. Constantine the Great; the reorganisation of the empire and the triumph of the church . istant. There he halted, despite the fact that noopposition was being offered to his advance. Why ?The reason is undoubtedly to be found in the at-titude of Constantine, who had mobilised his armyupon the Gallic frontier and was waiting on was no love lost between Constantine andGalerius. If Constantine crossed the Alps and1 followed down on the track of Galerius, the latterwould find himself between two fires. Galerius isrepresented by Zosimus as being suspicious of theloyalty of his troops
. Constantine the Great; the reorganisation of the empire and the triumph of the church . istant. There he halted, despite the fact that noopposition was being offered to his advance. Why ?The reason is undoubtedly to be found in the at-titude of Constantine, who had mobilised his armyupon the Gallic frontier and was waiting on was no love lost between Constantine andGalerius. If Constantine crossed the Alps and1 followed down on the track of Galerius, the latterwould find himself between two fires. Galerius isrepresented by Zosimus as being suspicious of theloyalty of his troops ; it is more probable that hedecided to retreat as soon as he heard that Constan-tine had thrown in his lot with Maximian andMaxentius. Maximian had been sedulously tryingto secure alliances for himself and his son. He hadmade overtures to the recluse of Salona. ButDiocletian had turned a deaf ear. Even if he hadhankered after power again, he would hardly havedeclared himself in opposition to the ruler of Illyria, * Nihil aliud i?npetravit 7iisi bonam mortem,—De Mort, Per sec,c. Constantine and His Colleagues 6i while he was dwelling within reach of Constantine, however, Maximian had bettersuccess. He gave him his daughter Fausta in mar-riage and incited him to attack Galerius, who at oncedrew his troops off into Illyria, after laying wastethe Transpadane region with fire and sword. Some very curious stories are told in connectionwith this expedition of Galerius. Lactantius de-clares that he invaded Italy with the intention ofextinguishing the Senate and butchering the peopleof Rome; that he found the gates of all the citiesshut against him ; and discovered that he had notbrought suf^cient troops with him to attempt asiege of the capital. He had never seen Rome,says Lactantius naively, and thought it was notmuch bigger than the cities with which he was fa-miliar. Galerius was, it is true, a rough soldier ofthe camp, but it is ludicrous to suppose that he wa
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