Hanniballianus

half-brother of Constantine the Great. Constantius Chlorus, by his second wife Flavia Maximiana Theodora, had three daughters, Constantia, Anastasia, and Eutropia ; also three sons, Delmatius, Julius Constantius, and Hanniballianus. These boys, who at the period of their father's death must have been prevented by their youth from disputing the sovereignty, were educated at Toulouse, and when they grew up to manhood their politic brother took care to gratify any ambitious longings which they might have cherished, by a liberal distribution of empty honours. Hanniballianus, in acknowledgment of his royal blood, was invested with the scarlet goldbordered robe, and received the high-sounding but as yet vague title of Nobilissimus--distinctions which he enjoyed until A. D. 337, when he was involved in the cruel massacre of all those members of the Flavian house whose existence was supposed to threaten the security of the new Augusti.

It must be observed, that the three sons of Theodora are, in the Alexandrian chronicle, distinguished as Delmatius, Constantius, and Hanniballianus; but by Zonaras they are named Constantinus, Hanniballianus, and Constantius, while Theophanes expressly asserts that Hanniballianus is the same with Delmatius. The conflicting evidence has been carefully examined by Tillemont, who decides in favour of the Alexandrian chronicle, although it must be confessed that the question is involved in much obscurity. [Delmatius.]

(Chron. Alex. p. 648, ed. 1615; Zonar, 12.33; Zozim. 2.39, 40; Theophanes, Chron. ad ann. 296; Auson. Prof. 17; Liban. Or. 15; Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. vol. iv. Notes sur Constantin. n. 4.) [W.R]

son of the elder, brother of the younger Delmatius [Delmatius], grandson of Constantius Chlorus, and nephew of the foregoing, received in marriage Constantina, daughter of his uncle Constantine the Great, by whom he was nominated to the government of Pontus, Cappadocia, and Lesser Armenia, with the title of king, a designation which had never been assumed by any Roman ruler since the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, and which would have been regarded with horror and disgust even in the days of Nero or Commodus. However startling the appellation may appear, nothing can be more unreasonable than the scepticism of Gibbon, for the fact is not only recorded by Ammianus and other historians of the period, but their testimony is fully corroborated by coins unquestionably genuine, which bear the legend Fl. (or FL. CL.) HANNIBALLIANO. REGI. This prince shared the fate of his kindred, and perished in the general massacre of the imperial family which followed the death of Constantine. (Amm. Marc. 14.1, and note of Valesius; Aur. Vict. Epit. 61 ; Chron. Paschal. 286; Spanheim, de Usu et Praest. Numismat. Diss. xii.; Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 104.)

[W.R]