“What next?” Crocus asked. “Remember Gaul is waiting to acclaim our new Augustus.”
“It will take several weeks for the letter to reach Galerius,” Constantine said. “That will give Eumenius and me time to visit the major cities in Britain and secure our position here. Meanwhile you and Dacius can prepare the army to embark at Londinium for Gaul.”
The tour of Britain by the new Augustus only in the letter to Galerius had Constantine intimated that he might officially accept the lesser title of Caesar was a succession of triumphs. At the newly repaired fortifications of Hadrian’s Wall in the north, he was cheered by the army and the people. And in a meeting with Bonar, who had marched south to meet him there, he received anew a promise of loyalty from that doughty chieftain, whose friendship and respect Constantine had earned by the daring raid into the country of the Piets.
Moving southward
Moving southward along the westward side of the island, which was not so highly developed as the central and eastern section, he visited an area where the smoke from coal fires, as ore dug from the hills was roasted to separate the lead and silver it contained, lay heavy upon the air. And pigs of lead were piled in every market, awaiting the wagons that would haul them to seaports for shipment to all parts of the Empire.
Not far from Aquae Sulis, which, because of its bitter mineral springs, had been a favorite watering place for Romans even in the time of Julius Caesar, Constantine rode through the lake country. There he saw a wattlewalled church with a thatched roof, which Eumenius told him Constantius had once visited because of the story that Joseph of Arimathea from the land of Judaea, a follower of Jesus Christ, had fled there after the crucifixion and established the first Christian churchf in Britain. But when he was still a half day’s ride from Londinium and the military transports waiting there, he was met by Crocus and Dacius, who had heard of his coming from couriers racing along the excellent roads of Britain with mail and official communications.
“A messenger arrived last night from Gaul,” Dacius said.
“With news of treachery!” Crocus spluttered angrily. “Ascaricus and Regaisus have broken the treaty of peace made with your father. They crossed the Rhine nearly a month ago and have been raiding south of the river.”
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