Constans II ( cy, Custennin) was the eldest son of the Western Roman emperor Constantine III and was appointed co-emperor by him from 409 to 411. He was killed during the revolts and fighting that ended his father's reign.

Career

The elder son of Claudius Constantine and brother of Julian, Constans was a monk before becoming emperor.Jones, pg. 310 In the summer of 408, his father, who had proclaimed himself Emperor the previous year in Britain and then crossed over into Gaul, proclaimed him ''

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

'', and sent him with the general

Gerontius Gerontius (; Latinized Greek for 'old man') can refer to: Music and literature * '' The Dream of Gerontius'', a 1900 choral work by Edward Elgar, a setting of a poem of the same name by John Henry Newman * '' The Dream of Gerontius'', the poem b ...

and the prefect Apollinaris into

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispani ...

, to rule the province and fight members of the

House of Theodosius The Theodosian dynasty was a Roman imperial family that produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 379 to 457. The dynasty's patriarch was Theodosius the Elder, whose son Theodosius the Great was mad ...

(four cousins of Honorius – Theodosiolus, Lagodius, Didymus and Verenianus) who had not recognised Constantine and had stayed loyal to the Emperor. After some initial defeats, Constans captured two of his enemies (Didymus and Verenianus), while the other two (Lagodius and Theodosiolus) fled to Constantinople. He left his wife and household at

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributa ...

under the care of Gerontius to return to report to Arles, where the two prisoners were put to death.Elton, ''Constans II (409-411 A.D.)'' In Autumn 409, barbarian invaders plundered Gaul, reached the Pyrenees, swept away Roman defences and entered into Hispania. Constantine, without the approval of the Emperor Honorius, elevated Constans to the rank of ''

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

''. Constans was to go to Hispania to settle the matter, but before leaving news came that Gerontius had stopped the invaders, had rebelled from Constantine, and had proclaimed Emperor one of his own men,

Maximus of Hispania Maximus was a Roman usurper (409 – 411) in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, modern Spain and Portugal). He had been elected by general Gerontius, who might have been his father. Relations between the usurper Constantine III and his general Ger ...

. With the support of the barbarians, Gerontius took over Constantine's territory; in 411, he captured the city of

Vienne Vienne (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Viéne'') is a landlocked department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne. It had a population of 438,435 in 2019.Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

, states that Constans was elected by the

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

as king after Constantine's death. This contradicts the known history of Constans, as does the remainder of his British story. The legend claims Constans, older brother to Aurelius Ambrosius and

Uther Pendragon Uther Pendragon ( Brittonic) (; cy, Ythyr Ben Dragwn, Uthyr Pendragon, Uthyr Bendragon), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons in sub-Roman Britain (c. 6th century). Uther was also the father of King Arthur. A few m ...

, spent his early life studying at a monastery. During the succession crisis following Constantine's murder,

Vortigern Vortigern (; owl, Guorthigirn, ; cy, Gwrtheyrn; ang, Wyrtgeorn; Old Breton: ''Gurdiern'', ''Gurthiern''; gle, Foirtchern; la, Vortigernus, , , etc.), also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in ...

, leader of the

Gewissei The Gewisse ( ; la, Geuissæ) were a tribe or clan of Anglo-Saxon England, historically assumed to have been based in the upper Thames region around Dorchester on Thames (but may have actually originated near Old Sarum in Wiltshire). The Gewis ...

tribe, convinced Constans to leave the religious life and become king. The weak and unpopular former monk became a puppet, putting all but the title of his office into the hands of Vortigern. Vortigern eventually disposed of him by tricking some

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...

, liaisons in his employ, into murdering him in his sleep. The treacherous Vortigern took the throne for himself.Monmouth, ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', 6:10

References

Sources

Primary sources

Zosimus Zosimus, Zosimos, Zosima or Zosimas may refer to: People * * Rufus and Zosimus (died 107), Christian saints * Zosimus (martyr) (died 110), Christian martyr who was executed in Umbria, Italy * Zosimos of Panopolis, also known as ''Zosimus Alchemi ...

, ''Historia Nova'', Book
Historia Nova
*

Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in '' Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), t ...

, ''Historiae adversum Paganos''
7.40

Secondary sources

* * Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin,

John Robert Martindale John Robert Martindale (born 1935) is a British academic historian, specializing in the later Roman and Byzantine empires. Martindale's major publications are his magnum opus, the three volumes of ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', begu ...

, John Morris
Constans 1
''

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 310.
3 Elton, Hugh, "Constans II (409-411 A.D.)", ''D.I.R.''
* Bury, J. B., ''A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene'', Vol. I (1889) * Gibbon, Edward, ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1888) {{DEFAULTSORT:Constans 02 (son of Constantine 03) 411 deaths Arthurian characters British traditional history 5th-century Roman usurpers 5th-century murdered monarchs Year of birth unknown People executed by the Roman Empire Executed Roman emperors Caesars (heirs apparent) Sons of Roman emperors