Galerius, however, had no intention of offering refuge to the old troublemaker, so Maximian was forced to flee again, this time to Arles, where Constantine received his fatherinlaw with all the deference due his rank. Maximian settled down with his daughter and her husband, confident that he was aligning himself with the strongest force of the Empire as no doubt he was.
While Constantine was playing the game of watchful waiting at Arles, however, a coalition of Germanic chiefs decided to take advantage of the fact that much of his army was in the south and launch one of their recurrent raids into Gaul. Crocus countered the attack promptly but Constantine decided to move swiftly northward and put down the revolt before it had time to weaken his own position in the Empire. He was at Argentoratum, a city near the headwaters of a major tributary of the Rhone, when he received startling news from Arles.
Spain and Britain
Maximian, the dispatch from Dacius said, had declared Constantine dead and named himself Augustus of Gaul, Spain and Britain. Furthermore, he had seized the considerable treasury Constantine had built up at Arles during his stay there and was pouring out gifts to the legions in an obvious attempt to buy their loyalty. Dacius himself had been imprisoned when he refused to turn over command to Maximian, but the old soldier had managed to send word of the treachery at Arles to Constantine by friends in the army, along with the assurance that Fausta and her little daughter were safe.
Constantine read the letter with some difficulty, the words blurred by the red haze of anger before his eyes. Tossing it to
Crocus, he went to the window and stared unseeingly out upon the bustling activity of the garrison while he fought for control.
“So this is how your fatherinlaw repays you for giving him refuge!” Crocus spat out a curse. “What are you going to do?”
“Go to Arles as quickly as possible. We march southward tomorrow.”
“There’s a quicker way the river. In its upper reaches the Rhone is a swiftflowing stream and you will be traveling with the current. If Maximian really thinks you’re dead, a rapid descent by water will catch him unawares.”
“The river is the best road,” Constantine agreed. “Commandeer everything that will float; my fatherinlaw is going to be in for a surprise.”
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