I recently came upon the suggestion that Constantine followed Octavian in claiming (a kind of!) descent from Jupiter via the Trojan royal line, and that in founding Constantinople at his chosen location, he incorrectly assumed he was reconstructing Troy. Has anyone come across this suggestion? If so, is it as something that was actually on Constantine’s mind at the time, or was it rather some kind of later Dark Age myth? Rob T
I know a similar story from the 12th century Middle High German Kaiserchronik, see the excerpt below. Yet, this text is by no means a reliable source when it comes to 4th c. history. From: Henry Allen Myers (transl.): The book of emperors: a translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik, Morgantown: West Virginia University Press 2013, p. 251.
Many thanks @Orielensis. A great start. In Britain we have the well known parallel set of myths rooted in Troy, spread by Geoffrey of Monmouth in ‘Historia regum Britanniae’ of c. 1136. And in turn he relies upon 'Nennius’ in a much earlier document ‘Historia Brittonum’ of about 830 for that idea. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8972 However, to my knowledge this idea about Constantine and Troy is not in these British stories at all – it seems to be part of a divergent story line from Medieval Germany - or perhaps somewhere else in continental Europe. I notice very early indeed we have the “Frankish Table of Nations” (reputedly from 520!) Analeus in that looks rather like Aeneas to me……... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankish_Table_of_Nations But mostly I am just wondering if this 12th century German version - with the idea about Constantine and Troy - only appeared then, or whether it too had earlier continental roots. Rob T
Found it - Sozoman c. 450 AD http://www.documentacatholicaomnia....,_The_Ecclesiastical_History_[Schaff],_EN.pdf "The emperor, always intent on the advancement of religion, erected the most beautiful temples to God in every place, particularly in metropolises, such as Nicomedia in Bithynia, Antioch on the river Orontes, and Byzantium. He greatly improved this latter city, and constituted it the equal of Rome in power, and participation in the government; for, when he had settled the affairs of the empire according to his own mind, and had rectified foreign affairs by wars and treaties, he resolved upon founding a city which should be called by his own name, and should be equal in celebrity to Rome. With this intention, he repaired to a plain at the foot of Troy, near the Hellespont, above the tomb of Ajax, where, it is said, the Achaians had their naval stations and tents while besieging Troy; and here he laid the plan of a large and beautiful city.......". I now also find the Chronicle of Fredegar c. 642 AD http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/12687/1/Yavuz_N_K_Medieval_Studies_PhD_2015.pdf Sheesh - missed again - she was just up the road from me 5 years back! Rob T
I assume the passage from Sozomen you cited answers this question. Thanks for the link to Yavuz' interesting dissertation – that's a thesis I really would like to see expanded and turned into a printed book! And, just as an addition: another early Latin version of this narrative is contained in Aldhelm's De laude virginitatis (composed c. 680–700 AD). This treatise is transmitted widely on the continent, too, and contains an episode that embellishes Sozomen's account by giving a detailed description of Constantine's dream vision. There is an English translation of De laude virginitatis in Aldhelm: The Prose Works, transl. M. Lapidge and M. Herren (1979), which recently was republished as an affordable paperback edition. Unfortunately, I don't have access to all my books at the moment due to the Corona crisis, but the original Latin can be found online in Patrologia Latina 89, col. 123–4.
Many thanks @Orielensis – in case of interest - I will explain the background to my question. I am looking at the etymology of the word Troy (and cognates) as regards weight standards. There are two rival possibilities 1) That the Troy weight standard was the standard thought (in the 14th century) to have anciently arrived in Britain from Troy with King Brutus, the idea deriving from popular readings of ‘Historia Regum Britanniae’. 2) That “Troy” derives from the standard of weight used at the medieval fair at Troyes in Champagne. OED prefers 2), but if you look at the metrological matter scientifically, it does not work well. So, yesterday, I decided to look see if there were parallel popular histories about Trojan origins in Continental Europe. And it was like being hit by a ten ton truck. Frankish sources never stop talking about their Trojan roots. I was rather surprised I got so late in life without being aware of it. Here is a second question, in case anyone has thoughts. Its about an intriguing suggestion made by Marie Tanner in her “The Last Descendants of Aeneas” (quite generous chunks of it free on google books, including page 21). There she links two matters A) Virgil spreading imperial propaganda of Augustus, tracing the Julian line back to Jupiter via Trojans. B) a new (to the Romans) zodiacal constellation of Libra being created specifically in honour of Augustus As far as I can tell, A) is correct and B) is plausible - but so far the idea of then going on to somehow link the star sign Libra to the Trojans seems unique to Tanner. Given my support for 1) above, obviously I would be very interested to hear of any other texts notionally linking these two matters A) and B). (but stuff I so far read on the judgement of Paris etc seems a bit strained) Rob T
