CONSTANTINE MURDERS CRISPUS & FAUSTA

GREEK TEXT: “...Ὅτι φησὶ τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον ἀνελεῖν τὸν ἴδιον παῖδα Πρίσκον, διαβολαῖς τῆς μητρυιᾶς συναρπασθέντα· κἀκείνην δὲ πάλιν φωραθεῖσάν τινι τῶν Κουρσώρων μοιχωμένην, τῇ τοῦ λουτροῦ ἀλέᾳ ἐναποπνιγῆναι προστάξαι. καὶ τῷ παιδίῳ τοῦ ξίφους διδοῦντα Κωνσταντῖνον τὴν δίκην μετ' οὐ πολὺν χρόνον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν φαρμάκοις κατὰ τὴν Νικομήδειαν διατρίβοντα ἀναιρεθῆναι...” - (Book 2, Chapter 4, Historia Ecclesiastica (Fragmenta ap. Photium) ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΤΟΡΓΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΤΟΜΗ ΑΠΟ
ΦΩΝΗΣ ΦΩΤΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΟΥ.)

PHILOSTORGIUS (circa. 368-439 C.E.): “...asserts that Constantine was induced by the fraudulent artifices of his step-mother to put his son Crispus to death;{18} and afterwards, upon detecting her in the act of adultery with one of his Cursores, ordered the former to be suffocated in a hot bath. He adds, that long afterwards Constantine was poisoned by his brothers during his stay at Nicomedia, by way of atonement for the violent death of Crispus...” - (Book 2, Chapter 4, EPITOME OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF PHILOSTORGIUS, COMPILED BY PHOTIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE. TRANSLATED BY EDWARD WALFORD, M. A. LATE SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1855.)
[FOOTNOTE 18]: p. 435 n. 1 Compare the account given in Aurelius Victor, chap. 41, Ammianus Marcellinus, book xiv. 6, and others, who state that Crispus and Fausta were put to death by Constantine. It is to be observed, however, that Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine, and Socrates, in his History, make no mention of the fact, which is entirely discredited by Sozomen (Eccl. Hist. b. i. ch. 5) and Evagrius (Eccl. Hist. b iii. ch. 40, 41). Vales.

PHILOSTORGIUS (circa. 368-439 C.E.): “...Constantine, he says, did away with his own son Priscus after being taken in by his stepmother's slander. She in turn was caught in adultery with a cursor [“courier”], and he ordered her suffocated in the heat of the bath. Constantine not long afterwards paid the penalty for executing the boy when he was poisoned to death by his brothers while staying in Nicodemia{9}...” - (Page 17, Book 2, Chapter 4, WRITINGS OF THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD, “Philostorgius: Church History,” Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Philip R. Amidon, S.J. 2007.)
[FOOTNOTE 9]: Aurelius Victor 41.11; Eutropius 10.6.3; Epit. Caes. 41.11-12; Zosimus 2.29.2

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