Basilina

Basilina (died 332/333) was the wife of Julius Constantius and the mother of Roman Emperor Julian, who in her honour gave the name Basilinopolis to a city in Bithynia (modern Pazarköy near Gemlik, in Turkey).

Biography

Basilina was born of Greek origin,^[1][2] the daughter of Caeionius Iulianus Camenius or, more likely, of Julius Julianus, she was educated by Mardonius, a eunuch who grew up in the house of her father. She became the second wife of Julius Constantius, whom she gave Julian; Basilina died a few months after childbirth. Her sister was the mother of Procopius.^[3]

A Christian, initially she favoured the Arians, but gave her lands as an inheritance to the church of Ephesus. She was a relative of Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, her son's tutor.

References

1. Norwich, John Julius (1989). Byzantium: the early centuries. Knopf. p. 83. ISBN 0-394-53778-5. Julius Constantius…Constantine had invited him, with his second wife and his young family, to take up residence in his new capital; and it was in Constantinople that his third son Julian was born, in May or June of the year 332. The baby's mother, Basilina, a Greek from Asia Minor, died a few weeks later…
2. Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge companion to medieval warfare. Routledge. p. 54. ISBN 0-415-22126-9. JULIAN THE APOSTATE, FLAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS, ROMAN EMPEROR (332-63) Emperor from 361, son of Julius Constantius and a Greek mother Basilina, grandson of Constantius Chlorus, the only pagan Byzantine Emperor.
3. Ammianus, Res Gestae, 26.6.

Bibliography

• DiMaio, Michael, "Julius Constantius and His Wives", De Imperatoribus Romanis
• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Basilina", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-07233-6, p. 148.