CONSTANS (Flavius Julius Constans)

• Flavius Claudius Constantinus was the youngest son of Constantine I and Fausta and was born in 314.
• He was raised to the rank of Caesar in 333.
• Constantine died on 22nd May 337, and his surviving sons, Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans succeeded him, each with the title Augustus (9th September 337).
• Constans received Italy, Africa and the Balkans, although he later surrendered Thrace and Constantinople to his brother, Constantius II in 339.
• Constantine II, whose share of the Empire included Britain, Gaul, and Spain, had designs on Constans's territory and in 340, invaded Italy.
• The invasion was a fiasco, and Constantine's army was ambushed and he was killed near Aquileia, leaving Constans in control of the whole western Empire.
• During the next ten years he campaigned against the Barbarians with considerable success. In 343 he visited Britain, the last reigning emperor to do so, in order to campaign ahgainst the Picts and Scots.
• In 350, whilst on a hunting trip to Gaul, he received word of a revolt by Magnetius at Augustodunum (Autun). He fled towards Spain but was overtaken and murdered near the fortress of Helene at the foot of the Pyrenees.