ABSTRACT
This affords us a great rarity: the ancestry, early career and family of Constantius I, an emperor of the tetrarchic period and best known for having fathered Constantine (see Figure 5.1). But testimony about the father is, as König has pointed out, tainted by the propaganda needs of the son.2 The genealogical link with Claudius II Gothicus has long been recognised to be fraudulent;3
the career of Constantius remains plausible and often accepted, but incapable of proof. The last item pertaining to the divorce and remarriage, however, has engendered uncertainty. Some scholars accept this testimony as genuine.4 Most do not, but there is no consensus amongst such scholars as to what did happen, and why the story arose in the first place.5
