CONSTANTIUS II (Flavius Julius Constantius)

• Flavius Julius Constantinus was the second son of Constantine I and Fausta.
• He was raised to the rank of Caesar in 324.
• 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).
• Constantius was given the eastern provinces of the Empire.
• For most of his reign, he was involved in wars with Shapur II, Sassanid king of Persia.
• When Constans was murdered by a usurper, Magnetius, in 350, Constantius took his army to the Balkans, where he defeated Magnentius at the Battle of Mursa (Osijek, Croatia) and so in 351 became the sole ruler of the empire.
• In 361, on hearing that his cousin, Julian, had been declared Emperor by his troops in Paris, he marched his army west but in Cilicia, was struck down by a fever and died at Mopsucrene on 3rd November 361.