“Galerius shall pay for thisl” Constantius said grimly. “I let him name Severus Caesar in Italy to avoid any controversy with Maxen tius, while I was busy putting down the Piet rebellion. But as soon as the campaign in Britain is over, I shall move my capital to Milan and send Severus to Gaul. Go on with your story, Constantine.” “There’s not much more to be told, sir. We rode out of Hadrian opolis as if we were going by the northern route but cut across the fields to the Via Egnatia. In Italy we went to Neapolis and were lucky to find a military galley ready to leave for Lugdunum.”
“You were wise in not going to Rome,” Constantius agreed. “Severus reports to Galerius before he does to me and Maxentius has no love for you.”
“I had another reason for going to Neapolis,” Constantine confessed. “It was the hope of seeing Fausta.”
“Fausta?” Constantine frowned. “Maximian’s youngest daughter, isn’t she? I didn’t know you even knew her.”
“We met in Rome at the Vicennalia, and fell in love.”
“Isn’t she rather young?”
“But very mature for her age.”
Treves for a visit last year
“I remember her now. She was at Treves for a visit last year you know, of course, that my wife, Theodora, is her stepsister? A pretty little thing, isn’t she?”
“And very determined. She told me a number of things that might interest you.”
“Oh?”
Constantine gave a brief resume of his conversation with Fausta, omitting the part where he was to be appointed Caesar of Britain and make himself Augustus.
“Most of this isn’t exactly news to me,” Constantius said when he finished. “Theodora isn’t fond of her stepfather and word comes to her frequently of what goes on in his household. I know Maximian hopes to assume the purple once more and that Maxentius is equally ambitious. But I will give you an important lesson No, I will let Dacius do it. After all, he has been your tutor since I left the East.”
“Whoever controls the army rules the country,” Dacius said promptly. “And the army of Gaul is worth any two in the rest of the Empire.”
“Exactly as I would have put it, old comrade,” Constantius said warmly. “You have been a good teacher.”
“With an apt pupil.”
“I can see that. What would you like to do here, Son?”
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