Eutropia Crispus (abt. 250 - abt. 326)

Born about 0250 in Syria

Descendants

Died about 0326 at about age 76 in Gaul

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Eutropia was the (second?) wife of Emperor Maximian, second mother-in-law of Emperor Constantius Chlorus, and also second mother-in-law of Constantius Chlorus’ son Emperor Constantine I.

She survived all her children, with the possible exception of daughter Fausta, who was alive in 325 and seems to have died in 326.

Origins

Her ancestry is uncertain. She was a daughter, sister or sister-in-law of Claudia Crispina. It has been suggested that her ancestry is a fiction designed to connect the Constantintian dynasty to their predecessors.

There are three standard reconstructions:

1. Daughter of Titus Flavius and his wife Gordiana Balba.

• Titus Flavius was a member of the Forum Julii, a family descended from Julius Caesar’s cousin Sextus Julius Caesar. Gordiana Balba was a granddaughter of Emperor Gordian I and a sister of Emperor Gordian III.

2. Granddaughter of Titus Flavius and wife Gordiana Balba, through their son Flavius Eutropius and his wife Claudia Crispina.

• (These same parents are also claimed for Eutropia’s husband Constantius Chlorus.) Claudia Crispina was was a niece of the Emperors Claudius II and Quintillus, and a daughter of Flavius Crispus and his wife Aurelia Pompeiana.

3. Sister of Claudia Crispina.

• reconstruction per David Hughes -- a problematic source. According to Hughes, Eutropia was daughter of Flavius Crispus by his wife Aurelia Pompeiana. Flavius Crispus was a son of Flavius Numerius, a Greek prince. Aurelia Pompeiana was a daughter of Commodus Pompeianus (died 209).

Marriage

m.1. UNKNOWN

maybe a man from province of Asia, and perhaps Afranius Hannibilianus, consul in 292, and praetorian prefect under Diocletian. If so, they apparently divorced before 283. Alternatively, Afranius Hannibilianus might have been the father of an unknown first wife of Emperor Maximian.

1.  ?Theodora m. Emperor Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine; Alternatively, Theodora might have been a daughter of Maximian by his unknown first wife.

m.2 Emperor Maximian reigned 286-305, and died 309 or 
310 CE. :1.Emperor Maxentius 2.Flavia Maxima Fausta, who married Emperor Constantine I, son of Constantius Chlorus

Eutropia was of Syrian extraction and her marriage to Maximianus Herculius seems to have been her second. She bore him two children: Maxentius and Fausta. An older daughter, Theodora, may have been a product of her first marriage. Fausta became the wife of Constantine I , while her sister Theodora was the second spouse of his father Constantius I Chlorus .

Religion

Eutropia is said to have become a Christian. Eusebius in his Life of Constantine, 
narrating the role of Constantine’s mother Helena in identifying Christian sites in the Holy Land, adds that "Constantine's mother-
in-law [Eutropia] was restoring the sites at Hebron". "By the initiative of Eutropia, Constantine's 
mother-in-law, a church was also built at 
Mamre, . . ."

Eutropia’s husband, the Emperor Maximianus, was a notorious persecutor of Christians. Maximianus and his son Maxentius both died resisting Constantine, but Eutropia herself was (second) mother-in-law to Constantine, and also (second) mother-in-law of Constantine's 
father, Constantius Chlorus.

Sources

• De Imperatoribus Romanis, Eutropia, Maximianus Herculius' Wife.

• David Hughes, The British Chronicles (Heritage Books, 2007), Volume 2, Table 8J.

• Sir Anthony Wagner, Pedigree and progress: essays in the genealogical interpretation of history (London: Phillimore & Co., Ltd., 1975 ), Pedigree 24.

• Wikipedia: Eutropia

• 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 0783722214

• Michael DiMaio, Jr., Eutropia, Maximianus Herculius' Wife, An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors, Maximianus Herculius (286-305 A.D). Salve Regina University