Background
Son of Constantine the Great and co-emperor alongside his brothers, his attempt to exert his perceived rights of primogeniture led to his death in a failed invasion of Italy in 340. The eldest son of Constantine the Great and Fausta, after the death of his half-brother Crispus, Constantine II was born in Arles in February 316 and raised as a Christian. On 1 March 317, he was made Caesar.
At the age of seven, in 323, he took part in his father"s campaign against the Sarmatians.
Career
At age ten he became commander of Gaul, following the death of Crispus. His military career continued when Constantine I made him field commander during the 332 campaign against the Goths. As a result, the three brothers gathered together in Pannonia and there, on 9 September 337, divided the Roman world between themselves.
Constantine, proclaimed Augustus by the troops received Gaul, Britannia and Hispania.
He was soon involved in the struggle between factions rupturing the unity of the Christian Church. Constantine soon complained that he had not received the amount of territory that was his due as the eldest son.
Annoyed that Constans had received Thrace and Macedonia after the death of Dalmatius, Constantine demanded that Constans hand over the African provinces, to which he agreed in order to maintain a fragile peace. Soon, however, they began quarreling over which parts of the African provinces belonged to Carthage, and thus Constantine, and which belonged to Italy, and therefore Constans.
In 340 Constantine marched into Italy at the head of his troops.
Constans, at that time in Dacia, detached and sent a select and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops, stating that he would follow them in person with the remainder of his forces. Constantine was engaged in military operations and was killed in an ambush outside Aquileia. Constans took control of his deceased brother"s realm.
Secondary sources.
