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Constantine's father later had to divorce her for political reasons-specifically, to marry Flavia Maximiana Theodora, the daughter of Maximian. The story of Minervina is quite similar to that of Constantine's mother Helena. This can be seen as evidence of a loving and public relationship between Constantine and Minervina which gave him a reason to protect her son. The offspring of an illegitimate affair could have caused dynastic problems and would likely be dismissed, but Crispus was raised by his father in Gaul. Neither the true nature of the relationship between Constantine and Minervina nor the reason Crispus came under the protection of his father will probably ever be known. A widowed Constantine would need no divorce. However, Minervina might have already been dead by 307. This silence in the sources has led many historians to conclude that the relationship between Constantine and Minervina was informal and to assume her to have been an unofficial lover. If Minervina were his legitimate wife, Constantine would have needed to secure a divorce before marrying Fausta, which would have required an official written order signed by Constantine himself, but no such order is mentioned by contemporary sources. This marriage has caused modern historians to question his relationship to Minervina and Crispus.
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In 307, Constantine allied to the Italian augusti, and this alliance was sealed with the marriage of Constantine to Maximian's daughter Fausta. His father served as a hostage in the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia, thus securing the loyalty of Constantine's father, Constantius Chlorus, who was caesar to Maximian in the west at this time. His mother Minervina was either a concubine or a first wife to Constantine. The earliest date is most likely, since he was being tutored in 309–310 by Lactantius. He is considered likely to have been born between 299 and 305, possibly as early as 295, somewhere in the eastern Roman Empire. After his death, Crispus was subjected to damnatio memoriae.Ĭrispus's year and place of birth are uncertain. Fausta, whose son Constantius II became caesar in November 324, was also put to death, and the Late Greek historian Zosimus and the Byzantine Greek writer Joannes Zonaras wrote that Constantine had accused Crispus of incest with his stepmother.
#Lugdunum caesar 3 trial#
According to the Latin histories of Ammianus Marcellinus and Aurelius Victor, after a trial whose real circumstances are mysterious, Constantine executed Crispus at Pola ( Pula) in 326. Within two years of the defeat and surrender of Licinius, Constantine had not only put his brother-in-law and former co- augustus to death, but also executed his nephew Licinius II, the son of his sister Flavia Julia Constantia. Crispus was three times Roman consul, for the years 318, 321, and 324.
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After his elevation to imperial rank, at which point he was also entitled princeps iuventutis ("Prince of Youth"), the Latin rhetorician Nazarius composed a panegyric preserved in the Panegyrici Latini, which honoured Crispus's military victories over the Franks in c. While at Augusta Treverorum, Crispus's praetorian prefect for the prefecture of Gaul was the great Junius Annius Bassus. Crispus may be the young prince depicted on the Gemma Constantiniana, a great cameo depicting Constantine and his wife Fausta, though the depiction may instead be of Fausta's own son, the future augustus Constantius II. It is unclear what was legal status of the relationship Crispus's mother Minervina had with Constantine Crispus may have been an illegitimate son.Ĭrispus's tutor in rhetoric was the Late Latin historian of Early Christianity, Lactantius.
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Crispus ruled from Augusta Treverorum ( Trier) in Roman Gaul between 318 and 323 and defeated the navy of Licinius I at the Battle of the Hellespont in 324, which with the land Battle of Chrysopolis won by Constantine forced the resignation of Licinius and his son, leaving Constantine the sole augustus and the Constantinian dynasty in control of the entire empire. The grandson of the augustus Constantius I, Crispus was the elder half-brother of the future augustus Constantine II and became co- caesar with him and with his cousin Licinius II at Serdica, part of the settlement ending the Cibalensean War between Constantine and his father's rival Licinius I. 303 – 326) was the eldest son of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great and his junior emperor ( caesar) from March 317 until his execution by his father in 326. Flavius Julius Crispus ( / ˈ k r ɪ s p ə s/ c.