Constantine II  337 - 340  A.D.

By clicking on the pictures you'll be linked to a more complete description of the coin. At the bottom of this page there is a more elaborate biography of the emperor.

	Obverse: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C
	Reverse: CAESARVM NOSTRORVM     VOT V
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: QA

	Obverse: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C
	Reverse: PROVIDENTIAE CAESS
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: R T

	Obverse: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C
	Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: CONSΓ

	Obverse: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C
	Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: CONS?

	Obverse: CONSTANTINVS AVG
	Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: SMAN?

Constantine II  337 - 340  A.D.

      Constantine II was born at Arelate in the summer of 316 as Flavius Claudius Constantinus the oldest son of Constantine I and Fausta. On the 1st of March 317, at Serdica, Constantine II was elevated to the rank of Caesar alongside his half brother Crispus. This was part of an agreement between Constantine and Licinius (Constantine 's co-ruler at the time), who simultaneously promoted his own son, Licinius the Younger, to the same position. In 320 AD and 321 AD Constantine II held the consulship, first as the colleague of his father, then of Crispus. The fact that Constantine II was made consul at the age of four, too young even to be able to sign his own name yet, did much to support Licinius' accusation that Constantine was seeking to advance his own sons at the expense of Licinius' son. A matter which was a contributing factor in the eventual break between the two Augusti. In 324 AD, the year of Licinius' defeat, Constantine II held yet another consulship with Crispus. In 326 he was put in command of Gaul at the age of ten right after the death of his half-brother Crispus who was executed for treason. This turned out to be a false claim made by Fausta to advance her own sons over their half-brother Crispus, she was executed soon after. Crispus' death left Constantine II as the senior Caesar alongside his brother and co-Caesar Constantius II who had been elevated to this position by his father in 324 AD. In the year 330 Constantine II's generals apparently won a victory over the Alamanni, since the title Alamannicus appears on his inscriptions from that year on. In 332 Constantine II was sent to the Danube by his father to campaign against the Visigoths. Naturally this command was also purely ceremonial, the actually commanding of the troops being conducted by seasoned generals rather than an inexperienced teenager. The campaign was very successful and following this victory, in 333 AD Constantine II was moved to Treviri to oversee the defense of the Rhine frontier. Before 335 he got married, but his wife's name is not known.

      Following the death of their father on the 22nd of May 337, Constantine II and his two brothers, Constantius II and Constans (who was made Caesar on the 25th of December 333), slaughtered almost all of their relatives, because they were considered potential traitors and threats to the throne. After this massacre Constantine II and his two brothers met in the first part of September 337 in Pannonia where they were acclaimed Augusti by the army to divide the empire among themselves. Constantine's new realm consisted of Britain, Gaul, and Spain. He was acknowledged as the senior Augustus by the other two, being the eldest among the brothers. This arrangement worked well at first but soon after the brothers started to disagree about the borders of their respective empires and Constantine's claim to the title of senior Augustus. In an attempt to settle their differences, the brothers held a meeting at Viminacium. Among other things they tried to settle their border disputes. But although these negotiations led to Constans gaining additional territory, Constantine II was once again left with only Britain, Gaul and Spain. Soon after this unsatisfactory settlement things got even worse then before when Constans became even more unwilling to accept Constantine II's claim to to be the senior Augustus. In 340 AD Constantine II broke with Constans and invaded Italy while his brother was away on a military campaign suppressing an uprising among the Danubian tribes. Constans hastily sent back a relatively small force to slow the advance of the invaders, while his main army would return. But this vanguard surprisingly caught Constantine II in an ambush at Aquileia and killed him. After his death Constans took control of his brothers realm.

For this biography I've used the texts from the following websites:
http://www.imperiumromanum.com/
http://www.roman-emperors.org/
http://www.roman-empire.net/
And from: Gibbon's Decline and fall of the Roman empire.