Dovahhatty – Unbiased History of Rome XVII: Imperial Wrath

(13) MAGNENTIUS

USURPER: CONSTANTINIAN (WESTERN EMPIRE)

(350-353 AD: 3 YEARS 6 MONTHS 23 DAYS)

And now we come to the first of two usurpers, similar to each other in usurping two similar emperors – also similar to each other approaching the dividing line between bad and good usurpers.

Approaching but not quite, as I consider the two emperors they usurped were also approaching the dividing line between bad and good emperors, deserving of some rehabilitation of reputation as emperors even if still somewhat lackluster.

In the case of Magnentius, he usurped the emperor Constans. Constans had a promising start as emperor, even as a child emperor – most promising of all, he was one of three sons of Constantine who each inherited a third of the empire as co-emperors from their father. He had defeated the Sarmatians in a campaign as a teenage co-emperor before defeating the attempt of his oldest brother Constantine II to usurp him, adding the latter’s realm of the western part of the empire to his own. He then ruled as a western emperor who was reasonably robust in defending the western empire – campaigning successfully against the Franks.

And then it all went wrong for Constans – usurped by Magentius and killed when his legions deserted him due to him being “entirely too gay” and ‘favoring’ his barbarian soldiers in a suggestive way. No, really – the surviving sources accuse him of misrule and homosexuality, albeit probably influenced by the propaganda of Magnentius’ faction.

How much of it is true is another matter – one presumes that if he was as licentious as the sources depict him, it was a quality originating from his youth but only reached a tipping point into incompetence and misrule later in his reign, given his earlier effectiveness as emperor.

Whatever the case, Constans became vulnerable to an imperial claim by Magnentius, a military commander or general in his army, as supported by a conspiracy among court officials. Isolating and killing Constans was the easy part, albeit not done by Magnentius personally but by solders under his command.

So too was gaining control of most of Constans’ former realm of the western empire – quickly picking up Britannia, Gaul, Hispania, Italy, and Africa. He briefly lost control of Rome to another usurper (and dishonorable mention entry) Nepotianus but regained it. More substantially, another usurper Vetranio blocked him from gaining control of Illyria – and hence the last part of the former western empire under Constans (earning Vetranio honorable mention as good usurper).

The bigger problem was the remaining son of Constantine, the eastern emperor Constantius II, seeking to avenge Constans and reassert the Constantinian dynasty over the whole empire.

In classic usurper fashion, Magnentius was an outsider with no family relationship to Constantine and hence no dynastic claim. Instead, he posed as the western empire’s liberator from the tyranny of Constans to court public support. In fairness, he appears to have been reasonably competent as ruler.

However, that wasn’t going to help him with the bigger problem of Constantius – he originally sought a diplomatic solution to that problem, hoping to “induce” Constantius to recognize him as the legitimate western emperor.

In hindsight of just how costly in casualties among the Roman legions their civil war was to be, a diplomatic solution may well have been better – but it is difficult to see what else Constantius could have done or how his own position could have been secure if he had accepted Magnentius’ usurpation of his brother.

In any event, the war between Magnentius and Constantius II was one of Rome’s costliest civil wars, with even contemporary writers and apparently Constantius himself lamenting its losses from the legions as a disaster for the defense of the empire. Constantius defeated Magnentius at the decisive battle of Mursa Major in 351 AD, although the war dragged on until the final battle of Mons Seleucis in 353 AD, after which Magnentius committed the proverbial Roman act of falling on his sword.

DID DOVAHHATTY DO RIGHT?

I think so – wojak but not too wojak. Nice pun with Vetranio as his opponent calling him Magnet.

RATING: 2 STARS**

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