Dawn of a New Rome
Chapter 44: The Peace of Predators

Chapter 44: The Peace of Predators

The years that followed the fall of Maximinus Daia were a period of tense, watchful peace across the Roman world. Two suns now occupied the sky, one in the West and one in the East. In Trier, Constantine used this peace to forge his domain into a sword. The gold of Hispania and Africa flowed into his treasury, and from there into the pockets of his soldiers and the workshops of his armories. His legions, no longer fighting Gauls or Franks, now drilled in massive, mock battles, practicing the complex maneuvers he devised, their discipline and cohesion becoming legendary.

Licinius, from his capitals in the East, did the same. Valerius’s reports painted a picture of a mirror image: legions being raised on the Danube frontier, fleets being constructed in the ports of Greece, and a treasury being filled with the wealth of Egypt and Asia. The two Augusti exchanged formal, cordial letters, celebrating the peace and unity of the Empire, while both knew they were merely sharpening their knives for the inevitable duel.

"Licinius begins to restrict the gatherings of Christian bishops," Valerius reported to Constantine one evening. "He has dismissed any Christians from his personal household staff. He claims they are politically loyal to you because of your Edict."

"He is not wrong," Constantine replied, a flicker of cold amusement in his eye. "But his actions will only drive them further into my camp. Let him make enemies of his own people. It will save my legions work later."

He knew he could not be the one to break the peace. The alliance, sealed with his own sister’s marriage, was too public, his own image as a restorer of order too valuable to tarnish with naked aggression. He needed a cause, a justification. If Licinius would not provide one, Constantine would manufacture it.

His chosen pawn was a well-regarded senator named Bassianus, who was married to Anastasia, another of Constantine’s half-sisters. In a public ceremony, Constantine elevated Bassianus to the rank of Caesar, granting him nominal authority over Italy and a small personal guard. To the world, it was a sensible administrative move, a sign of trust and a delegation of authority to help govern his vast Western territories. To Constantine, it was the first move in a deadly game.

He knew from Valerius’s network that Licinius had agents in Rome, men tasked with observing and sowing dissent. He now gave Valerius a new, subtle task: ensure these agents took notice of the new Caesar. Ensure Bassianus, a man known to be more ambitious than intelligent, was seen as a potential piece to be turned. "A man given a little power always craves more," Constantine explained to a questioning Fausta. "And Licinius is a man who cannot resist the temptation to meddle in his rival’s house. We will give him a weakness to exploit."

Fausta, whose own father had been a master of such schemes, understood perfectly. "You are baiting a trap for my sister’s husband, using my other sister’s husband as the lure." She shook her head, a small, admiring smile on her lips. "The webs you weave, Augustus."

The trap was laid with chilling patience. Valerius’s agents watched as one of Licinius’s spies made contact with Bassianus’s brother, Senecio. Promises were made. A plot was hatched: Bassianus would assassinate Constantine during a planned inspection tour, and Licinius would then support his claim to the West, presumably as his own junior partner. It was clumsy, predictable, and perfect. Valerius’s men intercepted the coded dispatches, acquiring undeniable proof of the conspiracy, implicating not only Bassianus and his brother, but Licinius himself.

With the evidence in hand, Constantine acted. He summoned his new Caesar, Bassianus, from Rome to his court, which had moved to the southern city of Arelate to oversee naval preparations. Bassianus arrived full of self-importance, believing he was to be given a greater command. He entered the main hall of the praetorium to find Constantine waiting for him, not with his usual retinue, but alone with Valerius and a dozen guards of the Scholae Palatinae, their faces like stone.

"Caesar Bassianus," Constantine greeted him, his voice soft. "Thank you for coming so swiftly." "Augustus," Bassianus replied with a confident bow. "I am always ready to serve the Empire." "Excellent," Constantine said. "Then you can serve it by explaining these." He gestured to a nearby table, where the damning, decoded letters between Senecio and Licinius’s agent were laid out in a neat row.

Bassianus’s face went white. The color drained from his cheeks as he stared at the proof of his treason, his ambition, his utter stupidity, laid bare. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Constantine looked at his brother-in-law, at the man he had elevated and then so carefully destroyed. There was no anger in his gaze, only the cold finality of a predator whose trap had successfully sprung. "It seems my trust in you was misplaced," Constantine said, his voice a whisper of ice. "And it seems my brother Augustus in the East conspires against my life. These are grievances that cannot be resolved with words. They must be answered in steel." He now had his casus belli. The war he had spent years preparing for could finally begin, not as an act of aggression, but as a just war against a treacherous colleague who had plotted his assassination.

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