Editing Constantius II (section)

==Reputation==
[[File:Constantius II, RIC VIII 170 (obverse).jpg|thumb|Solidus of Constantius II with a three-quarter facing portrait, struck {{circa}} 355. This [[Obverse and reverse|obverse]] later served as the model for most [[Byzantine coinage]] after 395.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdCjnwoQLR0C&pg=PA74 |title=Catalogue of Late Roman Coins: From Arcadius and Honorius to the Accession of Anastasius |last1=Grierson |first1=Philip |author-link=Philip Grierson|date=1992 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |isbn=978-0-88402-193-3 |page=74}}</ref>]]
According to DiMaio and Frakes, “...Constantius is hard for the modern historian to fully understand both due to his own actions and due to the interests of the authors of primary sources for his reign.”<ref>Michael DiMaio Jr. and Robert Frakes, [http://www.roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/constaii.htm Constantius II (337–361 A.D.)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308141930/http://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/constaii.htm |date=8 March 2023 }}</ref> A. H. M. Jones writes that he "appears in the pages of [[Ammianus Marcellinus|Ammianus]] as a conscientious emperor but a vain and stupid man, an easy prey to flatterers. He was timid and suspicious, and interested persons could easily play on his fears for their own advantage."{{sfn|Jones|1964|p=116}} However, Kent and M. and A. Hirmer suggest that the emperor "has suffered at the hands of unsympathetic authors, ecclesiastical and civil alike. To orthodox churchmen he was a bigoted supporter of the Arian heresy, to [[Julian (emperor)|Julian the Apostate]] and the many who have subsequently taken his part he was a murderer, a tyrant and inept as a ruler". They go on to add, "Most contemporaries seem in fact to have held him in high esteem, and he certainly inspired loyalty in a way his brother could not".<ref>Kent, J.P.C., Hirmer, M. & Hirmer, A. ''Roman Coins'' (1978), p. 54</ref>

Eutropius wrote of him,<ref>Eutropius, ''Historiae Romanae Breviarium'' X.15</ref><blockquote>He was a man of a remarkably tranquil disposition, good-natured, trusting too much to his friends and courtiers, and at last too much in the power of his wives. He conducted himself with great moderation in the commencement of his reign; he enriched his friends, and suffered none, whose active services he had experienced, to go unrewarded. He was however somewhat inclined to severity, whenever any suspicion of an attempt on the government was excited in him; otherwise he was gentle. His fortune is more to be praised in civil than in foreign wars.</blockquote>