The Nicene Age · AD 313–400 · External witness

Gallus Caesar

AD 325/326 – 354 (executed) · Caesar of the East · Half-brother of Julian · Antioch → Pola

External witness

Who Gallus Caesar was

The orphaned nephew whom Constantius II raised to Caesar in 351 and set over the East at Antioch — a professing Christian who translated the martyr Babylas's relics to Daphne to silence Apollo's oracle, and whose harsh rule ended with his summons west and beheading at Pola. His brother Julian drew from his fate a lifelong lesson in dissembling; the Babylas translation he ordered became Julian's most public humiliation a decade later.

Also listed in non-christian witnesses and roman emperors.

Common questions

When did Gallus Caesar live?

Gallus Caesar is dated AD 325/326 – 354 (executed) in the archive, which places Gallus Caesar in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400).

Which early sources mention Gallus Caesar?

Gallus Caesar is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Ammianus Marcellinus, Philostorgius and Socrates Scholasticus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Gallus Caesar from?

The archive associates Gallus Caesar with Antioch, Pola. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Who were Gallus Caesar’s contemporaries?

The archive links Gallus Caesar to 2 other figures, including Emperor Julian the Apostate and Emperor Constantius II. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (3)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Res Gestae XIV.1 (the Caesar's cruelty, by the eyewitness historian)

c. AD 390
Ammianus Marcellinus · Res Gestae XIV.1 · source text

Church History III.26–28 (the Arian historian's kinder Gallus)

c. AD 430
Philostorgius · Church History III.26 · source text

Socrates, Ecclesiastical History II.34

c. AD 439
Gallus, having put to death the leading men at Antioch, fell under the emperor's suspicion, and being summoned was put to death in the island of Flanona — stripped first of the purple.
Socrates Scholasticus · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The one place the sources put Gallus Caesar.

  1. 1Antioch

See this place on the atlas →