Flavius Magnus Magnentius – “Magnentius”
REIGN: AD 350 – 353
In the east Constantius still locked horns with Sapor II. Alas the King of Persia was called to see to other problems in the east of Persia, as news reached Constantius of the death of Constans and two new emperors being in place in the west. Both Sapor II and Constantius left Mesopotamia, leaving behind a devastated no-man’s-land. The two new emperors meanwhile made haste to come to terms and to proffer their equal amity to the surviving son of Constantine in the east. But for Constantius reconciliation with his brother’s murderer Magnentius was impossible. Far more won over Vetranio as his ally and took to war against Magnentius, defeating him at the grueling Battle of Mursa in Pannonia where 50’000 of the best troops of the imperial armies were left dead. Though Magnentius himself was not dead, he sought to continue the war, but his troops gradually deserted him. By the time those who remained were ready to deliver him to the enemy, if only to spare themselves, he chose suicide. Had Constantius left his cousin Gallus in charge of ruling the east, it was only to learn that Gallus was an irresponsible tyrant and was already planning on treason. Gallus was summoned to Pannonia where he met with an executioner’s sword in AD 354. Except for Constantius himself, the only surviving male descendant of Constantine the Great was Julian, the younger brother of Gallus. Julian lived in Athens devoting himself to literary and philosophical studies. He had no practical experience of rule and sought none. Yet against his will Julian was raised by Constantius to Caesar with the souvereignty over transalpine Europe. The fact that the empire was too large to be managed without viceroys was once more proving itself; especially since the Persian King Sapor II, having dealt with his problems to the east of Persia, was now back at the Roman borders to renew his ambitions.
The barbarians moreover were again swarming over the upper Danube.
Constantius occupied himself with the barbarian problem while his lieutenants dealt with Sapor in Mesopotamia. Though the Persian army was vastly superior in numbers, it eventually exhausted itself in several vain attempts to conquer the stubbornly defended fortress city of Amidia. Alas their numbers depleted and, though the war went on, the great threat to the eastern empire was averted. Meanwhile the reluctant Julian was proving himself a valiant man of action in Gaul and on the Gallic frontier. A strong man was certainly needed in Gaul; for in the civil war Magnentius had called to his aid hosts of Franks and Alemanni, who promptly assumed the role not of auxiliaries but of conquerors.
Despite his inexperience and his academic predilections, Julian proved himself equal to the emergency, winning battles against heavy odds with distinguished personal valour, and restoring law and order in the devastated districts. Until the reputation he was winning aroused the jealousy of Constantius, whose own credit was being not at all enhanced by his operations in the east, neither as soldier nor as ruler.
Jealousy rapidly developed into suspicion and probably into secret designs against the life of the younger man. Constantius ordered an immediate dispatch of the best of the legions of Julian to the Mesopotamian front. The legions responded by calling upon Julian to save the empire by assuming the purple of Augustus.
For some time Julian held out loyally, but the soldiery would take no denial till he yielded, at last convinced that loyalty to the empire was above loyalty to the emperor.
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