“We come at the peril of our lives and the certain loss of our positions and possessions, Augustus,” said the spokesman for the delegation, a venerable and highly respected Senator named Marcel linus. “But we could not remain inactive while a wild beast named Maxentius ravages the city we love and reduces Italy to poverty.” “Only a few months ago, a wealthy matron named Sophronia plunged a dagger into her heart rather than yield to the embraces of lustful men on the order of the Augustus of Rome,” another of the visitors added. He was a plump man with shrewd gray eyes who gave his name as Adrian and in whom, Constantine suspected, there was more than a trace of Greek blood.
Constantine did not doubt the truth of what he was hearing, for his own spies in Rome had sent him similar accounts. But he could not risk his vastly smaller army against the might of Maxentius merely to rescue the Senate which had, not so long ago, invited Maxentius to seize control in the hope of seeing Rome’s former glories and particularly their own privileges restored. He did not, however, remind the men before him of their fatal error, for he already saw how he could use the presence of the Senators in Treves to legalize his own descent upon Rome, when the proper time came.
“How many of the Senate would vote to depose the Emperor Maxentius, noble Marcellinus?” he asked.
Dissipatel Prodiget
“All of us, for each has suffered at his hands,” Marcellinus said promptly. “I myself have often heard him give his soldiers the orders: ‘Fruimini! Dissipatel Prodiget!’”
“Drink, wine and debauch,” said Dacius, who was standing at Constantine’s elbow. “You’ll have trouble weaning any legions away from him, if Maxentius gives them that much license.” Constantine was thinking the same thing and the thought brought him no comfort. He had insured the neutrality of Licinius in the coming struggle through the projected marriage with Constantia,
which he intended to postpone until Rome was in his hands. But that still left him outnumbered at least three to one.
“I can understand your indignation, noble Marcellinus,” he said soothingly. “The glorious name of Rome has indeed been besmirched by its ruler. But has the Senate ever voted to remove him from office?”
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