Eusebia (empress) - Death

Death

Like Constantius' first wife (whose name is unknown), Eusebia tried unsuccessfully to give birth to a child. It was said that Eusebia embraced Arianism when the efforts of the orthodox bishops to cure her infertility failed. The ancient historian Philostorgius wrote that the Arian bishop and renowned healer Theophilus the Indian was called out of exile to heal her troubled womb. He is said to have healed her malady, but she still bore no children. Eusebia is reported to have died while in the care of a female practitioner who attempted to restore her fertility.

According to his modern translator and commentator, Philip R. Amidon, Philostorgius "says that Constantius' wife was subject to fits of hysteria, and since he was so deeply devoted to her, he was forced to recall Theophilus from exile, for the latter was reputed to be able to cure sicknesses by divine power. When he arrived, he asked forgiveness for the sins he had committed against him and besought him to cure his wife. Nor did he fail of his request, so our author says. For Theophilus laid his propriatory hands upon the woman and removed the sickness from her". Amidon notes that Eusebia's hysteria is also mentioned by Georgios Kedrenos and Joannes Zonaras.

Constantius married his next wife, Faustina after the death of Eusebia in 360. The period can be estimated by Ammianus who reports that this marriage took place while Constantius was wintering in Antioch, taking a break from the ongoing Roman–Persian Wars. "At that same time Constantius took to wife Faustina, having long since lost Eusebia".

Read more about this topic:  Eusebia (empress)

Famous quotes containing the word death:

    For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.
    Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)

    if thou slip thy troth and do not come at all.
    As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall:
    To please both thy false heart, and rid myself from woe,
    That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so.
    —Unknown. The Lady Prayeth the Return of Her Lover Abiding on the Seas (l. 19–22)

    To these, whom Death again did wed,
    This grave’s the second Marriage-bed.
    Richard Crashaw (1613?–1649)