# Crispus is executed in 326 on an uncertain charge; the file is not a tape

Date: 326

## The fact

In 326 Constantine ordered the death of his son Crispus, then of Fausta in a cluster later writers filled with sexual and political guesses. The charge is not established in a surviving court brief.

It is one event.

## Context

Allegation is not finding. Hostile or moralizing later Latin is not a palace daybook. The deaths remain extra-judicial family violence at the top of the state.

[Constantine the Great](/people/constantine-the-great)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Crispus, eldest son, was executed in 326; Fausta died soon after. Late sources offer adultery/plot stories. Uncertainty is the honest state.
Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Britannica and Livius independently record the 326 deaths and the source fog; they do not agree on a single crime.

Official or archival record: Livius — Constantine I (https://www.livius.org/articles/person/constantine-the-great/; Livius.org).

## Significance

Do not upgrade Zosimus into a confession.

## What is established and what is not

Established: received 326 deaths of Crispus and, in the same cluster, Fausta. Not established: adultery as proven, or a poison-bath as forensic fact.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Constantine the Great.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

They are not a public rating.

## People

- Constantine the Great: https://factrail.ai/people/constantine-the-great

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constantine-I-Roman-emperor
- https://www.livius.org/articles/person/constantine-the-great/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/co-crispus-execution-uncertainty