ABSTRACT
Helena’s birthplace, in all likelihood, was the town of Drepanum in Bithynia (in northwestern Asia Minor), which Constantine later renamed Helenopolis in his mother’s honor. The late and highly unlikely claims of other cities in Europe and Asia, such as Colchester in England, Trier in Germany, and Edessa in Syria, must be rejected. The date of Helena’s birth can be reconstructed only from what we know about her death. We know from reliable sources that she undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land after the deaths of her grandson Crispus and her daughter-in-law Fausta in 326 and that she died not too long after her return from that pilgrimage at the age of eighty. Thus we may conclude that she died in c. 328-30 – numismatical evidence points more specifically to the year 329 – and that she was born in 250 or shortly before.
