Eutropia

Eutropia (d. after 325), a woman of Syrian origin, was the wife of Emperor Maximian.

Marriage to Maximian and their children

In the late 3rd century, she married Maximian, though the exact date of this marriage is uncertain. By Maximian, she had two children, a boy, Maxentius (c. 277–287), who was Western Roman Emperor from 306–312 and a girl, Fausta (c. 298),^[1] who was wife of Constantine the Great, and mother of six children by him, including the Augusti Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans.

Another daughter?

There is some doubt as to whether Flavia Maximiana Theodora, who married Constantius I Chlorus, was a daughter of Eutropia by an earlier husband, Afranius Hannibalianus^[2] or whether she was a daughter of Maximian by an earlier anonymous wife.^[3]

Footnotes

1. Barnes, New Empire, 34. Barnes dates Maxentius' birth to circa 283, when Maximian was in Syria, and Fausta's birth to 289 or 290 (Barnes, New Empire, 34).
2. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus 39.25; Eutropius, Breviaria 9.22; Jerome, Chronicle 225^g; Epitome de Caesaribus 39.2, 40.12, quoted in Timothy Barnes, New Empire, 33; Barnes, New Empire, 33.
3. Origo Constantini 2; Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica 2.16^a, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33. See also Panegyrici Latini 10(2)11.4.

References

• s.v. DiMaio, Michael, "Maximianus Herculius (286-305 A.D)", DIR
• Barnes, Timothy D. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-7837-2221-4