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Constantia: The Last Constantinian*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2017

Meaghan McEvoy
Meaghan McEvoy*
Affiliation:
Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt-am-Main/Macquarie University, Sydneymeaghan.mcevoy@mq.edu.au
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Abstract

This article highlights the significant role played by Constantia, posthumous daughter of the emperor Constantius II, in late fourth century dynastic politics and ideology. Though Constantia has generally been neglected in modern studies of the period, close examination of the surviving sources reveals her pivotal position, even from her earliest years, as a coveted link between the Constantinian dynasty and new emperors seeking to establish themselves and their families in the turbulent years of the 360s, 370s and 380s AD. Through investigation of the source material relating to Constantia’s short life, we gain further vital insight into the perennial importance to imperial politics of dynastic loyalty, and specifically loyalty to the Constantinian house, in the late fourth century, as well as emerging new ideas about the complexities of the marriages of imperial women.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 50 , November 2016 , pp. 154 - 179
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2017 

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Footnotes

*

I am very grateful to Caillan Davenport, Jan Willem Drijvers, John Haldon, Hartmut Leppin, Muriel Moser, and Paul Tuffin for their careful reading of this article, and also to the two anonymous reviewers – all of whom provided many useful insights. Any remaining errors are my own. The research for this article was conducted during my Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt-am-Main from 2013-2016, and I am deeply thankful for the opportunities this Fellowship afforded.

Abbreviations used in this article:

AE L’Année Épigraphique

AM Ammianus Marcellinus

CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, ed. G. Reimerum, 36 vols (Berlin 1862-1893)

CTh Theodosiani libri xvi cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis, Th. Mommsen, P. Meyer et al. (eds) (Berlin 1905). English translation: Codex Theodosianus: The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, trans. C. Pharr (New York 1952)

ILS Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, H. Dessau (ed.) (Berlin 1892-1916)

LSA The Last Statues of Antiquity Databasehttp://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/

PLRE The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, 3 vols, A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale, J.R. & J. Morris (eds.) (Cambridge 1971-1992)

RE Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft

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