Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine the Great

Constantius, father of Emperor Constantine, was born in Illyria on a March 31 around AD 250. He pursued a military career and on March 1, 293 was appointed Caesar by Maximian, Augustus of the West. With this appointment, Constantius became one of the four rulers that constituted the First Tetrarchy (AD 293–305). When both of the Seniores Augusti withdrew, Constantius and his counterpart in the East, Galerius, assumed the title Augustus on May 1, 305. He died the next year, however, during a campaign in York. Constantius (whose nickname Chlorus, “the pale,” is a later Byzantine invention) lived first with Helena, mother of Constantine, and later (in 289 at the latest) married the daughter of Maximian, Theodora, with whom he also had children.
The life-size head in Berlin belongs to the same portrait type as a head in Copenhagen. Both are identifiable as Constantius I by the prominent nose (preserved in the Copenhagen copy) and especially the powerful chin, corroborated by images on coins minted in Constantius’ domain. The head combines features of the military portraits of the soldier emperors (the close-cropped hair and beard) with the expressive portrait style of the Tetrarchic period: the long proportions of the head, the jutting cheekbones, and the intense gaze still preserved by the arcs of lead inlaid in the irises. The shape of the chin, nose, and bulging forehead, however, are possibly individualized. Constantine the Great would later replicate these features in his early portraits not only because of the close family resemblance mentioned in the textual sources but specifically to express dynastic continuity and legitimacy. Although Constantius was between forty and fifty years old when this portrait was made, he is represented somewhat younger. This may reflect a particularity of Tetrarchic portraits in which the Caesar was portrayed as younger than the Augustus, regardless of his actual age. If this is the case, the Berlin head can be dated to the period when Constantius was Caesar, between AD 293 and 305.