Quickly killing the unpopular Constans, Magnentius gained control over most of the Western Empire.
19 Facts About Magnentius
2.
Unlike Constans, Magnentius was unrelated to Constantine the Great, and so had no dynastic claim to the emperorship.
3.
Magnentius instead sought popular support by modeling himself as a liberator who had freed the Western Empire from the tyranny of Constans.
4.
Magnentius attempted various public and religious reform, but almost all his acts were quickly repealed by Constantius after his death.
5.
Magnentius served in the protectores, a prestigious bodyguard corps attached to the imperial retinue, and was promoted to comes of the Herculians and Jovians, the Imperial guard units.
6.
Magnentius seems to have been effective in his post and to have been well-liked by other important court officials, notably Marcellinus, the comes rerum privatarum, who supported his usurpation.
7.
Magnentius quickly attracted the loyalty of the provinces of Britannia, Gaul, and Hispania, and immediately moved to control Italy.
8.
Magnentius did so within a month of his ascension, appointing Fabius Titianus to the position of praefectus urbis to govern Rome.
9.
Magnentius seems to have secured Africa quickly as well, thus inheriting all of Constans' former territory except Illyria.
10.
Magnentius attempted to create an image of himself as a liberator, and minted coins with such inscriptions as 'liberator of the Roman world.
11.
Magnentius dispatched Marcellinus to retake the city.
12.
Magnentius had already moved east over the spring, and appointed his brother Decentius as Caesar to control Gaul during his absence.
13.
Constantius and Magnentius wintered far apart, and, in the early months of 351, both parties flirted with the idea of peace.
14.
Magnentius retreated across the Alps, perhaps after being prevented from entering Italy by the erection of garrisons loyal to Constantius.
15.
Magnentius blocked the passages West, and Constantius engaged in skirmishes with the barbarians to the Northeast for the rest of the year.
16.
The year 352 is marked by Magnentius' failed attempts to broker a peace with Constantius: Magnentius sent an embassy to Constantius who, worried about espionage, prevented them reaching him.
17.
Magnentius then sent an assembly of bishops to Constantius with the message that he was willing to step down and take a soldier's posting under Constantius.
18.
Many argue that Magnentius was, at least nominally, a Christian.
19.
Numismatically, Magnentius' coinage is neither distinctively pagan nor Christian, with the exception of a series of coins bearing a Christogram.