Biography
Julius Constantius was the son of Constantius Chlorus and his wife Theodora. He had two brothers, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, and three sisters, Constantia, Anastasia and Eutropia.[2] Emperor Constantine I was his half-brother, as he was the son of Constantius and Helena.
Julius Constantius was married twice. With his first wife, Galla, sister of the later consuls Vulcacius Rufinus and Neratius Cerealis,[3] he had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, whose name is not recorded, was murdered in 337 together with his father.[4] His second son Constantius Gallus,[5] was appointed Caesar by his cousin Constantius II. His daughter was the first wife of Constantius II.[6] It has been proposed that Galla and Julius had another daughter, who may have been the mother of the empress Justina.[7]
After the death of his first wife, Julius Constantius married a Greek woman[8][9] Basilina, the daughter of the governor of Egypt, Julius Julianus.[10] Basilina gave him another son, the future emperor Julian the Apostate,[11] but died before her husband, in 332/333.[12] Allegedly at the instigation of Constantine's mother Helena, Julius Constantius did not live initially at the court of his half brother, but together with Dalmatius and Hannibalianus in Tolosa,[13] in Etruria, the birthplace of his son Gallus,[3] and in Corinth.[14] Finally, he was called to Constantinople,[15] and was able to build a good relationship with Constantine.[16]
Constantine favoured his half-brother, appointing him patricius and Consul for the year 335, together with Ceionius Rufius Albinus.[1] However, in 337, after the death of Constantine, several male members of the Constantinian dynasty were killed, among them Constantius (whose property was confiscated)[17] and his eldest son;[18] his two younger sons, however, survived, because in 337 they were still children. They would later be elevated to the rank of caesar and augustus, respectively.