General Notes

Constantius II, full name Flavius Julius Constantius (317-61), Roman emperor
(351-61), second son of Constantine the Great. On his father's death (337)
Constantius was given the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and became
involved in a war with Shapur II, Sassanid king of Persia. When his brother,
the Western emperor Constans I, was murdered by a usurper, Magnentius, in 350,
Constantius led an army into the Balkans, where he defeated Magnentius at the
Battle of Mursa (modern Osijek, Croatia) and became (351) sole ruler of the
empire. After campaigning against the Germans and Sarmatians on the Danube
River in 357, he returned to the East, where he continued the war against the
Sassanids until his death. Constantius favored the Arian form of Christianity,
and was an opponent of St. Athanasius, the orthodox bishop of Alexandria.