Imperial Rome AD 284 to 363 by Harries Jill

Author:Harries, Jill.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

The fall of Gallus, 354

Constantius II ruled as Augustus for twenty-four years. Unglamorous in appearance, with a long body and short legs, his profile in ancient and modern historians suffers from Ammianus’ understandable focus on imperial insecurity and court intrigue, along with the emperor’s inability to resolve the high-profile religious controversies of the time, and the more obvious (if also more questionable) attractions of his successor, Julian. Yet the history of Constantius at war, as we shall see, reveals a man with virtues as a ruler unacknowledged by contemporaries obsessed by the search for glory. He safeguarded the frontiers of the empire, while also conserving Roman resources of money and manpower; his policy against Persia was more successful than that of Julian would prove to be. He also survived challenges to his rule, often with little or no bloodshed. In 350, after Constans’ fall, he disposed of Vetranio, briefly proclaimed by the Danube legions, and survived three years of war with Magnentius; in 354, he checked the suspected insubordination of his Caesar Gallus; and in 355, he disposed of a potential rebel, the Frankish-born general Silvanus, by a trick.53

Scheming courtiers feature prominently in Ammianus’ narrative and contributed to the demise of both Gallus and Silvanus, before turning their baleful attentions to Julian.54 Notorious among them was ‘Paul the Chain’, so called because of his skill in complicating matters and ‘linking together’ chains of accusations to entrap his victims.55 He actively pursued the followers of Magnentius, and many fell victims to informants without proper investigations. After the Caesar Gallus’ fall in 354, Paulus again went into action, this time with an equally nefarious associate, Mercurius, the ‘count of dreams’ (comes somniorum), who reported as true the contents of dreams communicated to him by innocent guests at feasts;56 later Paulus re-emerges as an informer on associates of Silvanus,57 before meeting an unlamented end at the hands of Julian.

Ammianus believed that, although individual courtiers were to blame for their own failings, it was Constantius who was responsible for a culture of suspicion. In his concluding assessment of Constantius II’s virtues and faults as emperor, Ammianus gave pride of place to the emperor’s paranoia:58

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