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Galla was the first known wife of Julius Constantius, a member of the Constantinian dynasty.

Biography

Galla was the sister of the consul Neratius Cerealis and of the praetorian prefect Vulcacius Rufinus.

She married Julius Constantius, son of Constantius Chlorus and half-brother of Emperor Constantine I. They had three children: a son, who died with his father in the purges of 337, a daughter, who married her cousin Constantius II, and finally Constantius Gallus, later Caesar of the East, born around 325. It has been proposed that Galla and Julius had another daughter, who may have been the mother of the empress Justina.

Galla died before her husband, as Gallus was then entrusted to the care of Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia.

Notes

1. Her name was probably Galla, Julia or Constantia, the names of her parents.

References

1. Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 226.
2. Probably Neratius was her brother and Vulcacius her half-brother, as "Gallus" is a cognomen of the Neratii (Jones, p. 198).
3. Julian, Letter to the Athenians, 270D.
4. Noel Emmanuel Lenski, The Cambridge companion to the Age of Constantine, Volume 13, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-52157-2, p. 107.
5. Libanius xviii.10.
6. Lenski, p. 97.
7. Banchich, Thomas M., "Gallus Caesar (15 March 351 – 354 A.D.)", DIR (1997)

Bibliography

• Jones, A.H.M.; J.R. Martindale & J. Morris (1971). Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07233-6.

• 4th-century Roman women
• 4th-century Romans
• Constantinian dynasty
• 4th-century deaths
• Neratii