Gallus coin celebrating Rome and Constantinople.

Constantius Gallus (c. 325/326 - 354) was a son of Julius Constantius by his first wife Galla. His paternal grandparents were Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and his second wife Flavia Maximiana Theodora. Julius Constantius was also a half-brother of Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great. Image File history File linksMetadata Solidus-Constantius_Gallus-thessalonica_RIC_149. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Solidus-Constantius_Gallus-thessalonica_RIC_149. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,823,807 almost 4,000,000 1... Map of Constantinople. ... Events May 20 - First Council of Nicaea - first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church: The Nicene Creed is formulated, the date of Easter is discussed. ... Events September 14 - Discovery of the (alleged) True Cross by Vatican City, where St. ... Events Gallus deposed, executed at Antioch. ... Flavius Julius Constantius (d. ... The Western Roman Empire is the name given to the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian. ... On the reverse of this argenteus struck in Antioch under Constantius Chlorus, the tetrarcs are sacrificing to celebrate a victory against the Sarmatians. ... Flavia Maximiana Theodora (known as Theodora) was the daughter or step-daughter of Maximian. ... Roman Emperor is the term historians use to refer to rulers of the Roman Empire, after the epoch conventionally named the Roman Republic. ... Constantine. ...

Gallus was a first cousin of Roman Emperors Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans. He was born Massa Veternensis in Tuscany. This is a list of Roman Emperors with the dates they controlled the Roman Empire. ... Constantine II as caesar. ... emperor Constantius II Constantius II, Roman Emperor (7 August 317 - 3 November 361, reigned 337 - 361), was the middle of the three sons of Constantine I the Great and Fausta. ... Bronze coin bearing the profile of Constans Flavius Julius Constans (AD 320 - January 18, 350), was a Roman emperor who ruled from 337 to 350. ... Tuscany (Italian Toscana) is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria and Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ...

Gallus became Caesar in AD 351. Gallus set up residence in Antioch. He ruled the city in such a severe way that people complained to Constantius II, who had him arrested. On the way to his summons he was executed. He was the older half-brother of later Emperor Julian the Apostate Caesar (p. ... Events March 15 - Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, or assistant emperor, and is put in charge of the Western Roman Empire. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Julian solidus, ca. ...

Almost all we know of Gallus (PLRE I, pp. 224-225, s.v. Fl. Claudius Constantius Gallus 4) derives from literary sources, each of which brings with it its own problems. For example, the testimony of Julian, Gallus' half-brother, comes mostly from the Letter to the Athenians, an apology of sorts for Julian's proclamation as Augustus and for his subsequent march against Constantius, while much of the detail of the church historians Socrates and Sozomenus stems from Libanius' Or. 18, a work hardly immune from rhetorical embellishment. Libanius' letters and autobiographical Or. 1 are perhaps more trustworthy, when allowance is made for the relentless solipsism of their author. The fragments of the homoiousian ecclesiastical historian Philostorgius and the derivative Passio Artemii (both edited in J. Bidez and F. Winckelman, Philostorgius Kirchengeschichte2 [Berlin 1972]), also provide extremely valuable information, though they often reflect Philostorgius' theological interests. However, Ammianus Marcellinus' account is by far the most detailed. Yet, at the same time, it is the most problematic due to the transparent identification of Ammianus with the interest of the senatorial class of Antioch; to his literary and rhetorical techniques and their employment in the presentation of the story of Gallus as an example of the workings of hybris, ate, and nemesis/adrasteia; and to Ammianus' wish to excuse the role of his superior officer Ursicinus in the treason trials that are the focal point of his narrative. Gallus' Youth Gallus, the youngest of three children of Julius Constantius 7 (PLRE I, p. 226) and Galla 1 (PLRE I, p. 382), was born in 325/6 at Massa in Etruria (Ammianus Marcellinus 14.11.27). Ammianus describes him as handsome, with blonde hair, but "differing from the temperate character of his brother Julian" (14.11.28. Cf. Eutropius 10.13 and John of Antioch fr. 174, Müller FHG IV, p. 604). His mother died prior to 331, by which time Julius Constantius' second wife, the young Basilina (PLRE I, p. 148), had died after giving birth to Julian. His sister (PLRE I, p. 1037, s.v. Anonyma 1) had become the first wife of Constantius II around 335 (Julian 272 D, Athanasius Hist. Ar. 69, Eusebius Vit. Const.4.49), and her passing may have facilitated Gallus' fall in 353/4.Unlike his elder brother (Julian Ep. ad. Ath. 270 D), Gallus escaped the slaughter that followed the death of Constantine in 337, purportedly because he was suffering at the time from what was thought to be a fatal illness (Libanius Or. 18.10. Cf. Socrates Hist. eccl. 3.1; Sozomenus Hist. eccl. 5.2.9; Theophanes AM 5831, A.D. 338/9, ed. de Boor) or, perhaps more likely, because he was Constantius' brother-in-law (Athanasius, Hist. Ar. 69.1). Julian (Ep. ad Ath. 271 B) mentioned years later that he and Gallus were told repeatedly that Constantius' actions were the result of a combination of misinformation and pressure from the soldiery, and that the emperor had come to regret his actions, which, in his mind, he linked to his childlessness and to military misfortunes on the Persian front.1 // Events The first full year in the life of Jesus as assigned by Dionysius Exiguus in his Anno Domini era. ...

It is often assumed on the basis of Ammianus 22.9.4, which refers only to Julian, that both Gallus and his half-brother were entrusted to the care of Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia (who was in some way related to Julian) in that same city. If so, they may have moved to Constantinople in 340, in which year Eusebius became her bishop. After Eusebius' death in 341, Constantius, perhaps on the occasion of his journey to Constantinople in 342, sent the youths to Macellum in Cappadocia.2 However, such an extended period of contact between Gallus, Julian, and Eusebius is by no means certain, for, according to Socrates (Hist. eccl. 3.1), before the transfer to Macellum Gallus had studied in Ephesus, in the neighborhood of which he had inherited considerable property, while Julian (Ep. ad Ath. 271 B) writes of Gallus' summons to Macellum "from exile in Tralles.".3 From the date of the move to Macellum until March 15, 351, when he became Caesar, Gallus was with Julian. Events Ariobarzanes II King of Media Atropatene becomes the king of Armenia. ...   This article is about the year 3. ...

Sozomenus (Hist. eccl. 5.2) paints the situation at Macellum as a pleasant one:

... this imperial post was near Mount Argeus, and not far from Caesarea; it contained a magnificent palace and was adorned with baths, gardens, and perennial fountains. Here they [Gallus and Julian] were cultured and educated in a manner corresponding to the dignity of their birth; they were taught the sciences and bodily exercises befitting their ages, by masters of languages and interpreters of the Holy Scriptures, so that they were enrolled among the clergy, and read the ecclesiastical books to the people. Their habits and actions indicated no dereliction from piety. They respected the clergy and other good people and persons zealous for doctrine; they repaired regularly to church and rendered due homage to the tombs of the martyrs.

Some of Sozomenus' picture most likely derives from Gregory Nazianzus' Or. 4., in which (23, pp. 116-118, ed. Bernardi) Gregory asserts that Gallus and Julian:

...had masters in all branches of learning, their uncle and sovereign causing them to be instructed in the complete and regular course of education; they studied also, and still more extensively, our own kind of philosophy, that which deals not with words alone, but which conveys piety by means of moral training: living in intercourse with the most excellent of men, and in the exercise of the most pleasant of occupations, and which offers a great field for the display of virtue: for both brothers offered and enrolled themselves amongst the clergy; reading aloud the sacred books to the people, thinking that this tended not a little to their glory, and that piety was a greater decoration than all things else.

Gregory also records (4.25-26, pp. 118-120) the brothers' contest with respect to a shrine of the martyrs, noting that an earth tremor caused the collapse of the portion built by Julian. Sozomenus (5.2) again echoes Gregory, though adding a precise identification of the structure as a martyrium of St. Mamas..4 Julian's version of his six years at Macellum contradicts much of the above. At Ep. ad Athen. 271 C-D he maintains (unconvincingly) that Gallus possessed a violent streak attributable to the forced stay a Macellum. Neither he nor his brother, Julian alleges, was allowed the companionship of freeborn youths his own age. Perhaps George, Athanasius' successor as bishop of Alexandria, supervised some aspects of the upbringing and education of the pair, for Julian (Ep. 107, ed. J. Bidez, pp. 185-186 ) comments on his access to George's library. Probably in 347, Constantius, while journeying from Ancyra to Hieropolis, visited Macellum (Julian Ep. ad Athen. 274 A).5   This article is about the year 4. ... For other uses, see number 5. ...

The acclamation in Gaul of Flavius Magnus Magnentius (PLRE I, p. 532) as Augustus on 18 January 350, forced Constantius to launch a campaign in the west. In order to maintain the imperial presence in the east during this expedition, he, being childless, decided to elevate Gallus to the rank of Caesar. They would share the consulship three times, in 352, 353, and 354. For the ceremony of accession, which occurred on March 15, 351 (Consularia constantinopolitana, sub annum 351, p. 237, ed. Burgess), Gallus, perhaps accompanied by Julian, traveled to Sirmium. As Caesar, he was renamed Constantius (Theophanes AM 5842, A.D. 349/50) and wedded Constantina, Constantius' eldest sister (Zonaras 13.8.4, ed. Buttner-Wobst), to whom Constantine the Great had given the title "Augusta" (Philostorgius 3.22 and 28) and who had some sixteen years earlier -- from 335 to 337 -- been the wife of Hannibalianus 2 (PLRE. I, p. 407), whom Constantine had created "King of Kings and Ruler of the Pontic Tribes" (Anonymus Valesianus 36). Gallus was twenty-five or twenty-six at the time. The Passio Artemii 12 alleges that the marriage was meant to ensure Gallus' loyalty but it may have had at least as much to do with Constantina who, besides having known power as Constantine's daughter and Hannibalianus' wife, had prompted the opposition of Vetranio 1 (PLRE I, p. 954) to Magnentius, and whose hand had been sought from Constantius by ambassadors of Magnentius himself (Peter the Patrician fr. 16, Müller FHG IV, p. 190). The marriage, besides benefiting Constantius, extricated her from a dangerous situation in the west and placed her in a position from which she might control the younger and inexperienced Caesar. On the other hand, it is possible that Constantius saw the marriage as a way to remove his intrusive -- perhaps treasonous -- sister from the volatile west.6 If the mention in the Passio Artemii (11) of letters from Constantina to her brother preserves a genuine tradition, it is possible Constantina even initiated the proposal that she marry Gallus, whose union with her would produce a daughter, whose name and fate are unknown (Julian Ep. ad Ath. 272 D). Constantina Augusta was the eldest daughter of Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor. ...   This article is about the year 6. ...

Julian alleges that Constantius' jealousy of Gallus began from the moment he proclaimed him Caesar. If Philostorgius (4.1) is to be trusted, relations between Constantius and Gallus were uneasy from the beginning, for a certain Theophilus (perhaps Theophilus 1, PLRE I, p. 907, consularis Syriae in 354) acted as mediator of a mutual non-aggression pact between them and, again following Philostorgius, managed through his initiative to keep peace between them. The Passio Artemii 12 states specifically that Gallus was not allowed to select his own ministers, noting specifically Constantius' appointments of Thallasius 1 (PLRE I, p. 886) as Praetorian Prefect and Montius Magnus (PLRE I, pp. 535-536) as quaestor sacri palatii. A fragment of an oration delivered (perhaps slightly later) by Himerius to Constantius (Photius Bibl. Cod. 243, ed. Henry, IV, pp. 102-103) likely reflects Constantius' official position regarding the new Caesar. Gallus as Caesar After becoming Caesar, Gallus, while traveling from Sirmium to Antioch, visited Julian at Nicomedia (Libanius Or. 18.17, Ammianus Marcellinus 15.2.7). There Gallus may have summoned Julian to appear with him in the theater, an action which may explain the suspicions the rendezvous of the half-brothers aroused in Constantius.7 Gallus arrived in Antioch on May 7, 351. Socrates (Hist. eccl. 2.28.2) says his adventus was marked by the appearance of a cross in the sky.8 Probably early in his residence at Antioch Gallus moved the relics of the martyr Babylas into the precinct of Apollo at Daphne (Cf. John Chrysostom Homily on St. Babylas 101 and Sozomenus 5.19.12-13). Zonaras 13.12 says that Julian later attributed Gallus' death to the desecration of Apollo's shrine by means of Babylas' remains. Ammianus, whose account commences with events of the winter of 353/4, does not mention the transfer, an omission which suggests that the act occurred during the first year or so of Gallus' stay. During the same period may fall a series of incidents related by Philostorgius (3.27), who alleges that accusations against the anomian theologian Aetius by his rivals Basil and Eustathius prompted Gallus to order Aetius' execution. However, Philostorgius continues, Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, interceded on Aetius' behalf and the latter quickly became a favorite of the Caesar, while Gallus ultimately appointed Aetius to be director of the religious education of Julian, with the express aim of recalling him from impiety (paganism or Christian heresy?). Aetius' role with respect to Julian may have something to do with events in 350, when Flavius Philippus 7 (PLRE I, pp. 696-697) escorted George -- perhaps Julian's instructor in religious matters and who had ordained Aetius as a deacon -- toward Alexandria to replace Athanasius (Hist. Ar. 51). If so, when Athanasius maintained his see in Alexandria, George may have returned to Macellum. This, in turn, might have meant Aetius' return to Antioch, where he is later linked to the ruin of Domitianus and Montius in 353/4.9 For other uses, see number 7. ...   This article is about the year 8. ...   This article is about the year 9. ...

In 351 or 352, the magister peditum Ursicinus 2 (PLRE I, pp. 985-986, which fails to mention Ursicinus' role in the Palestinian campaign), crushed a Jewish insurrection in Palestine centered, according to Socrates (Hist. eccl. 2.33) and Sozomenus (Hist. eccl. 4.7) in Diocaesarea.10 Jerome records -- for the year 352 but immediately following his notice of Gallus' proclamation as Caesar -- : " Through the murders of many thousands of men -- even those too young to pose a threat -- Gallus suppressed the Jews, who, having murdered soldiers at night, had seized arms for the purpose of rebellion ["arma ad rebellandum invaserant," which allows that the insurrection may have begun in the preceding year], and he put to the torch their cities Diocaesarea, Tiberias, and Diospolis and many towns" (Chronica, ed. Helm, p. 238.15-21), to which may be compared Theophanes AM 5843, A.D. 350/1: "In this year, the Jews in Palestine revolted. They killed many other nationalities, both Hellenes and Samaritans. They and their whole race were slaughtered by the Roman army, and their city Diocaesarea was razed to the ground."11 Perhaps the brief power vacuum between Constantius' move west and before Gallus' arrival in Antioch convinced the discontents in Palestine that the time was right for rebellion. Socrates alone (Hist. ecc. 2.34) alleges that successes in Palestine prompted Gallus to consider a coup against Constantius. Events Differentiation of localized Teutonic tribes of the Irminones. ... Events Germania Inferior and the Rhine secured by Germanicus Artabanus III of the Arsacid Dynasty becomes ruler of Parthia Births April 4 - Drusilla, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the younger. ...

John Zonaras (13.8.25-31) offers immediately following his description of the battle of Mursa (September 28, 351), a detailed account of a plot by Magnentius to assassinate Gallus:

He sent out one of his servants to Antioch to kill Gallus so as to surround the emperor with cares and to divert his attention to other matters. In order to remove suspicion from himself, the envoy lodged in the hut of a certain old lady. This hut was built by the Orontes River. The Orontes was once called the Ophites, as some write; afterwards, however, it was called the Orontes because the son of Cambyses, King of the Persians, fell in. His name was Orontes. Magnentius' assassin prepared the plot against Gallus. He attached to himself many heavily armed men of the place. In the evening, with some of the conspirators, he had dinner at the house of the old lady and conversed with them fearlessly about his plan. He despised the old lady because he thought she was too old to understand what was being discussed. Since she was a lady of a steady nature, as it turned out, she seemed not even to hear what was said and kept everything to herself. When her guest, heavy with wine, fell asleep, she secretly left her hut and went to the town; she revealed everything to the Caesar. He sent some men to arrest the plotter, who, when he was under pressure, revealed the whole affair. Having escaped it, Gallus punished him and those who knew about the conspiracy (trans. DiMaio).

Ammianus 14.7.4 may provide a parallel: "... his [Gallus'] propensity for doing harm was inflamed and incited by a worthless woman, who, on being admitted to the palace (as she had demanded) had betrayed a plot that was secretly being made against him by some soldiers of the lowest condition. Whereupon Constantina, exulting as if the safety of her husband were now assured, gave her a reward, and seating her in a carriage, sent her out through the palace gates into the public streets, in order that by such inducements she might tempt others to reveal similar or greater conspiracies." Zonaras' account may reflect rhetorical elaboration rather than access to informed sources, while that of Ammianus seems to mirror public knowledge of the incident as the result of the presentation of the informant to the populace of Antioch. There seems no need to posit any common literary source. At any rate, the incident seems to fall soon after Gallus' arrival in Antioch, when the assassination could divert Constantius and, if Ursicinus was then active in Palestine, the Caesar would perhaps have been more vulnerable to attack. Gallus and the Persians Philostorgius (Hist. eccl. 3.28) maintains that Gallus scored victories on the Persian front. However, it is dangerous to base too much on the Arians' testimony, for it survives only in the epitome of Photius, who may not represent accurately Philostorgius' point. Furthermore, Passio Artemii 12, deriving much of its historical detail from Philostorgius, does not attribute any actual victories to Gallus but says only that his reputation cowed the Persians. Zosimus (3.1) makes the same point, perhaps reflecting an inference of Eunapius, whose History he closely followed, to explain Persian quietude during Gallus' reign. Since Philostorgius, too, seems to have known Eunapius' History, it seems likely that Zosimus 3.1 and Passio Artemii 12 reflect Eunapius, which, if so, gives added weight to the hypothesis that Photius' epitome inaccurately represents his exemplar.

In addition, there are other obstacles to positive modern assertions about Gallus' military successes in the east. In 350, upon his departure for the west, Constantius had placed Lucillianus 3 (PLRE I, pp. 517-518) in charge of anti-Persian operations (Zosimus 2.45.2 and 3.8.2). Revolution may already have been smoldering in Palestine, and perhaps the need for Ursicinus, Lucillianus' superior in rank, to turn his attention to the rebels explains Lucillianus' appointment. Indeed, Sapor, upon the conclusion of a truce with the Romans, had withdrawn from Nisibis in 350 after suffering heavy losses in order to check nomadic incursions (Ammianus 14.3.1 and 14.9.3, Zonaras 13.713-14) This seems to have changed the tactical situation vis-à-vis Persia from high intensity to low intensity threats (cf. Ammianus 16.9.1, Julian Or. 1.28 D and Or. 2.66 D). There seems, then, to have been neither the need nor the opportunity for the Caesar himself at the head of a field army to engage the enemy.

Perhaps there were substantial clashes in 352 or 353, but, if the opening of the surviving portion of Ammianus' Res Gestae is an accurate guide, Gallus does not seem to have played any important role in the soldier-historian's account of affairs prior to the campaigning season of 353/4. That leaves only 353/4 as a time when Gallus himself might have personally engaged the Persians. Probably in early spring 354 Gallus was going to lead troops from Antioch to Hieropolis, a regular jumping-off point for invasion of Mesopotamia. It is unknown whether he ever reached Hieropolis or, if he did, whether the march was meant as a show of force or involved an actual engagement with Persian forces. Ammianus (14.7.5) refers to the matter with contempt. Gallus' expedition is connected by some modern scholars to an aborted attempt at a surprise attack on Batne in Osdroene by the Persian commander Nohodares. However, Ammianus synchronizes this with an early-September fair at Batne, which would seem to rule out any connection to Gallus' march to Hieropolis. Late in 354 Gallus sent from Antioch the comes Orientis Nebridius 1 (PLRE I, 619), who must have only recently replaced Honoratus 2 (PLRE I, pp. 438-439) to relieve the city of Seleucia, then under Isaurian attack. Ursicinus seems then to have been on the eastern frontier, perhaps in Nisibis, whence he had returned from presiding over the treason trials in Antioch. Shortly before Gallus' fall in 354, Constantius summoned Ursicinus to Milan, where he had taken winter quarters, on the pretext of discussing how best to check Persian threats (Ammianus 14.11.4).

In sum, regardless of Ammianus' undeniable manipulation of events in his account of Gallus' reign, there is little reason to credit the Caesar with martial successes.12 For other uses, see number 12. ...

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