Reputation
Constantius II is a particularly difficult figure to judge properly due to the hostility of most sources toward him. A.H.M Jones writes that Constantius "appears in the pages of 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." However, Kent & M. and A. Hirmer suggest that Constantius "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 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". In the military sphere, the campaigns of Constantius and his subordinates on the Rhine and Danube frontiers in the late 350s restored stability to those regions after the troubles caused by Magnentius' revolt.
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Famous quotes containing the word reputation:
“I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“The cultivation of literary pursuits forms the basis of all sciences, and in their perfection consist the reputation and prosperity of kingdoms.”
—Marquês De Pombal (1699–1782)
“The reputation of a man is like his shadow; it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than his natural size.”
—French Proverb. Quoted in Dictionary of Similes, ed. Frank J. Wilstach (1916)