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Rescript of Constantine: Urbs Flavia Constans


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  Rescript of Constantine:  Main Page       

Flavia Constans;   Templum Flaviae GentisTheatrical Shows and Gladiatorial Games

Associated Inscription:   Caius Matrinius Aurelius Antoninus   


In construction 

The first request that Constantine addressed in the Rescript was that he should:

  1. “... grant your city, which is now called Hispellum and which you report borders immediately on Via Flaminia, a name taken from our family name ... ”.

His reply was in the affirmative:

  1. “We have conceded to the city of Hispellum the eternal designation and venerable name  ... Flavia Constans ...”.

This new name is attested in the related inscription commemorating Caius Matrinius Aurelius Antoninus, which records that:

  1. “... the people of urbana Flaviae Constantis [erected this statue] to a most worthy patron”. 

Constantine, like emperors before and after him, occasionally honoured cities by renaming them in the way discussed here for Hispellum.  Such honours were highly prized, and the choices that emperors made in relation to the cities selected and the names chosen were often political.  In the case of Hispellum, the choice of the new name Flavia Constans suggests that Constantine wanted to emphasis that the young Caesar Constans was the member of the ruling dynasty who had direct responsibility for this part of the Empire.  Given the likely date of the renaming (ca. 335 AD, when Constantine was in his 60s), the context would clearly have been that of the dynastic succession.

[Reference to a page on Constantine’s policy of renaming cities to reflect his own name or that of other members of his family]


Read more:

N. Lenski, “Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Authority and Civic Politics”, (2016) Philadelphia


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  Rescript of Constantine:  Main Page;    Flavia Constans;   Templum Flaviae GentisTheatrical Shows and Gladiatorial Games

Associated Inscription:   Caius Matrinius Aurelius Antoninus 


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