Constantius I Chlorus

Constantius Chlorus governed the western empire, recovered Britain, and was the father of Constantine. Born around AD 250 in Illyria to a family of no distinction, he rose through the army under Aurelian and Probus and governed Dalmatia. Diocletian made him Caesar in the west in March 293, one of the four rulers of the Tetrarchy, serving under Maximian. The appointment required him to set aside Helena, the mother of his son Constantine, and marry Maximian's stepdaughter Theodora. His first task was Britain, which had been held since 286 by Carausius, a naval commander who had declared himself emperor there and in northern Gaul. Constantius took Boulogne in 293 by building a mole across the harbour mouth, which cut the port off and cost Carausius his continental base; Carausius was murdered by his own treasurer Allectus shortly afterwards. The invasion came in 296. Constantius divided his fleet, and the squadron under the prefect Asclepiodotus landed in fog near the Solent, having slipped past Allectus's fleet waiting off the Isle of Wight. Allectus was defeated and killed inland. Constantius landed near London in time to stop his own troops sacking it, and a medallion struck for it calls him the restorer of the eternal light. He campaigned against the Alamanni and the Franks and, in 305, against the Picts beyond the northern wall. He enforced the persecution edicts of 303 lightly in his territories, demolishing some buildings and executing nobody recorded. He died at Eboracum, modern York, in July 306, and the troops proclaimed his son.

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