Would the older and better established Crispus not feel the need to purge assorted family members to assure his accession, as his half-brothers did?

Long term said half-brothers could prove troublesome. That trio can claim a more exalted ancestry- their mother Fausta being the daughter of an emperor, whilst Crispus was the son of the lower status Minervina. Would there be some sort of division of the empire? Would his half-brothers be content with the presumably junior role assigned to them? Given they proved willing to murder family members IOTL, will they try to get rid of Crispus?

Crispus' personal religious views could influence the ongoing Arian controversy, which was a live issue throughout the reigns of Constantine's sons, and the changed Constantinian family dynamics means we might avoid Emperor Julian and his pagan project.
 
Very probably Constantine would have still decided to split the empire between his children, with the exclusion this time of Dalmatius. Crispus would have had preeminence over his brothers, thus he would have received Gaul, Spain and Italy as Constantine II did IOTL, the latter would have gotten the East, Constantius Italy, Illyricum and Africa and Constans the area corresponding to Greece and Thrace. A slaughter of all the other members of the Flavian dynasty is to be expected once again, after that, I can easily imagine Constantine II encroaching on Constans’ territroy, while also recklessly seeking battle with Shapur and putting the empire’s defenses in jeopardy. If Constans were to be killed with his territory absorbed by Constantine, there’s little Crispus could do about it, but if Constantine also fails against Shapur and suffers defeat, I could see Crispus attempting and succeeding in ousting him, and having him executed, while putting Constantius, a more reliable and less troublesome man, in command of the Eastern half of the empire. Then, Crispus would take control of Constantius’ former provinces so to have total control of the West, and the empire would have been shared by the two brothers, replicating the model followed by Valentinian and Valens years later. Ideally then, depending on how the two brothers would have gotten along, we could have had a stabler empire, with Crispus as the undiscussed senior emperor, and Constantius as his faithful subordinate.

Of course, this is all assuming Crispus proves up to the task and doesn’t die young. From what little we can glimpse of him, he seemed a capable individual, apt to responsibility, so I think what I’ve said above is a likely outcome.
 
Top