acter, for her father had
invested her with the title of Augusta. After his death, she deemed that
the purple ought not to clothe a woman with mere powerless dignity, but
that the right was hers to take a hand in the affairs of the Empire. In
this view of her privileges she lacked the support of her three
brothers: the situation was sufficiently disturbed by their own
inharmonious claims. But after the death of Constans and Constantine,
the way was cleared for Constantina to push her own interests. This she
did by creating a puppet emperor out of Vetranio, a good-natured and
obliging old general who was commanding in Illyricum. Constantina
herself bound the diadem upon his brow; but during an interview with
Constantius, a menacing shout of the soldiers induced Vetranio hastily
to divest himself of the purple and thankfully accept his life with an
honorable exile. Constantina had the diplomacy to make her peace with
her brother as soon as she saw the fruitlessness of this scheme. She
probably had deserted Vetranio before he had ceased trying to reign for
her. Later on, she was married to Gallus, who, with his brother Julian,
alone of the princes of the house of Constantine had survived the
suspicion and the cruelty of Constantius. Gallus was appointed Caesar of
the Eastern provinces, and thus Constantina's ambitions were appeased.
But as is frequently the case with those who are ambitious of political
power, though intensely eager for the purple, she was entirely unworthy
of the position. The historians of the time give this woman an
exceedingly bad name, and doubtless the people of Antioch, where she and
her husband established their court, agreed that it was abundantly
deserved. She is described, not as a woman, but as one of the infernal
furies, tormented with an insatiate thirst for human blood. That, of
course, we may consider an extravagance of rhetoric on the part of
Ammianus; but there is an ugly story of a pearl necklace which
Constantina received from the mother-in-law of one Clematius of
Alexandria. The ornament procured the death of Clematius, who had
incurred the malice of his relative by disappointing her of his love.
The rapacity and cruelty of Constantina, joined with the mad profligacy
of her husband, ended by ruining them both. The displeasure of
Constantius was aroused, and that was usually only appeased by the death
of its object. He sent urgent messages inviting Gallus to visit him in
the West, for th