Basilina
{{Short description|Wife of Julius Constantius and the mother of Roman Emperor Julian}}{{Infobox royalty|name=Basilina|birth_place=Asia Minor|death_date=332/333|spouse=Julius Constantius|issue=Julian | dynasty = Constantinian |father=Julius Julianus}}
Basilina ({{langx|el|Βασιλίνα}}; died 332/333) was the wife of Julius Constantius and the mother of the Roman emperor Julian (r. 361–363) who in her honour gave the name Basilinopolis to a city in Bithynia (modern Pazarköy near Gemlik, in Turkey).
Biography
Basilina was of Greek descent born in Asia Minor.{{harvnb|Norwich|1989|p=83: "Julius Constantius [...] Constantine had invited him, with his second wife and his young family, to take up residence in his new capital; and it was in Constantinople that his third son Julian was born, in May or June of the year 332. The baby's mother, Basilina, a Greek from Asia Minor, died a few weeks later [...]"}}{{harvnb|Bradbury|2004|p=58: "JULIAN THE APOSTATE, FLAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS, ROMAN EMPEROR (332–63) Emperor from 361, son of Julius Constantius and a Greek mother Basilina, grandson of Constantius Chlorus, the only pagan Byzantine Emperor."}} She was either the daughter of Caeionius Iulianus Camenius,{{harvnb|DiMaio|1997}}. or more likely of Julius Julianus, and received a classical education (i.e., Homer and Hesiod) from Mardonius, a eunuch who grew up in the house of her father.{{harvnb|Baynes|1911|p=63}}. She had a sister who became the mother of Procopius.Ammianus Marcellinus. Res Gestae, 26.6. She was a relative of Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, her son's tutor.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}
She became the second wife of Julius Constantius, whom she gave Julian; Basilina died a few months after childbirth. A Christian, Basilina initially favoured the Arians, but gave her lands as an inheritance to the church of Ephesus.{{harvnb|Jones|Martindale|Morris|1971|loc="Basilina", p. 148}}.
References
=Citations=
{{reflist}}
=Sources=
- {{cite book|last=Baynes|first=Norman H.|chapter=CHAPTER III Constantine's Successors to Jovian: And the Struggle with Persia|title=The Cambridge Medieval History|year=1911|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=55–86|url=https://archive.org/details/ConstantinesSuccessorsToJovianAndTheStruggleWithPersia/}}
- {{cite book|last=Bradbury|first=Jim|title=The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare|year=2004|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|url=https://archive.org/details/routledgecompani00brad_406|url-access=limited|isbn=0-415-22126-9}}
- {{cite web|last=DiMaio|first=Michael|title=The Siblings of Constantine I|website=De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors|date=22 February 1997|access-date=11 May 2021|url=http://www.roman-emperors.org/sibling.htm}}
- {{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Arnold Hugh Martin|last2=Martindale|first2=John Robert|last3=Morris|first3=John|title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume I: A.D. 260–395|year=1971|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-07233-6}}
- {{cite book|last=Norwich|first=John Julius|title=Byzantium: The Early Centuries|year=1989|location=New York|publisher=Knopf|isbn=0-394-53778-5|url=https://archive.org/details/byzantiumearlyce0000norw|url-access=limited}}
{{Julian (emperor)}}
Category:4th-century Christians
Category:4th-century Greek women
Category:4th-century Roman women
Category:Constantinian dynasty