In the middle of the third century, a girl was born on the north-eastern frontier of the Roman empire. Eighty years later, she died as Flavia Iulia Helena, Augusta of the Roman world and mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine, without ever having been married to an emperor herself. In Helena Augusta: Mother of the Empire, Julia Hillner traces Helena's story through her life's peaks, which generated beautiful imperial artwork, entertaining legends as well as literary outrage. But Helena Augusta also pays careful attention to the disruptions in Helena's life course and in her commemoration--disruptions that were created by her nearest male relatives. Hillner shows that Helena's story was not just determined by the love of a son or the rise of Christianity. It was also--like that of many other late Roman women--defined by male violence and by the web of changing female relationships around her, to which Helena was sometimes marginal, sometimes central and sometimes ancillary. Helena Augusta offers unique insight into the roles of imperial women in Constantinian self-display and in dynastic politics from the Tetrarchy to the Theodosian Age, and it also reminds us that the late Roman female life course, even that of an empress, was fragile and non-linear.
Julia Hillner is Professor of Dependency Studies (Imperial Rome, Late Antiquity) at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. She is the author of Prison, Punishment and Penance in Late Antiquity.
AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsTimeline of the Constantinian, Valentinian and Theodosian DynastiesDramatis PersonaeFamily TreeMapsIntroduction: Writing HelenaThe Case for (Chronological) BiographyWriting Helena's Life Forwards: Of Places, Gaps and RelationshipsHelena, Dynasty, and Power Part I: Extra (c. 248-c.289) Chapter 1: On the FrontiersDemographicsHelena and the 'Crisis of the Third Century'Meeting Constantius Chapter 2: Weather Eye on the HorizonLegalitiesHelena at Naissus and SalonaHelena's Tetrarchy Part II: Off-Stage (c. 289-c. 317) Chapter 3: Sister ActLost Girl: TheodoraFausta's NosePruning the TreeWaiting in the Wings, Becoming Christian? Chapter 4: The Necklace AffairThe Tomb at %Sarkamen Divine MothersThe Augusta in the EastFair Game: Empresses as Prey Part III: Centre-Stage (c.317-c.329) Chapter 5: Keeping Up AppearancesThe Road to Thessalonica: A Wedding, a Conspiracy, and a War The Augusta-DoubleFausta, Super Star Chapter 6: Roman Holiday Palace LifeHelena and Constantine's Churches in RomeNew Look Chapter 7: Four Deaths and an AnniversaryMurders in the FamilyBecoming Genetrix Chapter 8: From Here to Eternity The Travelling Empress: Conflicting PortraitsHelena, the Pilgrim?On the RoadA New JezebelEmpresses in the Holy Land Part IV: Curtain and Encores (c.329-c. 600) Chapter 9: Burying an EmpressFinal HonoursRebranching the TreeComing Through Slaughter Chapter 10: Silence of the Empress Extending Helena: ConstantinaBurying Empresses, One More TimeCountering Helena: Justina Chapter 11: New Model Empress Ambrose's HelenaReviving Helena's Look: Flaccilla and ThermantiaReviving Helena in ActionEmulating Helena: Galla Placidia and EudociaA 'New Helena' in Name: PulcheriaBeing Helena: Radegund Epilogue Ancient SourcesModern StudiesIndex
Hillner reveals the life of a Roman empress, in all its splendor and danger, conjuring a flesh-and-blood woman where others might only see hints and fragments. Helena Augusta is both a dazzling piece of detective work and a powerful act of the historical imagination.