An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
Eusebia Augusta (353-360 A.D.) and Faustina (360-361 A.D.)
Michael DiMaio, Jr.
Salve Regina University
Eusebia was the second wife of the Emperor Constantius II. He had married her ca. 353. Her father was probably Flavius Eusebius, a former consul; the family came from Thessalonica. Her brothers were Flavius Eusebius and Flavius Hypatius, consuls in 359. She was well known for her beauty and her influence over her husband; like him, she was an advocate of the Arian heresy. Although it seems that Eusebia may have become close to Julian and convinced her husband to make Julian a Caesar, she allegedly caused Julian's wife Helen to have a number of miscarriages to prevent her from having offspring since she herself could not bear children.
The last traces of her influence were the raising of her two brothers to the consulship in 359 and the freeing of her family's possessions from taxation on 18 January 360. Soon afterward she died from a drug which she took as a remedy for her inability to bear children. After Eusebia's death, Constantius married a woman named Faustina at Antioch in 361; after his death she bore him a daughter, Flavia Maxima Faustina Constantia. When Procopius revolted in 365/6, in order to ensure the loyalty of his troops, he took Faustina and her daughter with him. Constantia later married the emperor Gratian ca. 374. She clearly died before her husband because he took another wife. She seems to have died no later than 383 because her remains arrived in Constantinople in August of that year.
Bibliography
Kienast, Dietmar. Römische Kaisertabelle: Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie. Darmstadt, 1990.
Jones, A.H.M., J.R. Martindale, and J. Morris. "Eusebia," the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Cambridge, 1971, 1.300ff.
________. J.R. Martindale, and J. Morris. "Faustina," PRLE. 1.326.
________. J.R. Martindale, and J. Morris. "Constantia 2," PRLE. 1.221.
________. J.R. Martindale, and J. Morris. "Fl. Iul. Constantius 8," PRLE. 1.226.
Seeck, O. "Constantius (4)." RE 4: col. 1044ff
________. "Constantia (15)." RE 4: col. 959ff.
________. "Eusebia." RE 6: col. 1365ff
Comments to: Michael DiMaio, Jr..
Updated: 10 January 1997
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