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Constantine III (usurper)
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Flavius Claudius Constantinus, known in English as Constantine III (died 411 by September 18) was a Roman general who declared himself Western Roman Emperor in 407, abdicated in 411, and was captured and executed shortly afterwards.
1 December in 405 or 406 several tribes of Germanic invaders, including the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Alans and the Sueves, crossed the frozen Rhine river perhaps near Mainz, and overran the Roman defensive works in a successful invasion of the Western Roman Empire.
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Flavius Claudius Constantinus, known in English as Constantine III (died 411 by September 18) was a Roman general who declared himself Western Roman Emperor in 407, abdicated in 411, and was captured and executed shortly afterwards.
Background
On 31 December in 405 or 406 several tribes of Germanic invaders, including the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Alans and the Sueves, crossed the frozen Rhine river perhaps near Mainz, and overran the Roman defensive works in a successful invasion of the Western Roman Empire. This was a mortal blow to the empire, from which it never recovered. The Roman authorities were never able to eject or destroy these invaders, most of whom eventually settled in Spain and North Africa, nor to face the movements of the Franks, Burgundians and Visigoths in Gaul at the same time. Also, a contributing factor of major importance was the disunity among the Romans themselves. A unified Empire with full support of a population willing to make the necessary sacrifices to overcome the invader/settlers might have been victorious.
At the time of this invasion, the provinces of Britain were in revolt, setting up and pulling down a series of emperors, which ended with the elevation of Constantine early in 407. A common soldier, but one of some ability, Constantine moved quickly. Constantine crossed the English Channel to the continent at Bononia, and historians have assumed he took with him all of the mobile troops left in Britain, thus denuding the province of any military protection and explaining their disappearance in the early fifth century. Constantine's two generals Justinianus and the Frank Nebiogastes, leading the vanguard of his forces, were defeated by Sarus, Stilicho's lieutenant, with Nebiogastes being first trapped in, then killed outside, Valence. However, Constantine sent forth another army headed by Edobich and Gerontius, and Sarus was forced to retreat into Italy, needing to buy his passage through the Alpine passes from the Bagaudae, who controlled them. Constantine secured the Rhine frontier, and garrisoned the passes that led from Gaul into Italy. By May 408 he had made Arles his capital, where he appointed Apollinaris, the grandfather of Sidonius Apollinaris, as prefect.
Recognition as co-emperor
In the summer of 408, as the Roman forces in Italy assembled to counterattack Constantine, Constantine had other plans. Fearful that several cousins of the emperor Honorius in Hispania, which was a stronghold of the House of Theodosius and loyal to the ineffectual emperor, would organize an attack from that direction while troops under Sarus and Stilicho attacked him from Italy in a pincer maneuver, he struck first at Hispania. He summoned his eldest son Constans from the monastery where he was dwelling, elevated him to Caesar, or assistant Emperor, and sent him with the general Gerontius towards Hispania. The cousins of the throne were defeated without much difficulty and two — Didymus and Theodosiolus — were captured, while two others — Lagodius and Verianus — managed to escape to safety in Constantinople.
Constans left his wife and household at Zaragoza under the care of Gerontius to return to report to Arles. Meanwhile the Roman army mutinied at Ticinum (Pavia) on 13 August, which was followed by the execution of the patrician Stilicho on 22 August. As a by-product of these events, the actions of an intrigue within the Imperial court, the general, Sarus, abandoned the Imperial army followed by his men, leaving the emperor Honorius in Ravenna without any significant military power, and also facing the problem of a Gothic army under Alaric roaming unchecked in Etruria. So, when Constantine's envoys arrived to parley at Ravenna, Honorius eagerly recognized Constantine as co-emperor, and the two were joint consuls for the year 409.
March on Italy
That year was the high-water mark of Constantine's success. By September, the barbarians that had penetrated the Rhine defenses, and had spent the intervening two years roaming and plundering their way through Gaul, had reached the Pyrenees, where they broke through Constantine's garrisons and entered Hispania. While Constantine prepared to send his son Constans back to deal with this crisis, word came that his general Gerontius had rebelled, raising his own man as co-emperor. Despite Constantine's best efforts, his fear of an attack from Hispania did come to pass in the following year, when Gerontius advanced with the support of barbarian allies.
About the same time Saxon pirates raided Britain, which Constantine had left defenseless. Obviously upset that Constantine could no longer effectively defend them, the Roman inhabitants of Britain and Armorica rebelled and expelled his officials.
Constantine's response to this tightening circle of enemies was a final desperate gamble: with the remaining troops left to him, he marched on Italy, encouraged by the entreaties of one Allobich, who wanted to replace Honorius with a more capable ruler. But this invasion ended in defeat, with Allobich losing his life, and Constantine was forced to retreat into Gaul in the late spring of 410. Constantine's position grew even more desperate. His forces facing the rebel Gerontius were defeated at Vienne (411), where his son Constans was captured and executed. Constantine's Praetorian prefect Decimus Rusticus, who had replaced Apollinaris a few years earlier, abandoned Constantine, to be caught up in the rebellion of Jovinus in the Rhineland. Gerontius trapped Constantine inside of Arles, and besieged him.
Surrender and execution
At the same time a new general was found to support Honorius. The future Constantius III, who arrived at Arles, put Gerontius to flight then took over the siege of Constantine in Arles. Constantine held out, hoping for the return of his general Edobich, who was raising troops in northern Gaul amongst the Franks, but on his return Edobich was defeated with a simple stratagem. Constantine's last slender hope faded when his troops guarding the Rhine abandoned him to support Jovinus, and he was forced to surrender. Despite his promise of safe passage, and Constantine's assumption of clerical offices, Constantius imprisoned the former soldier and had him beheaded in either August or September 411.
Although Gerontius committed suicide in Hispania, and Constantius later suppressed the revolt of Jovinus, Roman rule never returned to Britain after the death of Constantine III: as the historian Procopius later explains, "from that time it remained under [the rule] of tyrants."
Legend
Constantine III is also known as Constantine II of Britain. He was remembered as a King of the Britons in the Welsh chronicles and Geoffrey of Monmouth's highly popular and legendary Historia Regum Britanniae, where he comes to power following Gracianus Municeps' reign, which had ended with his assassination. Geoffrey states that Britain was in civil crisis after the death of Gracianus, so the people called for help from their cousins in Brittany. The contemporary king of Brittany, Aldroenus, did not wish to rule both Brittany and Britain, and so sent his brother to rule instead as Constantine II.
Constantine accepted the kingship and repelled the Huns and Picts who had invaded Britain. Geoffrey reports that co-leaders Guanius and Melga, previously exiled to Ireland, had led an invasion force composed of Scots (Gaels), Picts, Norwegians, Dacians and "others" into Britain. They had seized Alba as far as Hadrian's Wall and from there began their devastations in the island. Constantine led an army of Britons to victory against them. He was then proclaimed king at a council held at Silchester. Constantine reportedly married "a lady, descended from a noble Roman family". His unnamed wife was a former student of Guidelium, Archbishop of London. The "Breton Royal Pedigree:Kings of Brittany, Princes of Cornouaille & Domnonée" by David Nash Ford identifies the wife as "Ivoire ferch Llancelod" (Ivory, daughter of Llancelod). The name has found its place in several modern genealogies. On the other hand genealogist David Hughes has suggested the wife of Constantine III to be "Severa", an alleged daughter of Honorius and niece of Theodosius I. This Honorius is identified by the poem "In Praise of Serena" by Claudian and the "Historia Nova" by Zosimus to have been a brother of Theodosius I and father of Serena.
Geoffrey reports that Constantine and his wife were parents to Constans, Ambrosius Aurelianus, and Uther Pendragon. Constans, the eldest, was delivered to the church of Amphibalus in Winchester to "take upon him the monastic order". Aurelius and Uther were assigned to education under Guidelium. Constantine reigned for ten years before being assassinated by an unnamed employee of his, identified only as a Pict. The Pict "under pretence of holding some private discourse with him, in a nursery of young trees where nobody was present, stabbed him with a dagger." His death was reportedly followed by a succession crisis. The nobility of the kingdom argued over who should follow him on the throne. "Some were for setting up Aurelius Ambrosius; others Uther Pendragon; others again some other persons of the royal family." Vortigern, identified in the text as "king of the Gewisseans" instead offered the throne to Constans. Constans left monastic life and travelled with Vortigern to London. Vortigern declared him King, "though not with the free consent of the people. Archbishop Guithelin was then dead, nor was there any other than durst perform the ceremony of his unction, on account of his having quit the monastic order. However, this proved no hindrance to his coronation, for Vortigern himself performed the ceremony instead of a bishop."
In some versions of the legend, Vortigern was Constantine's seneschal. This story was repeated in many retellings of the Arthurian cycle, including Robert de Boron's Merlin and the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, though the narrative greatly contradicts the known history of this period.
See also
Bibliography
- C.E. Stevens, "Marcus, Gratian, Constantine", Athenaeum, 35 (1957), pp. 316-47
- E.A. Thompson, "Britain, A.D. 406-410", Britannia, 8 (1977), pp. 303-318.
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