Roman Empire Coin
Emperor Constans (337-350 AD)

Struck 347 AD at Mint in Cyzicus
Bronze AE3 (BI Nummus) 16.5mm, 1.7 grams
Reference:  RIC VIII# 14, OCRE# RIC 8 CYZ 14

 Obverse: D N CONSTA-NS P F AVG, Laureate head of Constans facing right

Reverse: GLOR•IA EXERC-ITVS SMKЄ, Two soldiers, helmeted, draped, cuirassed, facing front, heads toward each other, each holding inverted spear in outer hand and resting inner hand on shield with a standard between

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Flavius Julius Constans (c. 323 – 350), also called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of caesar from 333 and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great. After his father's death, he was made augustus alongside his brothers in September 337. Constans was given the administration of the praetorian prefectures of Italy, Illyricum, and Africa. He defeated the Sarmatians in a campaign shortly afterwards. Quarrels over the sharing of power led to a civil war with his eldest brother and co-emperor Constantine II, who invaded Italy in 340 and was killed in battle by Constans's forces near Aquileia. Constans gained from him the praetorian prefecture of Gaul. Thereafter there were tensions with his remaining brother and co-augustus Constantius II, including over the exiled bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, who in turn eulogized Constans as "the most pious Augustus... of blessed and everlasting memory." In the following years he campaigned against the Franks, and in 343 he visited Roman Britain, the last legitimate emperor to do so until Manuel II in 1400, more than a thousand years later.

In January 350, Magnentius the commander of the Jovians and Herculians, a corps in the Roman army, was acclaimed augustus at Augustodunum (Autun) with the support of Marcellinus, the comes rei privatae. Magnentius overthrew and killed Constans. Surviving sources, possibly influenced by the propaganda of Magnentius's faction, accuse Constans of misrule and of homosexuality.

On 18 January 350, the general Magnentius declared himself emperor at Augustodunum (Autun) with the support of a number of court officials such as Marcellinus, Constans' comes rerum privatarum, as well as Fabius Titianus, who had previously served as the praetorian prefect of Gaul. At the time, Constans was distracted by a hunting trip. As he was trying to reach Hispania, supporters of Magnentius cornered him in a fortification in Helena (Elne) in the eastern Pyrenees of southwestern Gaul, where he was killed after seeking sanctuary in a temple. An alleged prophecy at his birth had said Constans would die "in the arms of his grandmother". His place of death happens to have been named after Helena, mother of Constantine and his own grandmother, thus realizing the prophecy. Constans' name would later be erased from inscriptions in places that recognized Magnentius as emperor.

Regarding possible motives for Constans' overthrow, ancient sources assert that he was widely unpopular and attribute his downfall to his own failings. Along with the accusation of corruption, he is also accused of neglecting portions of the empire and treating his soldiers with contempt. Ammianus lamented the emperor's failure to listen to wise counsel, referencing one man he believed could have saved Constans from his own faults.

However, some modern scholars have questioned this portrayal. According to historian Jill Harries, "The detail that Constans was in the habit of making journeys with only a small escort may account for his vulnerability in 350." Based on several factors — the small number of people behind the plot, how the setting for Magnentius' coup was not a military centre, Vetranio's proclamation as emperor in opposition to Magnentius, and Julian's report that the usurper had to murder several of Constans' generals to take control of the Gallic army — she concluded that Magnentius' revolt was "the result of a private grudge on the part of an apprehensive official and not the outcome of widespread discontent among the military or the wider population." This view is supported by Peter Crawford, who considered the explanation from the ancient sources to be a misconception caused by the rapid success of the coup.

Harries does, however, acknowledge how the Gallic army accepted Magnentius seemingly without difficulty, and how according to Zosimus, Constantius' official Philippus emphasized Constantine, rather than Constans, when addressing Magnentius' troops. On speculating the basis for Constans' overthrow, she suggested that one reason may have been regarding financial difficulties in Gaul by the end of his reign, which could have been related to the finance officer Marcellinus' support of him. After Magnentius took power, he levied taxes, sold imperial estates in Gaul and debased the coinage. Nicholas Baker-Brian also observed how Magnentius sent his brother Decentius to defend the region after Constans had neglected it, writing that it is apparent that among the reasons for Magnentius' rebellion was a desire to remedy Constans' governmental failings in Gaul.

Possible head of Constans from around his proclamation as Augustus