Hamstrung Horses: Dating Constantine's Departure from the Court of Galerius

Abstract

This article reconciles contradictory ancient evidence concerning the date and circumstances of Constantine's departure from the court of Galerius to join his father, Constantius I. Modern consensus places this departure in mid-305 on the strength of evidence derived from Pan. Lat. 6.7.5–8.2, which states that Constantine joined his father in Gaul, and a military diploma unearthed in Italy in 1958, which lists Constantius as Britannicus Maximus II. This article deconstructs the case for this chronology on three grounds: firstly, that there is a prima facie plausibility to the fourth-century narrative of Constantine's hostage status with Galerius, who had worked hard to keep the sons of Maximian and Constantius from power; secondly, the 306 diploma is subjected to scrutiny and arguments offered for rejecting the iteration Britannicus Maximus II, not least because such other evidence of victory titles as exists contradicts it; thirdly and finally, a historical argument is made, on the basis of Pan. Lat. 7(6) and 6(7), that no major victory was ever won by Constantius in northern Britain. In all, it is argued that the story of Constantine's flight should be treated as historical and dated to the summer of 306.