Alliances of wicked men not only should not be protected by a plea of friendship, but rather they should be visited with summary punishment of the severest kind. M. Tullius Cicero. De Amictia. Laelius on friendship. Section 43.
Image: Head of Constantius II photographed at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Note: Constantius II appears to have led a massacre of most of his own father's close relatives. He allegedly ordered the murders of many descendants from the second marriage of Constantius Chlorus and Theodora, leaving only Constantius and his brothers Constantine II and Constans I, and their cousins, Julian and Gallus (Julian's half-brother), as the surviving males related to Emperor Constantine. As emperor, Constantius promoted Arian Christianity despite the fact that his father Constantine had exiled those who refused to accept the Nicean creed including Arius himself. Constantius also persecuted pagans by banning sacrifices and closing pagan temples and issued laws discriminating against Jews. He used his power as pontifex maximus to exile bishops adhering to the Nicene Creed, especially St Athanasius of Alexandria, who fled to Rome. Constantius also frequently used force to push through his religious views, even exiling Pope Liberius and installing Antipope Felix II.
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