Editing Crispus (section)

==Execution==
[[File:Crispuscng1005obverse.jpg|thumb|Reverse of a ''solidus'' marked: {{Smallcaps|{{Abbreviation|dn·|DOMINUS NOSTER}}·crispvs·nob·caes·}}]]
In 326, Crispus' life came to a sudden end.  On his father's orders he was executed, apparently without trial, at [[Pula|Pola]], [[Istria]], in the Augustan [[Roman Italy#Augustan organization|''regio'']] of [[Venetia et Histria]].{{sfn|Guthrie|1966|p=325}}  According to [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] and [[Gregory of Tours]], Crispus died through poison.{{sfn|Pohlsander|1984|p=100}}<ref>Gregory of Tours, ''History of the Franks'' I.36</ref> Soon afterwards, Constantine had his wife [[Fausta]] killed also, according to several sources in a hot bath or bathroom.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=71-72}} Both Crispus and Fausta suffered ''[[damnatio memoriae]]'', their names being erased from inscriptions.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=72}}

The reason for these deaths remain unclear.  The accounts of [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]] and [[Zonaras]] say that Crispus was executed due to suspicions that he was involved in an illicit relationship with Fausta,{{sfn|Pohlsander|1984|p=101}} but some scholars have been skeptical of this explanation.  For instance, T. D. Barnes argues that as Crispus was based at Trier, and Fausta at Constantinople, they would not have had the opportunity to have an affair.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=73}} While Hans Pohlsander considers Barnes’ argument to be invalid on the basis that Crispus was in the East for long enough,{{sfn|Pohlsander|1984|p=104}} he suggests that the similarity of Zosimus' story to the myth of [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]] and [[Hippolytus of Athens|Hippolytus]] makes its veracity doubtful.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=73}} He does, however, note that Constantine passed multiple laws on adultery in the same year, which may have been related to the deaths of Crispus and Fausta.{{sfn|Pohlsander|1996|p=53-54}} On the other hand, David Woods accepts the belief that the two were thought to have had a relationship, while suggesting that they were not actually executed.  According to his theory, Crispus was exiled to Pola as a punishment for his adultery and committed suicide by poison there, and Fausta's death was caused by an attempt to induce abortion to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy that resulted from her affair.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=78&ndash;80}}

Pohlsander observed that Crispus “must have committed, or at least must have been suspected of having committed, some especially shocking offense to earn him a sentence of death from his own father.”<ref name="crispus"/> J. W. Drijvers concludes that the true explanation will never be known.{{sfn|Woods|1998|p=74}}