View source for Eutropia (daughter of Constantius I)

{{Infobox royalty
|name=Eutropia
|father=[[Constantius I]]
|death_date=350
|mother=[[Flavia Maximiana Theodora]]
|spouse=Virius Nepotianus
|death_place=[[Rome]]
|issue=[[Nepotianus]]
|house=[[Constantinian dynasty]]
|religion=[[Christianity]]
|title=Nobilissima femina
|birth_name={{ubl|Flavia Valeria Eutropia|{{small|or:}}|Flavia Julia Eutropia}}
|birth_date={{circa|295–306}}
}}

'''Eutropia''' (died 350) was a Roman woman of the [[Constantinian dynasty]] (a line of rulers who governed the [[Roman Empire]] during [[Late Antiquity]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOHw4idqAeYC|title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 1, AD 260–395|last1=Jones|first1=A. H. M.|last2=Martindale|first2=J. R.|last3=Morris|first3=J.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1971|isbn=978-0-521-07233-5|pages=316|language=en|chapter=Eutropia 2}}</ref> Eutropia was the daughter of the [[Roman emperor]] [[Constantius I|Constantius]]{{Nbsp}}[[Constantius I|I]], the [[half-sister]] of the emperor [[Constantine the Great]], and the mother of [[Nepotianus]].<ref name=":0" /> Eutropia's mother was [[Flavia Maximiana Theodora]], the wife of Constantius I.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYRorgEACAAJ|title=Römische Kaisertabelle: Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie|last1=Kienast|first1=Dietmar|last2=Eck|first2=Werner|last3=Heil|first3=Matthäus|publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG)|year=2017|isbn=978-3-534-26724-8|edition=6th|location=Darmstadt|pages=269–271|language=de|chapter=Constantius I. (1. März 293– 25. Juli 306)|orig-year=1990}}</ref>

Eutropia was written about by the Roman [[historians]] [[Eutropius]], [[Aurelius Victor]], and [[Zosimus]].<ref name=":0" /> The [[bishop]] [[Athanasius]] knew her and also wrote about her.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}}

== Birth and early life ==
Eutropia was [[Birth|born]] after her parents married in late 289. Eutropia's father was Constantius{{Nbsp}}I, who was made an emperor in 293. Eutropia's mother was Theodora. Theodora was the daughter of the emperor [[Maximian]] and his wife, who also had the name [[Eutropia (wife of Maximian)|Eutropia]]. Eutropia had an older [[half-brother]], [[Constantine the Great]], and five other full [[siblings]], the other children of Constantius and Theodora.

Constantius's and Theodora's children were probably born after 295 and before 306.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3IRDAAAQBAJ|title=Constantine the Emperor|last=Potter|first=David|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-023162-0|pages=63–64, 321|language=en}}</ref> Theodora may have given [[birth]] to Eutropia after the year 300.<ref name=":6" /> Eutropia might have been her parents' youngest child.<ref name=":6" />

Eutropia's full name may have been the {{Lang-la|Flavia Valeria Eutropia}}, although it may have been {{Lang-la|Flavia Julia Eutropia|label=none}}.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Hammond|first=Mason|date=1964|title=Three Latin Inscriptions in the McDaniel Collection|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/310799|journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology|volume=68|pages=79–97|doi=10.2307/310799|jstor=310799|issn=0073-0688}}</ref>{{Rp|79–87}} She probably had the [[title]] in {{Lang-la|nobilissima femina|lit=most [[noble]] woman}}.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} This was a title women of the emperor's family normally had.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} The emperor Constantius died in 306. Constantine then became an emperor.

There is no evidence that any of Constantius's daughters married before their father died.<ref name=":6" /> Eutropia's sister [[Flavia Julia Constantia|Constantia]] may have been the first to marry, and may have been the oldest of the siblings. She married in 313.<ref name=":6" /> Their sister [[Anastasia (daughter of Constantius I)|Anastasia]] married in 316.<ref name=":6" /> Eutropia herself probably married by the early 320s, if she married the Roman consul of 336.<ref name=":6" />

== Marriage ==
Eutropia probably [[married]] Virius Nepotianus.<ref name=":0" /> He was [[Roman consul]] in the year 336.<ref name=":0" /> Eutropia's father was probably [[dead]] by the time she married, so her half-brother Constantine, now emperor, probably [[Arranged marriage|arranged]] her marriage.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=770uCgAAQBAJ|title=Constantine and the Christian Empire|last=Odahl|first=Charles Matson|publisher=Routledge|year=2010|isbn=978-1-136-96128-1|edition=2nd|location=London and New York|pages=264|language=en|orig-year=2004}}</ref> The choice of Eutropia's husband was probably for political reasons, just as Constantia's marriage to Constantine's co-emperor Licinius in 313 was for reasons of political strategy.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvk12r62|title=The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire|last=Salzman|first=Michele Renee|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-674-01603-3|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London|pages=178–199|chapter=The Emperor's Influence on Aristocratic Conversion|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk12r62.9|jstor=j.ctvk12r62|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvk12r62.9}}</ref>{{Rp|191}}

Virius Nepotianus may have [[died]] in 337, the year Constantine the Great died.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZFvAAAAQBAJ|title=Imperial Rome AD 284 to 363: The New Empire|last=Harries|first=Jill|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-7486-5395-9|pages=258|language=en}}</ref> (After the emperor died, many people in Constantine's family [[killed]] one another in summer 337.)<ref name=":1" /> Eutropia [[wikt:survived|survived]] because the emperor [[Constantius II|Constantius{{Nbsp}}II]] did not kill the women in the family.<ref name=":1" /> The fact that Eutropia continued to live means that [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] was wrong when he wrote that Constantius{{Nbsp}}II had killed everyone in his own family.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4SIiNCYOQsC|title=Families in the Roman and Late Antique World|last1=Lovén|first1=Lena Larsson|last2=Harlow|first2=Mary|publisher=A&C Black|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4411-7468-0|location=New York|pages=188|language=en}}</ref> The only other members of the family to live through the killings of 337 were Eutropia's nephews [[Constantius Gallus]] and [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]].<ref name=":7" />

At some time after her [[wedding]], Eutropia was probably the [[owner]] of a ship.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} A sign made of [[bronze]] that has been in the [[library]] of the Department of [[Classics]] at [[Harvard University]] since 1961 might have come from the ship.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} It was probably a "No [[Trespassing]]" sign. Its purpose was to keep people off the ship and to show that the ship was Eutropia's [[property]]. The bronze sign came from [[Ostia]], the [[port]] of Rome, and the ship was possibly used for the [[transport]] of [[grain]] supplies to the [[capital city]]. The ship may also have been a [[barge]] on the [[Tiber River]] (the river that connects Ostia with Rome) or a boat used for private [[leisure]].<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}}

The sign says that the ship was the property of "Flavia Valeria Eutropia {{Lang-la|nobilissima femina|label=none}}". The {{Lang-la|nobilissima femina|links=no}} means "most noble woman", and women from the emperors' families used this title.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} Because there are only two women named Eutropia in emperors' families, the ship very probably was the property of either Eutropia herself or her grandmother, [[Eutropia (wife of Maximian)]]. The bronze sign is the only [[evidence]] for the name "Flavia Valeria Eutropia".<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} It reads:

{{Verse translation|This ship (is the [[property]]) of Flavia Valeria<br/>Eutropia, the most noble lady,<br/>and of her sons.<br/>Read and go away.|{{lang-la|{{Smallcaps|navicula {{abbr|fl|FLAVIA}}·{{abbr|val|VALERIA}}<br/>evtropiae {{abbr|nob|NOBILISSIMAE}} {{abbr|fe|FEMINAE}}<br/>{{abbr|m|FEMINAE}}·et·filiorum eius<br/>lege·et·recede}}|label=none}}|italicsoff=yes}}

The bronze sign says that the ship was the property of Eutropia "and her sons" (or "and her children"). If the ship was the property of Eutropia the daughter of Constantius I, then the sign shows that she had more than one child.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} No-one knows when Eutropia's son Nepotianus was born. He is probably one of the children of Eutropia the bronze sign speaks of.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|79–87}} Because no-one killed Eutropia's son Nepotianus in 337, it may be that Eutropia had not yet given birth to him at that time.<ref name=":7" />

== Widow ==
Eutropia lived in Rome for a long time, and both Athanasius and Zosimus wrote that she met Athanasius in Rome in the 340s.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-39898-9|title=The Sons of Constantine, AD 337–361: In the Shadows of Constantine and Julian|last=McEvoy|first=Meaghan|publisher=Springer International Publishing|year=2020|isbn=978-3-030-39897-2|editor-last=Baker-Brian|editor-first=Nicholas|location=Cham|pages=275–307|language=en|chapter=Imperial Cities Under the Sons of Constantine|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-39898-9|s2cid=216283460|editor-last2=Tougher|editor-first2=Shaun|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39898-9_10}}</ref>{{Rp|298}} Eutropia may have given Athanasius political help when he came to Rome in late 339.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tclFM-nRh2IC|title=The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy 318–381 AD|last=Hanson|first=R. P. C.|publisher=A & C Black|year=2005|isbn=978-0-567-03092-4|pages=269|language=en}}</ref> He made a [[pun]] on her name, saying she was "the [[wikt:aptly|aptly]] named Eutropia" because the name "Eutropia" comes from the {{Lang-grc-gre|εὔτροπος|eútropōs|[[morality|morally good]]}}.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjqCjU8GevAC|title=Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire|last=Barnes|first=Timothy David|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-674-00549-5|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=53, 101, 254|language=en|orig-year=1993}}</ref>{{Rp|254}} Athanasius says that Eutropia was among those people who helped him in Rome, saying that she "[[wikt:received|received]] us [[wikt:nobly|nobly]]".<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}}

In the 5th [[century]], [[Jerome]] wrote that Athanasius came to Rome to speak to powerful Roman women about the [[monks]] and [[monasteries]] in the [[desert]] of [[Roman Egypt]].<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53, 254}} Jerome wrote that this was the start of monasteries in the west of the Roman Empire.<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53, 254}} This is probably not true, but Athanasius probably did [[lobbying]] with Eutropia and others to try to get back political power in the [[Christian Church]].<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53, 254}} Eutropia was a woman in the emperor's family, so Athanasius will have tried to get help from her when he was in Rome between 339 and 342.<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}}

Athanasius's writing may mean that Eutropia was a representative of the Constantinian family in Rome.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|298}} Women from the emperor's family often [[wikt:represented|represented]] the emperor in Rome, because the emperor was not often in the city.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|298}} Eutropia lived in Rome at the same time as [[Constantina]], Constantine's daughter, who lived in Rome from 337 to 351.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|298}}

== Death ==
When Eutropia's half-nephew, the emperor [[Constans I|Constans{{Nbsp}}I]] died, Eutropia's son Nepotianus made an attempt to be emperor himself.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|298}} Nepotianus took the emperor's [[title]] "Augustus" ({{Lang-la|augustus}}) in 350.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Brill's New Pauly|last=Bleckmann|first=Bruno|publisher=Brill|year=2006|editor-last=Cancik|editor-first=Hubert|edition=Online|chapter=Eutropia 2: Half-sister of Constantine|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e407410|editor-last2=Schneider|editor-first2=Helmuth|editor-last3=Salazar|editor-first3=Christine F.|editor-last4=Landfester|editor-first4=Manfred|editor-last5=Gentry|editor-first5=Francis G.|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e407410}}</ref> Magnentius, who had killed Constans, soon killed Nepotianus.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|298}}

Women in the Roman [[dynasties]] usually [[wikt:depended|depended]] on the lives of the men in their family.<ref name=":1" /> [[Magnentius]] probably killed Eutropia in Rome – she died soon after her son Nepotianus died.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}} [[Athanasius]] wrote about her death.<ref name=":0" /> Athanasius was also friendly with Magnentius's representatives.<ref name=":3" /> This may mean he was not in fact friendly with Eutropia and Nepotianus.<ref name=":3" />

When Magnentius was dead, Athanasius said to Constantius{{Nbsp}}II in a [[Public speaking|speech]] that he had never written friendly letters to Magnentius.<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}} He says Eutropia was Constantius's "[[aunt]] of [[wikt:blessed|blessed]] memory".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}} Athanasius said he had no reason to write to Magnentius, because Magnentius had killed many of Athanasius' friends.<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|53}} Athanasius asks [[rhetorical question]]<nowiki/>s of Constantius, asking how Athanasius could have written to Magnentius after Magnentius had done so much against him and his friends:

{{Verse translation|What sort of [[wikt:opening|opening]] would I [[wikt:affix|affix]] to my letter if I had written to him? 'Congratulations on [[murder]]ing the one who [[Honour|honored]] me, whose [[wikt:favors|favors]] I can never [[wikt:forget|forget]]'? 'I [[welcome]] your [[killing]] of my friends who were very [[wikt:firm|firm]] and [[wikt:devoted|devoted]] [[Christians]]'? 'We [[wikt:admire|admire]] your [[Slaughterhouse|slaughter]] of those who [[wikt:received|received]] us [[wikt:nobly|nobly]] in Rome, the emperor's [[aunt]] of [[wikt:blessed|blessed]] memory, the [[wikt:aptly|aptly]] named Eutropia, Abuerius that [[wikt:noble|noble]] man, the  [[wikt:faithful|faithful]] Sperantius, and many other good men'?|{{lang-grc-koi|ποῖον προοίμιον τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἔτασσον γράφων αὐτῷ; ὅτι ‹τὸν τιμῶντά με, οὗ τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐπιλαθοίμην, τοῦτον φονεύσας καλῶς ἐποίησας, καὶ ἀποδέχομαί σε τοὺς γνωρίμους ἡμῶν Χριστιανοὺς καὶ πιστοτάτους ἄνδρας ἀνελόντα, καὶ θαυμάζομέν σε σφάξαντα τοὺς ἐν Ῥώμῃ γνησίως ἡμᾶς ὑποδεξαμένους›, τὴν μακαρίαν σου θείαν τὴν ἀληθῶς εὔτροπον καὶ Ἀβουρήιον τὸν γνήσιον ἐκεῖνον καὶ Σπειράντιον τὸν πιστότατον καὶ ἄλλους πολλοὺς καλούς;|label=none}}|italicsoff=yes|attr1=Athanasius of Alexandria, ''Defense before Constantius'', 6.5<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjqCjU8GevAC|title=Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire|last=Barnes|first=Timothy David|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-674-00549-5|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=53|language=en}}</ref>|attr2=Athanasius Alexandrinus, {{lang-la|Apologia ad Constantium imperatorem|label=none}}, VI:5<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110924046/html|title=Athanasius Alexandrinus: Apologia ad Constantium / Epistula ad Ioannem et Antiochum / Epistula ad Palladium / Epistula ad Dracontium / Epistula ad Afros / Tomus ad Antiochenos / Epistula ad Jovianum / Epistula Joviani ad Athanasium / Petitiones Arianorum|publisher=De Gruyter|year=2006|isbn=978-3-11-092404-6|editor-last=Brennecke|editor-first=Hanns Christof|chapter=Apologia ad Constantium|doi=10.1515/9783110924046|editor-last2=Heil|editor-first2=Uta|editor-last3=Stockhausen|editor-first3=Annette|location=Berlin}}</ref>|lang=grc-koi}}

== Related pages ==
* [[Anastasia (daughter of Constantius I)]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:4th-century deaths]]