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CHRISTIANITY AND CONSTANTINE'S IMPERIAL WOMEN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2023

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Isabella Image*
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Abstract

It is known that various members of Constantine's family, of his own generation and the generation before, were Christian. It is often taken for granted that Constantine encouraged or required their Christian faith. However, in fact there is only evidence for Constantine's influence on the faith of his mother Helena. This paper examines the evidence for Christianity in the imperial family before Constantine became publicly Christian, and suggests that some of these women may even have been Christian independently of Constantine's influence.

Keywords

ConstantineconversionChristianityaristocracywomenfourth century
Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , October 2023 , pp. 218 - 237
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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References

1 Jones, A. H. M., ‘The Social Background of the Struggle between Paganism and Christianity’, in Momigliano, A. (ed.) The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 1963), 19–20Google Scholar.

2 MacMullen, R., Christianizing the Roman Empire (New Haven, 1984)Google Scholar.

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4 Plut. Moralia 140D.

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10 The name had been common enough in the East for several hundred years. For references, see G. F. Grassi, ‘Semitic Onomastics in Roman Aquileia’, in F. M. Fales and G. F. Grassi (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic Linguistics, held in Udine May 21st – 24th 2007 (Padova, 2010), 12.

11 <https://archive.org/details/prosopography-later-roman-empire/PLRE-I/>, accessed 29 May 2023; Concilia Galliae, Subscriptions to the Canones ad Silvestrum. On textual variants of the name, see A. Mandouze, Prosopographie de l'Afrique Chrétienne 303–533 (Volume 1 of Prosopographie Chrétienne du Bas-Empire) (Paris, 1982), q.v.

12 Liber Pontificalis 1.38 (Felix).

13 Acta Synhodi ad 499: Subscriptions. See further R. Krautheimer, Corpus basilicarum Christianarum Romae, volume 1 (Vatican, 1937), 50–51.

14 J. Vogt, ‘Pagans and Christians in the Family of Constantine the Great’, in Momigliano (n. 1), 47.

15 Using the database of inscriptions at <http://www.manfredclauss.de/>, accessed 13 July 2019 (searching for anastas* before 330).

16 T. Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish names in Late Antiquity. Volume 3: The Western Diaspora, 330 BCE–650 CE (Tübingen, 2008), 212 (men's names), 403 (women's names).

17 As well as Barnes, T. D., Constantine and Eusebius (London, 1981)Google Scholar, see, for example, Smith, J. Holland, Constantine the Great (London, 1971), 47Google Scholar; Grant, M., The Emperor Constantine (London, 1998), 16Google Scholar; and survey in Grünewald, T., Constantinus Maximus Augustus (Wiesbaden, 1990), 80–1Google Scholar.

18 Barnes (n. 17), 4.

19 Optatus Adversus Donatistas 1.22; Lactantius De Mortibus Persecutorum 15, 24.

20 Grünewald (n. 17), 82; Eusebius of Caesarea Vita Constantini 1.27–28.

21 Ibid., 81–2: ‘Anastasia wäre dann ein “signum” der Betreffenden, deren “nomina” uns unbekannt sind’ (So ‘Anastasia’ was an identifier for the party concerned, whose name is unknown to us).

22 M. Depauw and W. Clarysse, ‘How Christian was Fourth Century Egypt? Onomastic Perspectives on Conversion’, VChr 67.4 (2013), 425–7.

23 For one example, see Grant (n. 17), 17.

24 B. Rawson, Children and Childhood in Roman Italy (Oxford, 2003), 111.

25 On both possibilities, see for example B. Leadbetter, ‘The Illegitimacy of Constantine and the Birth of the Tetrarchy’, in S. Lieu and D. Monstserrat (eds.), Constantine. History, Historiography and Legend (London, 2002), 75–7.

26 Origo Constantini 14.

27 C. T. Lewis and C. Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1945), q.v.

28 Philostorgius Epitome 1.9; Rufinus Hist. Eccl. 10.12; Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 1.25; Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.27.

29 Ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς συνομολογεῖ πάντας ὁμοφρονῆσαι τῷ ἐν Νικαίᾳ τῆς πίστεωs ὅρῳ, πλὴν Σεκούνδου τοῦ Πτολεμαΐδος, ᾧ καὶ Θεωγνᾶς ὁ τῆς Μαρμαρικῆς ἠκολούθησεν. τὸ δὲ ἄλλο στῖφος τῶν Ἀρειανῶν ἐφόρων, Eὐσέβιός τε, φημί, ὁ Νικομηδείας ὃν οὗτος ἀποθειάζει μέγαν καὶ Θέογνις ὁ Νικαίας, καὶ Μάρις ὁ Καλχηδόνος, καὶ ἡ ἄλλη φάλαγξ πρὸς τὴν σύνοδον μετετάξατο· ἐν δόλῳ μέν, καὶ oὗτoς φησι, καὶ τὸ ὁμoιoύσιoν ἐν τῇ τoῦ ὁμooυσίoυ φωνῇ ὑπoκλέψαντες· πλὴν γε συμφρoνεῖν τoῖς συνoδικoῖς ψηφίσμασιν ἀναδεξάμενoι, Κωνσταντίναs [sic] τῆs τoῦ Κωνσταντῖνoυ βασιλέως ἀδελφῆς εἰσηγησαμένης αὐτoῖς τὴν εἰς τoῦτo παραίνεσιν.

30 H. Pohlsander, ‘Constantia’, AncSoc 24 (1991), 156.

31 Lactantius De Mortibus Persecutorum 43.

32 Barnes (n. 17), 71.

33 Ausonius Commemoratio Professores Burdigalensium 16.

34 Pohlsander (n. 30), 154.

35 Ibid., 156.

36 S. Gero, ‘The True Image of Christ: Eusebius’ Letter to Constantia Reconsidered’, JThS 32.1 (1981), 460–70; T. D. Barnes, ‘Notes on the Letter of Eusebius to Constantia’, Studia Patristica 46 (2010), 313–18.

37 Gero (n. 36), 464 n. 2.

38 Holland Smith (n. 17), 165, 189, suggests that Eusebius was able to get round bans on synods, and meet with his own bishops. It may be that Licinius’ ban on synods had the intention of hindering Eusebius’ opponents. See also Barnes (n. 17), 376 n.154, and S. Corcoran, The Empire of the Tetrarchs (Oxford, 2000), 195, 285, citing Eusebius of Caesarea Vita Constantini 1.51, 2.66.

39 Theodoret Hist. Eccl. 1.19.

40 Jerome Chronicon a. 337.

41 Ammianus Marcellinus 22.9.

42 J. Bidez, ‘Notes sur quelques passages des écrits de l'empereur Julien’, in P. Thomas (ed.), Mélanges P. Thomas (Bruges, 1930), 54–65.

43 Zosimus Hist. Eccl. 2.28.2; Aurelius Victor Epitome de Caesaribus 41.7, Origo Constantini 28.

44 Vita Constantini from Codex Angelicus A (Philostorgius Hist. Eccl., Anhang V, GCS, 180).

45 Jerome Ep. 133.4; Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 1.25; Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.27; Theodoret Hist. Eccl. 2.2.

46 Licinius’ known movements are given in T. D. Barnes, The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge MA/London, 1982), 81.

47 Pohlsander (n. 30), 156.

48 Vogt (n. 14), 47; Pohlsander (n. 30), 156.

49 Eusebius of Caesarea Vita Constantini 3.52: Ἓν καὶ τοῦτο μέγιστον τῆς ὁσιωτάτης μου κηδεστρίας γέγονεν εἰς ἡμᾶς εὐεργέτημα… (‘In this, an immense benefit has been brought to me by my exceptionally holy mother-in-law…’).

50 Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.4; see also Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 2.4.

51 Zonaras Epitome 13.1.2.

52 V. Sta M. Scrinari, Il laterano imperiale. Vol. 1: Dalle aedes Laterani alla Domus Faustae (Vatican, 1991), especially Chapter 4. See also S. McFadden, Courtly Places and Sacred Spaces, doctoral thesis, University of Pennsylvania (2007), Chapter 5, <https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3292052/>, accessed 31 May 2023.

53 For scholarly alternatives to Scrinari, see E. W. Nash, ‘Convenerunt in domus Faustae: S. Optatus Milevitani 1.23’, RQA 71 (1976), 1–21; P. Liverani ‘L'ambiente nell'antichità’, in C. Pietrangeli (ed.), La basilica di S. Giovanni in Laterano (Firenze, 1990), 23–8. Nash suggests another house is the Domus Faustae, but that this was not Constantine's wife but another aristocratic woman; Liverani's early works critique Scrinari's hypothesis, but more recently his position is that it is impossible to know one way or another about the house Scrinari excavated. See also the literature on the Domus Faustae cited by McFadden (n. 52), 83 n. 6.

54 McFadden (n. 52), 195–7.

55 Scrinari (n. 52), 164–5 (discussion), 172 (transcription), 185 (image). There are also chi rhos proper on this mural (as opposed to a labarum or staurogram). However, these are from a later stage and written over earlier text. They are accompanied by the words CONSTANTS IMP [RO]MANORUM, thus confirming a date after 333 for this part of the mural: Scrinari (n. 52), 166 (discussion), 172 (transcription), 190 (image).

56 Scrinari (n. 52), 163, 167.

57 Other uses of the chi rho, if not strictly the labarum, at this time include the much-cited Ticinum medallion (RIC vii Ticinum 36; note also the Siscia series, dating from 316 onwards). There are also possible examples on North African milestones from before 313; P. Salama, ‘Les provinces d'Afrique et les débuts du monogramme constantinien’, BSAF 1998:1 (2002), 137–59.

58 Optatus Adversus Donatistas 1.23.

59 For discussion of the various church buildings mentioned here, see I. Image, ‘Hard to Find Another Woman Like Her: Constantine's Empress Fausta’, CW (forthcoming).

60 Origo Constantini 4.12.

61 See, for example, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, entries for Dalmatius, Julius Constantius, Hannibalianus.

62 Vogt (n. 14), 47.

63 Eusebius Hist. Eccl. 8.1.3.

64 Depending on interpretation of Lactantius De Mortibus Persecutorum 15.1.

65 Eusebius Hist. Eccl. 8.14.1; D. de Decker, ‘La politique religieuse de Maxence’, Byzantion 38 (1968), 472–562.

66 For recent assessments see B. Green, Christianity in Ancient Rome. The First Three Centuries (London, 2010), 217–20.

67 M. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy (London, 2002), 228 Table 5.3 and 226 Table 5.1. See also M. Salzman, ‘Aristocratic Women: Conductors of Christianity in the Fourth Century’, Helios 16.2 (1989), 207–20, at 215.

68 A. Yarborough, ‘Christianization in the Fourth Century: The example of Roman women’, ChHist 45 (1976), 149–65.

69 Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 1.18, Theodoret Hist. Eccl. 2.2, and further examples at Pohlsander (n. 30), 160–1.

70 Eusebius of Caesarea Vita Constantini 4.38; Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 1.18; Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.5.7–8.

71 Pohlsander (n. 30), 163–4.

72 Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 3.19.

73 Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl. 1.25; Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.27.

74 Cf. Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 2.34.

75 Jerome Ep. 133.4.

76 Zosimus Hist. Nova 2.29.

77 Holland Smith (n. 17), 213; C. M. Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire (London, 2010), 208–9.

78 Julian Caesars 336.

79 Sozomen Hist. Eccl. 1.5.

80 P. Brown, ‘Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy’, JRS 51 (1961), 6–8; Yarborough (n. 68).

81 Salzman ‘Aristocratic Women’ (n. 67).

82 See Barnes (n. 17), 274, for some scholarly views of Constantine's faith. For a very different (and more recent) angle, consider J. Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age (Cambridge, 2012), who holds that Constantine was a universalist throughout his life.

83 Barnes (n. 17), 210, on Eusebius of Caesarea Vita Constantini 2.60. Barnes’ interpretation is disputed by J. Curran, ‘Constantine and the Ancient Cults of Rome: The Legal Evidence’, G&R 43.1 (1996), 68–80, at 73.

84 Grant (n. 17), 114.

85 Curran (n. 83), 76–7.

86 MacMullen (n. 2), 86–101.

87 Compare Barnes (n. 17), 270.