Constantine II

Constantine II (; 316–340) was Roman emperor from 337 to 340. He was the second son of Emperor Constantine I and the eldest son of his second wife, Flavia Maxima Fausta. He was proclaimed caesar by his father shortly after his birth. He was associated with military victories over the Sarmatians, Alamanni and Goths during his career, for which he was granted a number of victory titles. He held the consulship four times – in 320, 321, 324, and 329.

Constantine I had arranged for his sons to share power with their cousins Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, but Constantine II and his brothers did not accept this arrangement. As a result, after their father's death Constantine II's brother Constantius II ordered the killings of numerous male relatives, including Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, thus eliminating any possible opponents to the succession of Constantine I's sons. Constantine then ascended to the throne alongside his two younger brothers, ruling Gaul, Hispania, and Britain. However, his belief in his rights of primogeniture and attempts to exert them over his youngest brother, Constans, caused conflict, which ended with his death in a failed invasion of Italy in 340. Constans subsequently took control of Constantine's territories, with the latter being subjected to damnatio memoriae.

Life Born in Arles in 316, Constantine II was the second son of the Roman emperor Constantine I, and probably the eldest with his wife Fausta, the daughter of the emperor Maximian.

Caesar On 1 March 317, he was made caesar at Serdica. After accompanying his father on his campaign against the Sarmatians in 323, he was commemorated on coinage produced to recognize the ensuing victory. Constantine II usually resided with his father until 328, when his own court was installed at Trier. An inscription dated to 328–330 records the title of , indicating that his generals won a victory over the Alamanni. His military career continued when Constantine I made him field commander during the 332 winter campaign against the Goths. Unlike his younger brothers, he gained little from Dalmatius's removal.

Constantine’s later actions indicate that he was left unsatisfied with the results of their meeting, believing that his age granted him some level of seniority in the imperial college and, by extension, control over the dominion of his youngest brother Constans, who was still a teenager in 337. Even after campaigning successfully against the Alamanni in 338, Constantine continued to maintain his position. The Theodosian Code recorded his legislative intervention in Constans's territory through issuing an edict to the proconsul of Africa in 339.

In April 340, Constantine launched an invasion into Italy to claim territory from Constans. Constans, at that time in Naissus, sent a number of troops to confront him, and Constantine was killed in an ambush near Aquileia. Constans then took control of his brother's realm, whose inhabitants seem to have been largely unaffected by their change in ruler.

After his death, Constantine was subjected to damnatio memoriae. Constans issued legislation repealing Constantine's acts shortly after his death, where the deceased emperor was branded as "the public enemy and our own enemy." Years later, when Libanius delivered a panegyric for both Constans and Constantius, Constantine was completely omitted from the narrative, as if he had never existed.

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