CONSTANTIUS

constantius, flavius valerius, commonly called chlorus (the pale), an epithet due to the byzantine historians, roman emperor and father of constantine the great, was born about a.d. 250. he was of illyrian origin; a fictitious connexion with the family of claudius gothicus was attributed to him by constantine. having distinguished himself by his military ability and his able and gentle rule of dalmatia, he was, on the 1st of march 293, adopted and appointed caesar by maximian, whose step-daughter, flavia maximiana theodora, he had married in 289 after renouncing his wife helena (the mother of constantine). in the distribution of the provinces gaul and britain were allotted to constantius. in britain carausius and subsequently allectus had declared themselves independent, and it was not till 296 that, by the defeat of allectus, it was re-united with the empire. in 298 constantius overthrew the alamanni in the territory of the lingones (langres) and strengthened the rhine frontier. during the persecution of the christians in 303 he behaved with great humanity. he obtained the title of augustus on the 1st of may 305, and died the following year shortly before the 25th of july at eboracum (york) during an expedition against the picts and scots. see aurelius victor, _de caesaribus_, 39; eutropius ix. 14-23; zosimus ii. 7. constantza (_constanta_), formerly known as kustendji or kustendje, a seaport on the black sea, and capital of the department of constantza, rumania; 140 m. e. by s. from bucharest by rail. pop. (1900) 12,725. when the dobrudja was ceded to rumania in 1878, constantza was partly rebuilt. in its clean and broad streets there are many synagogues, mosques and churches, for half the inhabitants are roman catholics, moslems, armenians or jews; the remainder being orthodox rumans and greeks. in the vicinity there are mineral springs, and the sea-bathing also attracts many visitors in summer. the chief local industries are tanning and the manufacture of petroleum drums. the opening, in 1895, of the railway to bucharest, which crosses the danube by a bridge at cerna voda, brought constantza a considerable transit trade in grain and petroleum, which are largely exported; coal and coke head the list of imports, followed by machinery, iron goods, and cotton and woollen fabrics. the harbour, protected by breakwaters, with a lighthouse at the entrance, is well defended from the north winds, but those from the south, south-east, and south-west prove sometimes highly dangerous. in 1902 it afforded 10 alongside berths for shipping. it had a depth of 22 ft. in the old or inner basin, and of 26 ft. in the new or outer basin, beside the quays. the railway runs along the quays. a weekly service between constantza and constantinople is conducted by state-owned steamers, including the fast mail and passenger boats in connexion with the ostend and orient expresses. in 1902, 576 vessels entered at constantza, with a net registered tonnage of 641,737. the black sea squadron of the rumanian fleet is stationed here. constantza is the constantiana which was founded in honour of constantia, sister of constantine the great (a.d. 274-337). it lies at the seaward end of the great wall of trajan, and has evidently been surrounded by fortifications of its own. in spite of damage done by railway contractors (see henry c. barkley, _between the danube and the black sea_, 1876) there are considerable remains of ancient masonry--walls, pillars, &c. a number of inscriptions found in the town and its vicinity show that close by was tomi, where the roman poet ovid (43 b.c.-a.d. 17) spent his last eight years in exile. a statue of ovid stands in the main square of constantza. in regard to the constantza inscriptions in general, see allard, _la bulgarie orientale_ (paris, 1866); desjardins in _ann. dell' istit. di corr. arch._ (1868); and a paper on weickum's collection in _sitzungsbericht_ of the munich academy (1875). constellation (from the lat. _constellatus_, studded with stars; _con_, with, and _stella_, a star), in astronomy, the name given to certain groupings of stars. the partition of the stellar expanse into areas characterized by specified stars can be traced back to a very remote antiquity. it is believed that the ultimate origin of the constellation figures and names is to be found in the corresponding systems in vogue among the primitive civilizations of the euphrates valley--the sumerians, accadians and babylonians; that these were carried westward into ancient greece by the phoenicians, and to the lands of asia minor by the hittites, and that hellenic culture in its turn introduced them into arabia, persia and india. from the earliest times the star-groups known as constellations, the smaller groups (parts of constellations) known as asterisms, and also individual stars, have received names connoting some meteorological phenomena, or symbolizing religious or mythological beliefs. at one time it was held that the constellation names and myths were of greek origin; this view has now been disproved, and an examination of the hellenic myths associated with the stars and star-groups in the light of the records revealed by the decipherment of euphratean cuneiforms leads to the conclusion that in many, if not all, cases the greek myth has a euphratean parallel, and so renders it probable that the greek constellation system and the cognate legends are primarily of semitic or even pre-semitic origin. the origin and development of the grouping of the stars into constellations is more a matter of archaeological than of astronomical interest. it demands a careful study of the myths and religious thought of primitive peoples; and the tracing of the names from one language to another belongs to comparative philology. the sumerians and accadians, the non-semitic inhabitants of the euphrates valley prior to the babylonians, described the stars collectively as a "heavenly flock"; the sun was the "old sheep"; the seven planets were the "old-sheep stars"; the whole of the stars had certain "shepherds," and _sibzianna_ (which, according to sayce and bosanquet, is the modern arcturus, the brightest star in the northern sky) was the "star of the shepherds of the heavenly herds." the accadians bequeathed their system to the babylonians, and cuneiform tablets and cylinders, boundary stones, and euphratean art generally, point to the existence of a well-defined system of star names in their early history. from a detailed study of such records, in their nature of rather speculative value, r. brown, junr. (_primitive constellations_, 1899) has compiled a euphratean planisphere, which he regards as the mother of all others. the tablets examined range in date from 3000-500