FREE: Ancient Roman AE Coin - CONSTANTIUS II - Augustus - c.AD350 - The "Anti-Pagan" coin

Very nice listing, I'm sorry that some people are Jerks and have ruined the experience for you. Some people don't get that it's not always about making money but sharing things with others

wow if I could hold this coin, just think what it has seen!

You really should have your own website where we all could read your teachings.
You are just amazing.

First car to make to to the stop light....oh, wait. You're in the dessert. Nice open roads. Vroooom!!!! Speed is good:)

Willie??? Nice license plate...i Like the red vehicle it is on. I thought perhaps it was a photoshopped deal. But it looks like the real deal:).

Great auction! Thanks for listing it!

i just have to say I love your auctions, you always amaze me, i love your postings and very well with your information i think you should repost them. I wish i had the points to buy them but i don't maybe next time, but don't listen to the ignorance of others it just makes you feel down, cheer up because we all love your postings,!!!!!!:)

your stuff is always so awesome, im extremely interested in everything you have, i just dont have the credits right now to bid. To hell with these people, I hope you continue to post your ancient givaways, its all so interesting!

I think we have all had our own rounds with such folks. I do hope you choose to continue listing these awesome finds. I especially loved reading all the info you had on this coin and I will be reading the others as well.

Flavius Julius Constantius, second son of Constantine I and Fausta, was born on 7 August 317 in Illyricum. He seems to have been made a Caesar on 13 November 324 in Nicomedeia. He was sent to Gaul when his brother Constantine II fought on the Danube in 332. At the time of his father's Tricennalia he went to Constantinople and married his first wife, the daughter of his uncle Julius Constantius. When his father died in May 337, Constantius, who was campaigning in the east, rushed back to Constantinople and arranged for his father's obsequies. He may have been the force behind the murder of a large number of relatives and retainers in a purge. The only male family members who survived were Julian and his half-brother Gallus. The purge may have had its roots in the religious squabbling between the Orthodox and Arian factions in Constantinople.In the first part of September 337 Constantius II and his two brothers met in Pannonia where they were acclaimed Augusti by the army to divide up the empire among themselves. The realm of Constantius II included the east, except for Thrace, Achaea, and Macedon. After his brother Constans I was killed by the forces of Magnentius in 350, Constantius obtained possession of his brother's realm which included the territory of Constantine II, who had died in 340.

This is really an awesome auction! I'm sorry that you had a bad experience in the community! Don't let people like that faze you!~*Blessings*~!

Does this really mean that you don't want anybody to bid on this one?
There are some of us that are really interested!!! I for one would bid and hope to win and have a print out with details about it. Please let me know.

esosa:

Our chief source for Constantius' reign is the great historian Ammianus Marcellinus. He presents a mixed view of that emperor. In some ways a sound administrator and competent general, Constantius is also portrayed as easily influenced by those around him such as his wives, courtiers and the eunuchs of the court also attacks Constantius' great interest in Church affairs--alleging that he bankrupted the courier service with calls for Church councils. Of course, imperial interest in Church affairs was a major policy of his father Constantine and it may be that Constantius was trying to emulate his model (if only with mixed success). Indeed, Constantius II (like his brothers Constantine II and Constans) was raised a Christian. Among his many laws is the famous CTh 16.10.2 of 341 which either prohibited or re-issued his father's prohibition of pagan sacrifices. Sympathetic to Arianism, he spent a great deal of his reign calling Church councils. One of the longest-reigned emperors in Roman history, Constantius is hard for the modern historian to fully understand both due to his own actions and due to the interests of the authors of primary sources for his reign.

His first wife, the daughter of Julius Constantius, must have died in the '40s or early '50s because he married his second wifeEusebia in 353. Although the marriage was harmonious, she passed away in 360. Largely due to the influence of Eusebia, Constantius appointed Gallus' half-brother Julian as his Caesar and dispatched him to Gaul in 355, while he went east to face the Persians. When Julian's military successes between 355 and 360 became too much for Constantius to endure, he attempted to weaken the Caesar by asking that some of the Gallic troops be sent to him for service in the east. Julian's troops acclaimed the Caesar as Augustus during January or February of 360; while en route to put down Julian, Constantius passed away at Mopsucrenae in Cilicia on 3 November 361. To give Constantius some credit, he is reported to have named Julian as his successor to avoid a succession crisis. At some point in 361 before his death he had married Faustina, who bore him a daughter, Constantia, posthumously.

The Persians were not the only threat to the empire during his reign. Constantius also fought several campaigns against various barbarian groups. However, his greatest threat came from a series of usurpers who arose in various sections of the western portions of the empire. To cope with them, Constantius shifted his base of operations from the east to Mediolanum (Milan) during the 350s. Although the revolts of his kinsman Nepotian in 350 and that of Silvanus in 355 were repressed by his opponents or by the emperor himself, the usurpation of Magnentius and that of Vetranio formed the basis of a more serious threat to the foundation of Constantius' rule. Both usurpers raised their standards in revolt in 350. Although Vetranio was repressed by Constantius into honorable retirement in the same year, it was only after the costly Battle of Mursa in 351 and the victory at Mons Seleuci in 353 that Constantius was able to quell Magnentius, who committed suicide in August 353. In order to keep the Persians in check while he was dealing with the various usurpers, Constantius had appointed his cousin Gallus Caesar in 351 and had sent him east to maintain a Roman presence there. Gallus, however, under the influence of his wife Constantina, soon challenged his cousin's authority and was put to death by Constantius at the end of 354.

Constantius spent a great deal of his reign on military campaigns; between 337 and 350, he resided in Antioch, between 351-359 he spent much of his time in Sirmium and Mediolanum (Milan), and in 360-361 he lived in Antioch again. While in the east, he spent several of his summers campaigning against the Persians. Although he appears to have been a competent general, some contemporaries felt that Constantius was a better soldier in civil wars than in foreign combat and some disparaged his apparent reluctance to face the Persians. However, this judgement may be a bit unfair. Perhaps "mixed success" might be a safer description of Constantius' military career. He succeeded in stopping every major Persian invasion, as the Battle of Singara in 348, costly to both sides, demonstrates. Indeed, when viewed in contrast with those of his immediate successors, Constantius' struggles with the Persians appear in a more favorable light.