On other occasions when Constantius had visited them farther and farther apart of late though they had been the small villa had been filled with merriment and laughter while they lingered in the triclinium, or dining chamber, for wine and sweet cakes after dinner. Tonight, things were different and his mother and father treated each other a little like two people forced to fence with naked blades when neither wished to hurt the other. Finally, after a long silence when no one seemed willing to speak, Constantine could stand the strained atmosphere no longer.
“Where will you reign as Caesar, Father?” he asked. “Here in Illyricum?”
“No, Son. I have been given the Prefecture of Gaul.”
“The land of the barbarians!” Helena cried.
“Gaul is no longer populated by barbarians, Helena,” Constan tius protested. “After all, Julius Caesar conquered it more than three hundred years ago in the days of the Republic.”
“The only trouble was that Caesar was bewitched by a Queen of Egypt named Cleopatra and let the Gauls get out from under his thumb,” Marios said. “No one has quite been able to hold them in since.”
My palace will be at Augusta Treverorum they call it Treves in Gaul,” Constantius explained. “But my main concern will be farther west. The rebel emperor, Carausius, has been boasting that he will soon rule Gaul as well as Britain.”
“Lucullus told us about him,” Constantine said eagerly. “I’ll wager he won’t last long when you start after him, Father.”
“That is my hope.” Constantius reached out to ruffle the boy’s dark hair. “I take it you know the story then?”
“Lucullus says Carausius betrayed the Emperor’s trust after he was put in charge of the Classis Britannia.”
Carausius did take the fleet that guards the Fretum Gallicum the channel between Britain and Gaul and use it to set himself up as emperor,” Constantius agreed.
But why did Emperor Diocletian wait so long to put down a usurper, when you could do it in a few months?” Constantine asked.
“They claim Britain is too far away,” Marios said, “but the real truth is so many of the generals are jealous of your father that they persuaded the Emperor to keep him governor of a province, instead of giving him a prefecture to rule, as the descendant of an emperor deserves.”
Constantius demurred mildly
“Nay,” Constantius demurred mildly. “It was only a little over twenty years ago that Claudius Gothicus defeated the Teutons on the plains before this very city, after they had overrun the country Trier as far south as Macedonia and Greece and even taken Cyprus and Crete. The Danube frontier had to be secured first and then the Rhine frontier had to be brought under control. Now that Maximian has the Rhine firmly in hand, we can turn our attention elsewhere.
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