recalling the crimes of nero. the epitomist of aurelius victor declares that crispus was put to death at the instigation of fausta, and fausta was “thereupon” killed in a vapour-bath, as helena bitterly reproached constantine for the death of crispus. zosimus (ii. 29) says: “with no regard for the law of nature he put to death his son crispus, on the ground that he was suspected of intimacy with fausta,” and, when helena heavily reproached him, he, “as if to console her,” suffocated fausta in an overheated bath. philostorgius, a christian writer of the same (fifth) century, declares that fausta was put to death because she was caught in adultery with a groom. the story culminates in the twelfth-century annalist zonaras. after telling his incredible legend about constantine and the babies, he represents fausta in the character of potiphar’s wife. she conceived a passion for the handsome c?sar, was repelled by him, and then denounced him to constantine as having offered violence to her. crispus was put to death. then constantine learned in some way—helena is left to the imagination—that he had been deceived, and he angrily killed fausta in a vapour-bath.
it is remarkable how many grave writers have favoured this legend of the medi?val writer,26 yet, besides its obvious growth through the centuries, it has the fatal weakness of throwing no light whatever on the murder of licinius, the son of constantine’s most cherished sister. we are reduced to conjecture in face of this mysterious and terrible tragedy. that the youths met with some violent281 death at the hands of the emperor, that helena bitterly remonstrated with him, and that the savage suffocation of fausta followed this remonstrance, seems to be clear. we may further conclude with some confidence, from the persistent rumour of amorous relations, that this charge was allowed to reach the outside world in extenuation of the murders. but it is suspected by many historians, and seems to be suggested by the obscure language of eutropius, that the real motive was political.
fausta
flavia helena
enlarged from coins in the british museum
crispus was in great favour with both the people and the troops, and had distinguished himself in the war with licinius. if anything happened to constantine, who was in his fifty-second year, crispus had a clear prospect of the throne. it would not be unnatural for fausta to resent this, and one is tempted to see, either an effect of her importunity or a proof of constantine’s jealousy of his son, in the fact that constantine took away the province of gaul from crispus, without compensation, in 323, and gave it to the eldest of his legitimate sons. from that time crispus was retained in idleness, and probably discontent, under the eye of his father. he would be a natural focus for all the dissatisfaction in the empire, and the romans, and pagans generally, regarded constantine and his family with anger and disdain on account of their abandonment of the old religion. by the year 326 constantine was in a state of extraordinary nervousness and suspicion. before going to rome he issued an edict in which he revealed his frame of mind to the whole empire. at rome he flouted the most cherished customs of the city, and may well have incurred fresh murmurs. something occurred that brought his suspicion of crispus—who may not have become a christian—to an acute stage, and he condemned him to exile and death. this theory is also the only one to explain, with any plausibility, the execution of young licinius. he was the only other rival of constantine’s legitimate sons. it is impossible for us to say whether crispus had incurred any guilt or no, but the silence of the earlier282 writers and panegyrists is a grave circumstance. if there had been plausible evidence of conspiracy they would not have remained silent. in any case, the sentence on crispus was harsh and unjustifiable, and the execution of a twelve-year-old boy was a piece of brutality that only the worse emperors would have perpetrated.
the murder of fausta is even more perplexing. even if the late and negligible stories of philostorgius and zonaras were true, she was not executed, but brutally murdered. the only firm point in the conflicting evidence is the persistent association of her death with the anger of helena. we have no evidence of any value in regard to her relation to crispus; but the words of zosimus, which are not inconsistent with the earlier writers, enable us to extend the above theory to her. constantine, on this view, put crispus and licinius to death because they were possible nuclei of the conspiracy which he believed to pervade the empire. adopting a familiar device, however, he concealed his motive under a charge of amorous irregularity, or too great a familiarity with the empress. helena, who was greatly attached to crispus, seems to have insisted that, if there was any guilt, both were guilty, and constantine savagely completed his work by murdering his wife. the christian historians describe fausta as opposing constantine’s progress in his new faith, and, as we have no evidence that crispus had embraced it, one may not implausibly wonder whether the two did not attract the favour of the pagan romans, to the extreme anger of the emperor. no charge against fausta was made public. during the lifetime of constantine’s eldest son, julian described her, in one of his orations, as not only one of the most beautiful, but one of the most virtuous and noble ladies of her time. even if we make allowance for the licensed flattery of a panegyrist, the description would be too glaringly inconsistent with any imperial theory of her infidelity. she was probably in her thirty-fourth or thirty-fifth year at the time when she met her appalling death.
283 constantine hastened to remove the gloomy, stricken court from the disdainful eyes of rome. the pagans pointed with fierce scorn to these fruits of the new religion, as they expressed it. one day it was found that some one had fastened a latin couplet—written, the pagans of a later day boasted, by the hand of the emperor’s chief counsellor, ablabius—on the gate of the palace:
say ye the golden age of saturn breaks again?
of nero’s bloody hue these jewels are.
either at once, or in the course of the next year, the court broke up. constantine went to direct the building of the new capital of the west, which was to bear his name. later pagans said that he fled from the theatre of his crimes and the scorn of rome, but the ample lines of constantinople had been traced long before, and the site had been chosen for its strategical importance. helena sought the land in which christ had lived and died, and her pious munificence won for her the halo of sanctity. the legend of her finding the cross does not appear until seventy years afterwards, and eusebius tells us that it was constantine, not she, who found the sepulchre and built a church over it. but helena, who had now great wealth, covered the land with churches, and returned with a great repute for piety. she died soon after her return—in 328, tillemont thinks—having passed her eightieth year.
europia also went on a pilgrimage to palestine, and seems to have settled in the east. we find her a few years later urging constantine to scatter the pagans who are defiling some sacred spot with their impure ceremonies. theodora seems to have died, at some unknown date, before the year of the murders. constantia died in, or about, the year 329. her arian friend eusebius had been banished, at the triumph of the athanasians, but she obtained his recall, and adhered to his unitarian creed. in her last hours she succeeded in recommending284 an arian priest to constantine, and prolonged the religious struggle. we pass to a new generation of empresses, and may dismiss briefly the ten years which remain of constantine’s rule and introduce us to the events of the next chapter.
in the month of may of the year 330, the new city of constantinople was solemnly dedicated. the curious reader will find in gibbon a splendid restoration of its princely proportions, its stores of art gathered from all parts of the empire, its superb palace, its great hippodrome, its churches and temples, its spacious fora, and its lofty column of porphyry, surmounted by a gigantic statue, in which the head of constantine replaced that of apollo, and the various attributes of the god he still admired were hesitatingly redeemed by emblems of the jealous god of his new faith. the enormous sums absorbed in the building of the new city were regarded by the pagans as one of the causes of the decay of the empire, and the bitter strife of arians and athanasians, which distracted it, irritated their resentment. but their day was closing. the arguments with which they clung to a jupiter and a venus in whom they no longer believed were hollow; the rewards of conversion were great. the grey gods saw their crowds of worshippers becoming thinner and less joyous. the empire lifted the humble cross into the sunlight from persia to britain.
the last decade of constantine’s life was inglorious. we might distrust the partial and severe accusations of zosimus, but the substance of his charge is found in the other authorities. his vast and hurried enterprise in building forced him to lay heavy burdens on his enfeebled empire, and we have the authority of ammianus marcellinus that he “encouraged those about him to open devouring jaws” in a lamentable degree. conversion was the first right to favour and wealth. the later emperor julian, we are not surprised to find, pours acrid satire on him. in the treatise (“c?sares”) in which he introduces the emperors of rome to the olympic285 court, he makes constantine turn to the goddess luxury, as the one congenial deity, and she introduces him only to her sister prodigality. he ridicules constantine’s womanly finery in dress and jewels, his elaborate crown of false hair, his complete lapse into effeminate ways. aurelius victor gives us the proverbial judgment of the next generation on constantine: in his first decade he was admirable, in his second decade thievish, in his third decade a squanderer. he made the final blunder of—without naming a successor—dividing the empire among his sons and nephews, of gravely unequal character, and died in 337, leaving them and their supporters to engage in a murderous struggle for supremacy.
